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February 2019
I get knocked down but I get up again I really don’t understand the training module of FM18. I can’t believe we continue to have bad training performances for players who are absolutely rocking it on the field. I did a little research and the only thing I can figure out is that players below the age of 23 get burnt out quickly. Maybe I need to have heavy match-to-match rotation and have only 5 or 7 players on the bench. We’ll give that a try. At least Kemar is slaying it!  Financial Matters We are doing quite well, thank you very much. Last month we made £169.5k bringing our season-to-date total to almost £335k. February should be good too with an appearance in the FA Cup at home. Board Confidence My untouchableness is now up to 88%. I’m getting pretty good at this. Dynamics With Pearson’s departure we are down to 7 Influential Players.  Player Development I had great anticipation for this day. I knew it was coming and I’m very excited. My AssMan thinks Kemar Kirkpatrick “Is very well-suited to Premier League football.” That’s a Brixton product, people! On the transfer front, Shamrock Rovers of Ireland’s Premier Division offer a contract to Declan McNulty. We’ll see if he decides to stay. He doesn’t have an option I can activate so we might could lose him. A team above us in the pyramid is leaking to the press they want Collopy, a DC in our U18s. However, “they are not expected to stand any chance whatsoever of being able to pull off such an audacious swoop.” My staff must have him pegged all wrong as teams keep talking about getting him. “Audacious” is a bit of a misnomer: He’s currently valued at a whopping £75. As I mentioned at the beginning of this update, I’m going to go to 7 subs named, 3 used, unless there’s an injury after the third substitution. Now let’s see if our David-selves can take down a mini-Goliath. Considering there was no pre-match press conference I’m thinking that the match engine is not going to tip off that we’re going to win, as was my take on the Millwall match. Ergo, we lose this match. Also, an email on 1 February said that a good crowd of 4,700 fans were expected but in the pre-match screen I see that 5,239 have paid to attend. FA Cup Fourth Round vs. Bolton, 2 February 2019  Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c) Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Hodgson, Nixon, Duckett, Kirkpatrick Subs: Webb, Parker, Pilcher, Harding, Cullen, Jones, Macey But wait! There’s a tunnel interview! A question about the team selection offering no surprises. “Of course not,” I retort, Calmly, “These are the best players I have and we’re quite capable, thank you very much.” After 33’ of nothing-doing, I switch us up to Attacking, change Kemar to a Target Man-Attack, and have the wingers try early crosses. Bolton immediately get the chance with their right winger on a breakaway, one-on-one. Chicken Legg stonewalls him though and the ball is cleared. At the break I tell the lads I’m not pleased with their performance. So of course that means we pick up two yellows in quick succession and by 58’ Hodgson has a bruised shin. Right after that Bolton get a corner and a long shot finds itself in the back of our net. Dammit. Four minutes later Bolton’s leftback picks up his second yellow and we have an excellent spot for a free-kick but we don’t even get an action sequence to see what happens. Two minutes later Slim Shadi wants to show us what he learned earning his caps, sending in a low cross to the near post where a Nixon, streaking across the front of the goal 7 yards out, sends the tying score in with his left foot. I keep the pedal to the metal and make some swaps. Just after the turning of 73’ Smith lobs a ball way into the right corner of the pitch from the middle of the field. Macey is able to out run everyone, pick up the ball, and start heading toward goal. Three yards out he tries an impossible angle shot that somehow makes it past the charging goalie but the ball bounces off the post. He recovers his own shot and puts it in. Of course I switch back to Control and setup some instructions to see things out. In the fifth minute of six minutes of injury time Kemar (Mr. 6.5) gets a one-on-one and manages to miss the wide open goal. Phuq. POM: Bolton’s Matthew Mitchell (1 goal, 2 key passes, 2 chances created)  We really had no business slaying that giant but our sling stones were true, mostly. I’d be happier if Kemar, a Premier League talent, would stop being super-streaky. His scout report says he’s Fairly Consistent. Damn FM. Turns out Hodgson’s bruised shin will keep him out for 3 days, max. In even better news, we made £223.6k from the match, £173k of that from prize money. Almost 1,400 of those fans were from Bolton. Anybody’s money is good in Brixton. There was a post-match presser and I blamed myself for the slow start. Three players, Macey, McAdam, and Legg, were pleased by my comments. The lads love me! |
The Days Between
Val Water has signed with Limerick F.C., Irish Premier Division, and will join them the day after his contract with us expires. In player development news, Mitchell Nightingale isn’t growing and is still only 181cm. Also, his speed isn’t going up. I don’t like my DCs to be slow. I don’t mind if my Regista is slow though. So I start training him as a DMC. Let us see how it goes. Also, remember Bill Taylor from last month’s update? Hard working midfielder? On 4 February I get a training update email on him. “Squad’s general character has had a positive effect lately.” What does that mean? His Determination went up again, to 15, and his Personality has changed from Fairly Professional to Resolute. Hot damn! This is ridiculous. The FA Cup Fifth Round draw happens the next day. Our options are Brighton, Burnley, Man City, Charlton, Everton, Man United, Reading, Southampton, Tottenham, Cardiff, Chelsea, Barnsley, Ipswich, Liverpool, Norwich, Arsenal, Sheffield United, Middlesbrough, Swansea, Sunderland, or Wolverhampton. Any one of those should slaughter us. Or only hope is Charlton, and realistically we shouldn’t get a win even then. The draw is in and we travel to Everton, who these days are in the Championship. We better not win. Unregardless™ we are going to make a lot of money. Paul Taylor completes his rehabilitation from shin splints but his Condition is down to 87% and his Match Fitness is all the way down to 49%. Gonna bring him back slowly. I have a Dynamics update to report. Chick Legg has moved up to the Highly Influential Player rung. All part of my plan… We faced Salisbury way back on 14 August and we embarrassed them quite thoroughly. C’mon, lads! Let’s give ‘em a repeat! Southern First Division West vs. Salisbury, 6 February 2019  Formation: Spade Starting XI: Webb, Parker, Day, Nightingale, Jefcoate, Harding, McAdam, Jones, Cullen, Duckett, Macey Subs: Legg, Maguire, Pilcher, Thompson, Nixon, Thirlwell, Taylor As simple as that, we get our lead just before 8’ with Macey sending a long pass to the right for Jones, who spies a Duckett heading to the far post and Daniel does not miss. (R.I.P. Duckett-Pearson, Pearson-Duckett. :-( ) To show the world we’re not just a wing-reliant team, Harding feeds Cullen up the middle, he sends one high up to Macey, who continues the center movement, scoring number two. Some more outstanding Vision and Passing by Cullen, trying to learn how to be an Attacking Midfielder, sees Duckett getting his brace. At 60’ we get an easy penalty, not sure what happened, so Duckett attempts his hat trick and succeeds. I promptly move to the Diamond, move Nightingale up to Regista, put Taylor at Poacher, to get him some match fitness, and use Thompson as Shadow Striker. That sees out the match though Salisbury did threaten in the 87th until Nightingale made a great interception. POM: Daniel Duckett (3 goals, 2 key passes, 2 chances created)  The Days Between It is confirmed, at the end of the season Declan McNulty will join Shamrock Rovers. As I think about it though I realize I could probably just move him on now. I mean, he's really surplus to needs as I’m running a 4-5-1 for the youth team. Turns out there’s a “Sell Now” feature and when I click it, it defaults to £500. I drop it to zero and just like that he’s moving back to Ireland. The next day Shamrock make an offer for Stephen Dunne. If he signs with them I’ll offer an early release too. Southern First Division West at Didcot, 9 February 2019  Formation: Club (DC r, DC c, DC l, WBR, WBL, MC r, MC c, MC l, ST r, ST l) Starting XI: Legg, Pilcher, Spearing, Carroll, Maguire, Al-Ziod, Donaldson, Smith, Thompson, Thirlwell, Rae Subs: Webb, Parker, Day, McAdam, Cullen, Jones, Taylor Thirlwell boffs his first chance but in the 23rd he strikes gold with his second chance. Our second goal comes from a Thirlwell assist; a corner that goes right to Carroll at the top of the box, where he uses his right foot to send in a powerful shot. Thriller gets his second assist on a long bomb to Rae, who has just been unstoppable this year. Thriller’s third assist comes in the second stanza again from a corner. He sends it directly to Donaldson 25 yards out from the goal and bends it like Beckham over all the heads and into the far right, just squeaking between the goalie’s hands and the post. Amazeballs. It’s no surprise that after I bring out the tired kids at 63’ that nothing much at all happens for the rest of the match. POM: David Donaldson (1 goal, 3 key passes, 1 chance created)  I don’t understand why Marcus Thirlwell with his goal, 3 assists, 3 key passes, and 2 chances created didn’t get Player Of the Match. In the stands for the match was Sheffield United’s coach, who was scoping out Robert Carroll. Make an offer, buddy! |
The Days Between
Sure enough, Stephen Dunne signs with Shamrock very late Sunday and on Monday morning I offer an immediate transfer but they decline. Weird. Lots of Dynamics changes of late! Now Peter Maguire is an Influential Player. His Determination and Leadership abilities are both 12 and his personality is Professional. Could he be the next Vice Captain? But even better news comes in! Pilcher is “Potential Championship Talent”. This pleases me greatly. Another league match at home. Time to add to our kitty. I’m switching Barlow and Nixon around to work on their respective new positions. Southern First Division West vs. North Leigh, 13 February 2019  Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c) Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Jefcoate, Nixon, Smith, Hodgson, Barlow, Duckett, Kirkpatrick Subs: Webb, Pilcher, Al-Ziod, McAdam, Donaldson, Jones, Macey Ugh. Twelve minutes in Kirkpatrick gets called for a shove in the penalty area but I watched his avatar backpedal; he never laid hands on anybody. Poppycock! Legg juked to the right, the shooter shot to the left but hit the post and Jefcoate recovered the bounce. What luck! Nothing happens for us until right at 41’ Kemar recovers a stray ball way out right in Leigh’s end, his vision picks out a charging Barlow and we open the seal on this one. Over an hour in we get our second when it’s Hodgson way out right doing the crossing but Barlow again with the scoring. Naturally, I switch to Diamond and bring on fresh legs. With a one-on-one with 7 minutes to go Kemar once again sends the ball wide. Three minutes to go and a perfect cross from Macey sees Kemar getting all fancy, jumping up and kicking the ball. Right into the crossbar. I ignore everyone else in the dressing room and admonish Kemar. He got fired up. Will that matter come next match? I doubt it. POM: Terry Barlow (2 goals, 1 key pass)  The Days Between Again the Shamrock Rovers come sniffing around a Brixton youth, this time offering DC Martin Duggan a contract for July. I was kind of hoping he’d stick around another year. We do have an option on him though I don’t think we’ll exercise it. If he takes his time to answer, say until Youth Intake Day, it’d make my life easier. FA Vase Seventh Round vs. Fleet Town, 16 February 2019  Formation: Club (DC r, DC c, DC l, WBR, WBL, MC r, MC c, MC l, ST r, ST l) Starting XI: Webb, Pilcher, Day, Nightingale, Parker, Al-Ziod, Donaldson, Cullen, Thompson, Macey, Rae Subs: Legg, Maguire, Jefcoate, McAdam, Harding, Jones, Taylor Well, that didn’t take long! Rae, naturally, scores at 1:50 courtesy of a fast break and a Thompson assist. Wow! So our corners of late have been going to players north of the 18-yard box. This time it’s Donaldson receiving the treat but he passes it to Macey who gets a 16-yard shot and gobbles the dessert. (Can you tell I’m hungry right now?) It doesn’t take long for Rae’s brace and I’m on Cloud Nine. Then Macey’s brace. Rae’s trick. Halftime. We see out the match peacefully. POM: Alex Rae (3 goals, 1 assist, 3 key passes, 1 chance created)  |
The Days Between
Duggan does not waste time signing that contract with Shamrock. If I get a left-footed DC in youth intake I’ll offer him the chance to leave early. In the FA Vase Quarter Final we get to face Maidenhead at home. They are Conference South but I’ll still worry about the match. Despite the scores of late we really aren’t performing well up front. Well, except Rae. He’s still a beast. York’s scouting report shows that we are going to have a tough time as they are generally as good as us. Supposing Kirkpatrick gets his act together we should win. FA Trophy Seventh Round vs. York, 19 February 2019  Formation: Diamond (DR, DC r, DC l, DL, DMC, MR, ML, AMC, ST r, ST l) Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Jefcoate, Smith, Hodgson, Duckett, Nixon, Thirlwell, Kirkpatrick Subs: Webb, Pilcher, Al-Ziod, Harding, Jones, Macey, Rae At 10’ Thirlwell tries a cross, psych! He tries to get it past the goalie. It almost worked. In the 13th the counter with a Regista works to perfection when Smith spies a flying Kirkpatrick. Kemar receives the pass about half way in to York territory and launches a nice placed shot over the goalie’s left shoulder. Six minutes later Thirlwell almost scores but is just a fraction to the right of the post. I worry not; Maguire feels inspired enough to be crossing from deep on the right line and his aim is true, finding Kemar for a header. Nixon takes us to three with a powerful long shot from just inside the box. Kemar’s hat trick is confirmed at 38:28. Then Thirlwell atones for his earlier sin by heading a Hodgson cross in. I didn’t plan on writing any more even when York outplayed us for a minute and scored but then Thriller done gone crazy. I swapped out Kirkpatrick, bringing Macey in as a Deep Lying Forward and moving Marcus to Poacher. He received a pass way out to the left and dribbled along the endline, shooting from about six yards out. He gathers his own rebound, dribbles some more and fires from point blank putting us in seventh heaven. And look at that, Kemar got his act together. POM: Kemar Kirkpatrick (3 goals, 1 key passes, 1 chance created)  The Days Between Now that we’re in the FA Trophy Quarter Final, we need to find out who we are playing. Survey says…? We travel to Salford, in the Conference National North. I give us good odds. Speaking of Salford, the very next day they make an offer for Rae. They offer £0 and I’m just puzzled. What the hell? Sadly, I’m pretty sure Scott Thompson’s career with Brixton is over. On 22 February he suffered a calf strain during training and will be out 1 to 2 months. Considering the team depth, that he’ll need to get to Match Fit, and then new youths pushing some U18s into the Seniors, I just don't see a match in his future. So…Everton’s scouting report is…tragic for us. Every player but one is five stars in Current Ability and Potential Ability. We better not win this. The pre-match press conference isn’t overly long and the questions aren’t new to me. I just act like the Everton manager and I are equals, and that seems to satisfy the journos. He thinks the match will be entertaining. FA Cup Fifth Round at Everton, 23 February 2019  Formation: Club (DC r, DC c, DC l, WBR, WBL, MC r, MC c, MC l, ST r, ST l) Starting XI: Legg, Pilcher, Spearing, Carroll, Parker, Al-Ziod, Harding, Barlow, Nixon, Macey, Kirkpatrick Subs: Webb, Maguire, Nightingale, Smith, Cullen, Duckett, Rae We never get a real chance. They get a cross early on but then nothing until we get a corner in the 64th. Our initial kick got cleared and as Pilcher tried to take it forward he got dispossessed and they got a breakaway. Their quality shined through and we go down a point. That’s all we have today despite winning the possession war. It’s the right results as we had no business going this deep in the FA Cup. POM: Everton’s Paulo Fernandes (1 goal)  For our troubles of being someone’s punching bag, we made just over £430k. For the season we are getting close to £1 million in profit. |
The Days Between
Excellent news rolls in on the Dynamics line. Daniel Duckett is now Highly Influential. I really thought he would leave us in January but seems there’s not a market for him. That means he has a high chance of being our Vice Captain next season with his 14 Determination and Leadership. With one less cup to worry about, I can switch our attention to league match-ups more. A lot of players with declining Match Sharpness get to start as does Paul Taylor who’s still not fully back from his shin splints. Southern First Division West vs. Evesham, 27 February 2019  Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c) Starting XI: Webb, Maguire, Day, Nightingale, Jefcoate, Cullen, McAdam, Jones, Donaldson, Duckett, Taylor Subs: Legg, Pilcher, Parker, Harding, Barlow, Hodgson, Rae I somehow manage to hit the pre-match pep rally right. What a change! What a relief! Mr. Shin-Splints himself is the first hero to step up. After we defend a free kick we start moving slowly upfield when McAdam catches a glimpse of a darting Taylor up the middle. His pass is perfectly placed and Taylor drifts a little to the right with the ball and then cuts in toward goal and surprises the keeper with a shin-level blast. Shins. Though I’m not feeling real comfortable at 65’ I do the Diamond and swap some players. It almost pays off immediately but Jones hits the upright and the ball bounces right to the goalie. He also gets two consecutive headers but eventually the goalkeep punches the ball out of bounds. The victory is sealed when Jones of all people gets a header in off a Harding corner. I can relax now. Then Jones gets another goal from a Harding assist but it was Duckett at the corner who supplied Noah. Weird. POM: Robbie Jones (2 goals, 2 key passes, 1 chance created)  The Days Between In preparation for Youth Intake Day I send two of my scouts to scour England and one to scour Scotland for new youth talent just in case our intake is less than stellar. Find me some gems, gentlemen! The scouting report for Billericay comes in and considering they are in the Conference South, their team ain’t half bad. Summary Well, we had a good run of being undefeated but we finally lost. And rightfully so. Just as a good team should, we bounced back with a thorough victory. Nothing like drubbing an opponent to get Morale back up! We also saw the departures of some periphery figures just in time to clear space for Youth Intake Day. I have a Christmas list of wants from the new crew and I hope I’m not on Santa’s Naughty List.  |
It has come to my attention that the link in my signature has been wrong all along. I apologize to anybody who went to the website and were confused by what they were seeing. I've fixed it so it should now take you to club name eff see dot com, not club name dot come. It appears that I cannot edit all the previous iterations so I must hope that people won't continue to click on it. If anybody knows how to fix links in previous post, please PM me.
EDIT: I figured out how to fix the link. Sometimes I'm a nug. D'oh! |
YOUTH INTAKE DAY 2019
Reasons to be cheerful, part 2 It’s the most wonderful time of the year while the kids practice jelling and all the scouts saying be of good cheer, it’s the most wonderful time of the year. It looks like we have a pretty good intake. One player can for sure immediately contribute and three more possibly could. Not sure what to do with three goalies when all we need is one.  Reasons to Be Cheerful, Part 2 1. Alan Coates: Though he is Natural at MC and Competent at AMC, I’m excited about training him in DMC so he can be my Andrea Pirlo in the Regista role. 2. Gareth O’Keefe: This guy is going to be an amazing goalie. Hopefully his Ambitious personality won’t see him wanting to leave us quickly. 3. Tommy Watkins and Meilir Pugh: We got two great wingers, one on each side. If Duckett leaves us it’s not too much of a drop to Pugh, who might catch up to Duckie quickly. Watkins will shortly surpass the other AMRs: Andy Hodgson, Andy Robinson, and Ashley Hibbert. 4. Central Defenders: We got one each of footedness, with Kevin Jenkins on the right and Jose Parker on the left. (Is that José or Jo-see? No telling how the English would pronounce it. He doesn’t speak Spanish and is only of English nationality so I’m kind of at a loss.) 5. Speaking of Parker, I’m thankful that I’ve figured out my scouts aren’t really that good. They aren’t impressed with his Potential Ability but his defensive skills are pretty damned good. I’m guessing he’s better than my scouts believe. 6. Only one player with single-digit Natural Fitness and all the highly-rated youths are really good there and in Determination, Teamwork, and Work Rate. 7. Only four players have bad Personalities. 8. Lots of players are starting off with Players Traits. Six players have a total of eight traits. 9. A good spread of secondary nationalities with two being born in the Caribbean and one born in Nigeria. 10. Generally, from top to bottom, a high average of Teamwork and Work Rate scores. On the flip side, we didn’t get any good DR, DL, STs. I won’t be signing DR Kevin Peters and if I can find a better DL and ST in other teams’ intake then I won’t sign Williams or Hollett either. Luckily our youths are automatically put on 6-week Trial contracts. One weird thing that I noticed is that some of my players already have a Favoured Team that isn’t Brixton. Ian Barnett favors Bristol City but that’s because he’s from Bristol. That brings up another point; not all the players who were born in England are from London, a pretty cool change that proves our reputation is going up. Another example is Alan Coates, from York, who is a Manchester United supporter. Ungrateful twerp. :-D I’m gonna hold off putting any of the youths in the Seniors for now. I want them to settle in and kind of hide them, in a fictitious bout of paranoia. Player Cards Alan Coates, MC Like I said earlier, this kid is going to be amazing. Not Kemar Kirkpatrick-level amazing but he’s going to take us to the Premier League, I’m sure. For his age he has pretty darned good Mental Attributes and his Vision of 11 will be key to his success as a Regista. He has the Player Preferred Moves of Dictates Tempo (yay!) and Tries First Time Shots (boo!).  Gareth O’Keefe, GK He’s got almost everything I ever wanted in a goalie. The height, the reflexes, the hands, not too one-footed, not eccentric. The only weakness I see is that his Balance is 5. I can’t believe his Free Kick Tacking is so high!  Tommy Watkins, M/AM R, ST C He’s going to help us forget the name Steve Pearson. I wish he was a bit taller and had higher Determination; I'll have Macey mentor him when things with Thirlwell are over. Eventually I’ll get his ST up to Natural because I can’t let that Finishing and Composure go to waste.  Meilir Pugh, M/AM L I do think he might surpass Duckett eventually though I wish his Determination was higher. In some ways he’s the opposite of Tommy Watkins: He’s tall, can’t hit the broadside of a barn. His name is unique, it’s Welsh and means “head ruler.” So, like a king?  Kevin Jenkins, D LC, DM I’m highlighting this guy not because he’s freakin’ awesome but because he’s an anomaly, as I mentioned earlier. He has a poor Personality and Determination but his defensive skills for a central defender are pretty damn good for our level. Add to that our scouts aren’t impressed with him. If I can find him a good mentor to improve his weaknesses I could see him being with us a long time. Eventually I’ll get his DMC up to Natural so I can use him as a Half Back in a Defensive formation.  Youth Candidate Match Future superstar Alan Coates, playing as the right midfielder in the Box-To-Box Midfield role pushes down his opposite during a cross in the box and Bill Taylor, the U18s Regista, shows just how cool, calm, and collected he is. Candidate Tommy Watkins shows how it’s done as a Poacher, heading down a clearance and running half the field before sinking his shot. This was all in the first 15’. Despite not being real quality players, the Candidates’ defense does a fine job, keeping the U18s from having an easy time retaining possession, until 80’ when McLeish gets a near-duplicate of Watkins’ goal, including distance covered and juking the GK out of his jock. Scouting As mentioned earlier, I needed some better options as DR, DL, and ST so I went to the Transfers > Youth Intake screen and eyeballed some players from some teams in the lower levels of the English pyramid. I found two for each position plus an unexpected AMC and added them to the Scouting Assignments list. I also scouted some local teams, notably the ones from last year (AFC Croydon, Bromley, Croydon, and Dulwich Hamlet) plus FCD Galicia, Rayners Lane, Farleigh, Worcester Park, Margate, and, just for kicks, Metropolitan Police, London’s finest. I haven’t been using a Scouting Package for several months but to aid finding some gems for the needed positions I bought the England Youth Package for £9,000 a month. We can afford it now but I’ll probably turn it off in a couple of months. When the scouting reports coming in for the lads mentioned two paragraphs up page, the news is not good. They are all mediocre at best and don’t want to come to Brixton. I’m just going to have to wait for the scouts to find their own gems. Sundry Items I decided that it’s ridiculous that we keep getting great youth so I took the drastic step of opening the editor and reducing our Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment. If our next YID again is phenomenal I’ll drop the values even more (below 10). I also promise myself that I won’t approach the board about upgrading until we are confirmed to be gaining promotion to Conference National. If they do it on their own…then so be it. What took you so long?! I usually can knock out a monthly update about once a week in real life. Some factors can extend that. For the YID update I have to spend time getting the players card down to a reasonable size. This time around though there was another factor: I found a way to get those horrible player head-shots out of here. Midjourney, an AI image generator. Look at Gareth O’Keefe? What’s better, Before or After? Before  After  I hope you like the change! |
March 2019
I’m winning, and I don’t intend on losing again Well bah-humbug! More crappy training results. Sigh.  Financial Matters Hot damn! We made a smidge under £600k last month. See, I told you we could afford a scouting package. Board Confidence Still Untouchable, still 88%. Dynamics No changes. Of course, I didn’t put any new youths straight into the Seniors, so that helped.  Player Development Thriller’s Determination is finally going up after being mentored by Macey for three months. Now onto our first match of the month. I’m feeling confident we’ll maintain our winning ways and win the league soon. Southern League Cup Quarter Final  Formation: Club (DC r, DC c, DC l, WBR, WBL, MC r, MC c, MC l, ST r, ST l) Starting XI: Legg, Pilcher, Spearing, Carroll, Parker, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Nixon, Rae, Kirkpatrick Subs: Webb, Maguire, Nightingale, Jefcoate, Harding, Taylor, Macey Well, here’s a change. Our opponents are first to hit us with their rhythm stick, getting a goal in the 14th off a free kick that got headed down to the foot of a striker. Eleven minutes later the unique combo of Al-Ziod to Kirkpatrick equalizes matters. Before the half we take the lead courtesy of whom else but Rae. During the mid-term I command that they don’t get Complacent, with all but Smith and Shadi giving me the green thumbs up. Shortly after the restart Kemar has a chance to increase our lead but the GK does a good job of denying him. At 60’ they tie us with a carpet burner from way out, about 22 yards. With Barlow and Nixon on yellow and looking ill-disciplined I have to switch to the Spade as I only have one MC on the bench. D’oh! But I don’t have enough wingers. Double d’oh! I have to move Rae to AML. Luckily for us, their right back gets his second yellow in the 74th. Over the next few minutes Kemar and Rae put on a display of almost-good-enough but they are playing amateur hour, what a waste. In the 84th Spearing puts one in the back of the net but whomp, whomp, he’s offside. I was fully expecting the match to end with us traveling to Billericay the following week but I am wrong, it’s extra time for us. In the 100th minute Rae, despite not being an AML, sends in a cross from the left but Harding can’t get his head on it properly and hits the crossbar. Kemar scores a minute later in the 107th; he will be England’s glory. I immediately get Defensive and start wondering if we’re cursed. We are not! Smith scores in the 117th sealing our victory. POM: Kemar Kirkpatrick (2 goals, 3 key passes, 1 chance created)  I know, I know, I said I would only use three subs but the unexpected extra time but a temporary end to that. I couldn’t risk players getting injured with their Condition down in the 50s. |
The Days Between
In the Southern League Cup Semi Final draw, we face Bath. Last year we lost to them in the same cup match. It was on penalties and Sam Martin, who is no longer with us, botched his attempt so badly that I refused to give him a new contract. I want revenge so bad I can taste it. Bath must go down in flames! Another player rises up the ranks of Influence. Daniel Duckett is now a Highly Influential Player. In the same email I get notice that Ben Pope can be better than Tommy Watkins (doubtful), Adrian Lee can be much better than Gareth O’Keefe (doubtful), and Meilir Pugh can be much better than Daniel Duckett (much more believable). A lot of our starters are still Tired from our last match so we see a lot of rotation today. As far as our standings go, if we lose out the rest of our games we’ll finish ninth in the league. I do not foresee that happening. Southern First Division West at Slimbridge, 5 March 2019  Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c) Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Day, Nightingale, Jefcoate, Cullen, McAdam, Hodgson, Donaldson, Duckett, Thirlwell Subs: Webb, Pilcher, Parker, Harding, Barlow, Jones, Macey It’s a calm, wet day in Slimbridge but the damp atmosphere does not dampen our players’ skills. Case in point, Thriller thrills the crowd before 3 minutes with a hell of a free kick, going in from 30 yards out. Despite that early indication, more things don’t happen until 32 minutes later when Donaldson sends a low cross across the face of the goal that the GK didn’t even try to punch or kick, which is a bad decision because Hodgson is at the far post to put matters to rest. Spot on 44’ Slimbridge increase their slim chances with a close-in shot after a free kick way out on our right wing. At 67’ I switch to the Diamond and bring on Harding, Jones, and Macey for McAdam, Cullen, and Hodgson. We immediately squander a corner kick when Jones’ header goes high. It turns out my fretting was misplaced as right after 70’ Maguire sends an early, long cross to Thriller, who gets his brace. He then gets his hat trick in the 92nd when we get a penalty chance in the last seconds of the match. POM: Marcus Thirlwell (3 goals, 1 key pass, 1 chance created)  The Days Between A lot of scouting reports come in on the morning of the 9th. The two players that are slightly good would cost over £10,000 and they’re seriously injured anyway. FM2018 is definitely harder than FM2014 when it comes to finding and buying hidden gems. Winchester is a mid-table team and we barely beat them in the first match back in early October. It took a subbed-on Nightingale to score in the 90th minute to lead us to victory. We best not have a repeat of that. Southern First Division West vs. Winchester, 9 March 2019  Formation: Spade Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Nixon, Smith, Jones, Taylor, Duckett, Kirkpatrick Subs: Webb, Pilcher, Parker, Harding, Barlow, Thirlwell, Macey Another wet, calm, 13° C day, and just like in Slimbridge, we draw first blood. Tenth minute and a Kirkpatrick feed sees Taylor on a breakaway but he’s caught by two defenders who put the squeeze on him in the box. Nixon does not miss the resultant penalty shot. Kemar’s second attempt to help Taylor score a goal works in the 18th and spirits are high. Taylor’s second goal comes from a ludicrous Maguire cross from deep but comes at a cost of a bruised ankle for Taylor. He somehow was able to out leap Winchester’s right central defender who is massive, 204 cm, or in ‘merican parlance, 6’ 8”. That’s more ludicrous! And so the match goes with us sloppy but them sloppier. I did have to bring Taylor off at the midway point so no hat trick for him. We have yet another game where the opposition loses a man due to a second yellow. And then another man goes off for a second yellow. A nice, normal day in South London. POM: Paul Taylor (2 goals, 1 key pass)  I’m pleased that we did not have a repeat of the previous Winchester match. |
The Days Between
Alas, the morning of the 13th sees more scouting reports of very good players who want nothing to do with us. Nobody like us, everybody hates us, I think we’ll go eat worms. Our good streak must continue, I demand nothing else. I’m using the Club today to get some rotation and rest the wingers. Southern First Division West vs. Bitton, 13 March 2019  Formation: Club (DC r, DC c, DC l, WBR, WBL, MC r, MC c, MC l, ST r, ST l) Starting XI: Legg, Pilcher, Spearing, Carroll, Parker, Jefcoate, Harding, Barlow, Cullen, Macey, Rae Subs: Webb, Maguire, Nightingale, Smith, Jones, Duckett, Thirlwell My concerns rear their ugly head when Harding gets an early yellow but then they vanish when he sends in a lovely cross for Alex “All He Wants To Do is Score” Rae. 1-0. It doesn’t take long for Rae’s brace; I knew it was coming when Harding did a back-heel pass to Parker around midfield. Another Harding cross at 22:30 sees an early Rae triple. After that the game goes boring, fine by me, allowing me to switch to the Diamond at the two-thirds point and see out the game peacefully. We did pick up five yellow cards, not fine by me. POM: Alex Rae (3 goals, 3 key passes)  I’d like to point out the Noah Harding had 2 assists, 5 key passes, and 5 chances created. These two have been great signings. The Days Between I believe it’s time to secure Rae’s services for a bit longer. His contract has an option year we can activate but I think he deserves better. I offer £600/week plus some good appearance, goal, and substitute bonuses, plus some wage gains for promotion and yearly reasons. He made an odd request that he gets a bonus year if he makes ten appearances and we gain promotion in the final year. FM2018 sure has some neat clauses. In the last 20 games his lowest rating is 6.4 and there was a 6.9 but everything else is 7.1 or higher, with 15 goals and 9 assists. A rich vein of form indeed. Thirlwell’s mentoring is coming along nicely. His Determination is up to 7 and his personality is Spirited now. I like this long streak of only league matches. We are getting nearer securing our promotion. Southern First Division West at Norwich United, 16 March 2019  Formation: Club Starting XI: Webb, Pilcher, Day, Nightingale, Parker, Jefcoate, Harding, McAdam, Cullen, Taylor, Thirlwell Subs: Legg, Maguire, Al-Ziod, Donaldson, Jones, Macey, Rae The scoring starts with an unexpected contributor, Pilcher from open play, not a corner. He slotted one in from about 20 yards out but within the 18-yard box just after two minutes. In a very similar way Cullen gives us more clearance just before 7’. Taylor makes it 3-0 at 16, also from within the area. Having drastically slowed things down and changed up instructions to be less aggressive, we do not score anymore and give up a goal early in the second. Not worried. POM: Teddy Cullen (1 goal, 1 assist, 2 key passes, 1 chance created)  |
The Days Between
Another international call-up for The Jordanian Prince. He’ll miss five matches. I hope he gets his first international goal. Not to be outdone, though in the U19s, Kemar (England), McAdam (Northern Ireland), Nixon (Ireland), and surprisingly, Noah Harding (Wales) answer the call-up. Salford are about the same as us as far as Starting XI go, so this could be a challenge. Hopefully we’ll do well. FA Trophy Quarter Final at Salford, 19 March 2019  Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c) Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Hodgson, Nixon, Duckett, Kirkpatrick Subs: Webb, Pilcher, Parker, Harding, Cullen, Jones, Macey We start out strong and almost get a Nixon goal after 24 seconds. Just before 3’ though Maguire picks up a yellow and then sends in a cross into our own goal. He hangs his head in shame. I begin to believe that the fix is in when we start picking up yellows in quick succession with Nixon, Al-Ziod, and Smith getting their names taken. To make matters worse, Hodgson gets a gashed head. After 33 minutes I feel the tide begin to turn when we get some good build-up culminating in a short cross from Nixon’s head to Kemar’s foot. Things get better when Salford’s right-back trips Duckett but Barlow can’t make use of the free kick. We proceed to get plenty of good but not great chances. After the break I give Hodgson five minutes to rectify his act but he doesn’t, so on comes Jones. We pull ahead in the 54th as Duckett stays wide after a corner on the left side, eventually getting a feed and crossing to Kemar’s head. In the 59th Jones gets easily dispossessed and Salford’s left-back sends in a long-range pass allowing their striker to out-pace and out-class Spearing and Carroll, and uncharacteristically Chick Legg. I implore the lads to punch them back. Jones redeems himself some when again he loses possession but wins it back immediately and embarrasses that troublesome left-back. In the ensuing corner, Smith heads down Duckett’s kick to Carroll who puts us ahead for good. The next 35 minutes are generally uneventful except Al-Shadi pulls up lame with a pulled hamstring. We managed to play 10 minutes with him struggling to do much of anything. He’ll miss some international opportunities. POM: Daniel Duckett (1 assist, 4 key passes, 4 chances created)  Hodgson’s gashed head will keep him on the bench for 7 to 12 days while Al-Shadi’s hamstring will sideline him for 8 days to 2 weeks. At least we’ve gotten away from the Lower Leg Injury Plague of 2018/2019. The Days Between FA Trophy Semi Final draw day! Our choices are AFC Fylde, Welling, or Whitehawk. I’m hoping for Whitehawk cuz it’s a cool name for a town and because in theory they are the weakest of the three. We get to face…Whitehawk as the visitors. Would really have preferred a home match, we’re not making much money this month. We’re actually favored versus Maidenhead but just 4-5 odds. FA Vase Quarter Final vs. Maidenhead, 23 March 2019  Formation: Club (DC r, DC c, DC l, WBR, WBL, MC r, MC c, MC l, ST r, ST l) Starting XI: Legg, Pilcher, Nightingale, Carroll, Parker, Jefcoate, Harding, Cullen, Donaldson, Macey, Rae Subs: Webb, Day, Maguire, McAdam, Nixon, Jones, Thirlwell After 12 minutes and 3 headers that have gone over the crossbar, I ask the lads politely to Concentrate. It takes another 10 minutes but finally Harding is able to sky one to a pacey Eddie and the Captain scores from up close. El Capitan gets an assist a few minutes later, doing a nice back-heel pass to Rae, who we all know by now knows how to score like a bawss. It doesn’t take long for Rae to get his brace in the second half after Jefcoate finally gets his fifth crossing attempt right. The good news come to a screeching halt in the 58th when Cullen pulls his groin (stop giggling!) and I’m forced to send McAdam in. At 68’ I replace Carroll and Harding with Nixon and Day; this necessitates moving Donaldson over to be the right Mezzala. And this is how we saw out this match peacefully. POM: Alex Rae (2 goals, 3 key passes, 2 chances created)  Cullen’s injury news isn’t the worst with him expected to be out 5 to 10 days. I’m more concerned that after a relatively healthy 2018 we are experiencing a bad run of luck in 2019. Please, please, please, football gods, don’t kill my players. The Sunderland boss was in the stands to watch Carroll. I’m sure his 7.4 rating piqued Sunderland’s interest even more. I went back to the update when I signed Rae to take a look what I said about him at the time. Was he just filler or someone I thought would be so freakin’ awesome? Turns out I was worried about his Bravery and Strength but despite that, I thought he’d make a fine Target Man. His Bravery of 3 has not improved but his 5 Strength is now up to 9. I think adding the Trait “Knocks Ball Past Opponent” has really polished his game. He’s scored in the last 7 matches he’s started, scoring 12 goals and notching 9 assists. In short, I am a brilliant football manager. |
The Days Between
No update would be complete without cup draw news. In the FA Vase Semi Final draw our choices are two Conference South teams, Billericay and Hungerford, and Totton, from our own league. We’ve beaten each team this season though the Billericay match was a bum-squeaker. We travel to Billericay, damn it. On Sunday, 24 March, Thompson resumes training, having missed only 5 weeks or so. Looks like he’ll get some more Brixton matches in before his contract ends. On the 25th my scouts find me a player who seemingly will sign but he’s not a DR, a DL, or a Striker. He is however a DMC that can be successfully retrained as a DC. I think he’ll fit nicely at DR. It’ll be a test just to see how long it takes to get him Natural there; can I do it in under a year? I offer him one-year contract with an option for us so I can keep him if I don’t get any DRs in next year’s Youth Intake. We take on Cirencester next. Our worst possible finish in the league is 3rd. All we need is two more victories to seal our promotion fate. That would in theory come from an away match at Horndean. Do I throw this match (and the next) to clinch the title at home? NEVER! Southern First Division West vs. Cirencester, 27 March 2019  Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c) Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Jefcoate, Barlow, Donaldson, Jones, Taylor, Duckett, Rae Subs: Webb, Pilcher, Parker, Smith, Thompson, Thirlwell, Macey It takes 20 minutes for any action and it’s a corner for us that goes begging off Barlow’s foot. Our second corner comes from the other side but it’s Carroll’s head that is off target. Just before the half one of their three midfielders gets his second yellow just before Rae got into the box but nothing comes of the free kick. Paul Taylor picks up a minor injury at 65’ so I bring off him, all-a-sudden-shitty Rae, and Jones for Thompson, Thirlwell, and Macey. It takes 10 minutes but a cross from Jefcoate at left-back to Thirlwell at right-wing to put us on top. I go back to Control, having changed to Attacking at the intermission, and bite my nails for the first time in my life. Just after 90’ Thompson thieves the ball that their left centreback had trouble handling, dribbles out wide a little, feeds Thirlwell, who gets his brace as a sub. We should not have had to wait so long with a man advantage to score but I suppose a win is a win. POM: Marcus Thirlwell (2 goals)  Taylor’s injury is much ado about nothing but Barlow picked up a bruised ankle in the waning minutes; he’ll be out only 1 to 2 days. Again with the lower leg injuries!!! Immediately after the match Duckett’s agent once again came asking for a new contract. I just know I can’t afford Duckett so I Walk Away from the negotiations. This prompts Duckett to come knocking on my office door. I explain he still has time on his current contract, which he understands and leaves the office a little disappointed but understanding. He’s the only player listed as a club Legend so of course the fans will revolt when he leaves but that’ s also the reason I know he’ll cost us too much. Meilir Pugh has a higher potential anyway and is already rated as Conference South quality so I’m sure we’ll be fine out on the left wing, come what may. The Days Between An unexpected press conference pops up the day before out match against Horndean where we can clinch promotion. It was long. I didn’t count but I’d guess between 12 and 15 questions. It’s a nice calm day in Horndean with temperatures at 10° C (51° F) and this is the day we win the league, bringing us closer to the ultimate prize of the Premiership. Way in the future. Thompson gets a rare second start in a row as a lot of midfielders are coming back from injuries or are out on international duty. He said “duty” heh heh. Southern First Division West at Horndean, 30 March 2019  Formation: Spade Starting XI: Webb, Pilcher, Spearing, Carroll, Parker, Smith, Donaldson, Jones, Taylor, Duckett, Macey Subs: Legg, Maguire, Nightingale, Cullen, Thompson, Hodgson, Thirlwell My moving speech falls flat as only Taylor gets motivated. I get stopped in the tunnel on the way to the pitch. I assure the journos we are up for the fight and will emerge victorious. Just as expected, Macey leads us to an opening goal and my motivated buddy Taylor is the one who assists. It was a beautiful left-foot shot on the ground through traffic, even nutmegging one defender. Our second Macey goal was a funny one: Jones crossed from the right to Macey but Taylor cut in front, mishandling the ball but it goes right to Macey anyway, he blasts it so hard it bounces off the keeps hands and into the back of the net. In the locker room I implore the squad to keep focus and not Complacent. The speech gets a great reaction and I add for Pilcher to be careful not to get a second yellow. Just over two minutes in Webb gets a rare goalie assist when he sends a long ball and the central defenders assume the goalie will get it and the goalie assumes the defenders will get it. That was Macey’s 100th goal for Brixton. Insane! With 23 minutes left I switch us to the Diamond, bring off Smith, Duckett, and Donaldson for Nightingale (to practice the Regista), Hodgson, and Thirlwell. As expected, we get a great counterattack from a corner with Jones launching one way forward to Thirlwell who dribbles almost to the end of the field, crossing it to Macey for his 101st Brixton goal. Booyah! POM: Eddie Macey (4 goals, 3 key passes, 1 chance created)  In Summary We are the champions, again! Now that the league is won my focus turns to the remaining cups. I’ll probably use my preferred XI less in league matches until the end of the season. Related, Carroll picked up a bruised jaw near the end of the match so he won’t see the field for a week or more. A lot of our success this month was from our opponents picking up a ludicrous amount of yellows and double yellows. Unfortunately, the injury bug continues to bite us. This has to be the result of me playing youngsters relentlessly, right? I must do better in April.  What took you so long?! Vacation. It’s all I ever wanted. I took so time off to indulge my other hobbies and just kick my feet up and enjoy the shortening days. |
Great to get a run of updates, I'd been missing this one! :)
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April 2019
We're better than them I just can’t get the hang of training. I don’t remember having so much trouble last year. It’s gotta be because I’m using youth too much. I cut back everybody’s training Intensity Level back to Average in hopes of not another repeat.  Financial Matters We lost almost £88k last month, which is not totally unexpected given that we are out of the FA Cup now. This brings our season total down to £845k in the green. Board Confidence Still Untouchable but up to 91% now. Nice. Dynamics Nothing has changed since Duckett became Highly Influential early last month.  New Players Before our first match of the month the youth that we found on 25 March finally signs with us. Meet Jordan Nickson:  He’s really just a filler and experiment. I’ll try to get his DR up to Natural as quick as possible. His Pace, Tackling, Marking, and Positioning makes me think he can be a U18 player for 3 years. If I get him Natural at DR and he has grown to 183 cm by then I’ll try to get his DC as high as possible. For his age his Jumping Reach and Heading are pretty good. Hey! We have a player from Jordan and a player named Jordan. |
We still have five players out on International Duty (giggle, giggle) and quite a few players still a bit knackered from Saturday’s game, ergo, we’ll have a lot of rotation. Our previous match against Taunton was pretty easy though we allowed some late goals when we got sloppy. I’m confident of getting a good result today.
Southern First Division West at Taunton, 2 April 2019  Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c) Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Nightingale, Day, Jefcoate, Thompson, Cullen, Hodgson, Barlow, Duckett, Thirlwell Subs: Webb, Parker, Pilcher, Smith, Donaldson, Jones, Rae Thirlwell has a clear shot just 12 seconds in but it goes just wide. Just minutes later he picks up a bruised knee. In the tenth minute his gimpy knee leads him to being easily dispossessed and we just can’t get things going. Just. At half I crank up the volume and go Attacking. I have to take Thirlwell off in the 68th along with Day (yellow) and Jefcoate (stressed by Assertive half-time speech) for Rae, Pilcher, and Parker. We’ve been passing poorly all day sending balls right to the opponent. Luckily, at 70:07 Barlow gets a shot from 10 yards out and we get a lead. I immediately switch back to Control. The game is sealed in the 77th when Cullen gets a free kick in the arc, just outside the box. The wall defends the try but it goes right back to Cullen who one-shots it in, past the stunned goalie. POM: Terry Barlow (1 goal, 3 key passes, 2 chances created)  I give them the “We got away with that” speech, firing most players up except Barlow. As for Not-So-Thrilling, I gave him the, “You squandered many chances” speech and he acknowledge his faults. I wonder if he would have performed better if he hadn’t been hurt so early. (The injury cleared up by the end of the match, by the way.) The Days Between The biggest news is that I elevated midfielder Bill Taylor to the Seniors. I gave him a talking to first, telling him how impressed we are and he deserves to train with the older players. He thanked me and then the game automatically dumped him in the U23. Pretty neat addition to Football Manager! Not much else happened in the days between. We are currently free of injuries. Probably the first time in around 7 months; I’m including the U18s in this statement. Some nice scouting reports on youth strikers came in but none are exciting or want to come to South London. There is one, Mark Marshall, who I might take a stab at if the upcoming Youth Departures lists don’t pan out. Oh, these MoFoers again. The ones who erred in selling us Pilcher. Who we beat 3-0 back in late November. Who are currently the worst team in the league. Let’s send them home with more embarrassment! Carroll is coming back from his bruised jaw and will come on in the second half. And Bill Taylor gets his first start. I hope he does his family proud. But wait! Before the match begins I get an email from my Player Liaison Officer who informs me that Spearing no longer wishes to leave Brixton, that he’s happy to stay. Evidently teams are no longer pursuing him. That’s somewhat of a relief. I still think I’ll bring in a DC in the summer to act as a mentor and a Vice Captain. Southern First Division West vs. Bristol MF, 6 April 2019  Formation: Spade Starting XI: Legg, Pilcher, Spearing, Day, Jefcoate, Smith, Bill Taylor, Jones, Paul Taylor, Duckett, Macey Subs: Webb, Parker, Carroll, Thompson, Cullen, Thirlwell, Rae My pre-match speech only excites Bill Taylor so I’m hoping he puts in a star performance. It turns out though that the other Taylor has the magic touch, getting a goal before 10 minutes from a Jones cross. Jesus, in the 25th minute Smith pulls his groin and begs to come off. On comes Cullen. A few minutes later Macey gets fouled in the box and Bill Taylor of all people gets the shot, he does have a 13 Penalty Taking attribute though. HE SCORES ON HIS DEBUT!!! Macey then makes it three for me with a weak effort which was rightfully called an own goal by an MF defender. Pilcher and Macey spent a good portion of the first half looking Uninterested but Shane got his act together so only Eddie got some stern words. Eddie doesn’t improve and gets subbed out at 68’ for Rae, who gets another sub goal with 10 minutes to play. POM: Robbie Jones (1 assist, 2 key passes, 2 chances created)  The news on Smith’s groin isn’t too bad, out for 5 to 10 days. |
The Days Between
On the morning of 9 April I get some more player development news but it’s all old news. It came from my AssMan but you can also get these emails from your Head of Youth Development. My AssMan is a better judge of ability and potential than my HOYD. AssMan. Legg can tie the record for clean sheets in the league if he attains one in the match. Totton are currently second in the league but we destroyed them in our previous meeting. Lettuce continue that trend. Southern First Division West at Totton, 9 April 2019  Formation: Club (DC r, DC c, DC l, WBR, WBL, MC r, MC c, MC l, ST r, ST l) Starting XI: Legg, Nightingale, Spearing, Carroll, Parker, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Harding, Nixon, Macey, Kirkpatrick Subs: Webb, Pilcher, Jefcoate, Thompson, McAdam, Thirlwell, Rae The scoring starts in a weird way in the fourth. Nixon is out to the left just outside the big box and crosses it to Kemar but the cross was low and went into a defender and right under the goalie. A goal’s a goal, as my gramma used to say. That was the only action sequence in the first 45 minutes but in the extra minute Totton’s right centreback (with a 15 Long Throw rating) launches from the right sideline into our box but Legg rises above and immediately throws it to Carroll who manages to get it to Barlow. Barlow sends in a long pass from our half of the center circle. Macy and Kemar are in the clear with Kemar getting to it first. They run for the goal and Kemar opts for the shot on goal and succeeds beautifully. As per usual, I swap out bodies at 65’ with Kemar, Harding, and Spearing bowing out for some chaps who need match fitness, namely Thirlwell, Thompson, and Pilcher. Shortly thereafter Parker gets a cross from the byline and Nixon seals his POM performance with a beauty of a header into the ceiling of the net. I switch to Defensive at 75’ after Totton get two corners and almost ruin Chicken Legg’s clean sheet. Woohoo! In the 87th Thriller sends a prayer of a free kick into the box where one of their strikers gets his grubby paws on the ball and Nixon gets his brace. Or so I thought. He was acting like an American football kicker and tried to put it through the uprights. Le Sigh. Despite that, he still gets POM. POM: Mark Nixon (1 goal, 2 key passes, 1 chance created)  Chick ties the record for league clean sheets but I think I’ll give Webb the next league start so in theory Chick will break the record at the end of the month, on the 27th. Three of our next four matches are cups, and much to my dismay, I realize all of them are away. We’re gonna be in the red again this month. I also realize at this time that we haven’t conceded a goal in six matches. Damnnnnnnn… The Days Between The scouting report for Bath comes in and I am optimistic. I’d be more optimistic if we were at home but alas, that’s not the story. The media prediction then comes in and the subject lines reads, “Bath face difficult Brixton challenge”. They have 7-2 odds of winning. I am going with a slightly unusual starting XI, with Bill Taylor as my Box-To-Box Midfielder and Teddy Cullen as my Deep Lying Playmaker. I’d rather have Terry Barlow and Mark Nixon on the field but they are a bit tired. Because of the importance of this match I want my Captain on the pitch so Macey gets the start as my right Winger. No way in hell I’m not going to have Kemar up top. Southern League Cup Semi Final at Bath, 13 April 2019  Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c) Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Jefcoate, Bill Taylor, Cullen, Macey, Paul Taylor, Duckett, Kirkpatrick Subs: Webb, Parker, Pilcher, Smith, Barlow, Jones, Thirlwell I gave the “let’s get revenge” speech and most of the kids responded favorably. I hope that carries through into the match. Aside from an early yellow for each team nothing happens until the 27th minute when Maguire gets a cross into Taylor in the six-yard box but his initial and rebound shots go right to the goalie. Ten minutes later Macey has to be immediately subbed for a potential foot injury. I swear we are cursed. On the restart Maguire throws it in to Paul Taylor, who has no business being on the sideline but he dribbles down to the byline anyway and sends in a cross to Duckett at the far post. Their right back is able to intercept the pass, heading it upfield. But Bath are cursed as it goes right to Bill Taylor who’s standing on the 18-yard line and his powerful shot goes into the lower left corner of the goal. Again, I’m a genius for moving him up to the Seniors. In the 43rd the newly-on Thriller also gets a long range goal after we counter-attack from a Bath free kick. Carroll was the beast who disrupted their play and sent the stolen ball upfield. This gave Carroll a thirst for blood and a minute later he boots one in after a corner kick. In the third minute of stoppage time we get a free kick down in Bath’s end which ultimately ends with Carroll passing to Kemar for a very short-ranged goal. In the second half everything is calm and in the 64th I use my two remaining subs to switch out the midfielders who are the most exhausted. Within seconds we get another counter-attack, this time up the left side, ending with a Duckett-Jefcoate-Kemar triple play for our fifth goal. This Kirkpatrick kid with his headers…he might pan out some day. He gets his hat trick in the 72nd when Bath’s two central defenders try to play cute with the ball and he steals it and doesn’t cockup this one-on-one. We end the match with 28 shots on goal, 16 of them on target. Yowza! POM: Kemar Kirkpatrick (3 goals)  We got our revenge on Bath but at what cost?! Macey. Poor Eddie Macey. Out 4 to 6 weeks for a Twisted Ankle. Damn this is bad. No Captain and our Vice Captain just ain’t that good. Dammit. |
The Days Between
Thinking about Macey being out, I’ve mused about the following: We are down to four healthy strikers in the Seniors. I might promote Derek McLeish from the U18s. This would leave only one Natural Striker in the U18s in Jamie Hopkinson. Ergo, I’m going to train Tommy Watkins to be a Striker until he becomes Natural at it. Ashley Hibbert will remain training in AMR until that is Natural, then switch to Striker. Oh joy. We get to face Totton again, this time in the Southern League Cup Final. Despite the 3-0 victory last week it wasn’t the most pleasing of games. Grrrrrr My coaches recommend that Chick Legg get trained to remove the Trait “Avoids Using Weaker Foot” and I start his training on 15 April. Hopefully it’s relevant. He doesn’t make many mistakes and I’m not sure any of them have come from using his left foot but it doesn’t hurt to try. Good news comes in about Robert Carroll! My HOYD thinks he’ll be Championship quality. I know I said earlier that my HOYD is not as good a judge as my AssMan but I still take this as an accurate assessment as he’s rated 5 stars. Spearing again comes around asking for a new contract. I ask Carroll to resolve the matter and he does. (Carroll isn’t a team leader but he is Highly Influential so I guess that’s why the game engine chose him to have the talk. Not to mention that on the field they have a great partnership.) Fairford are 17th on the table and if they win they could move all the way up 13th. I don’t see that happening. We’re going with the Spade again to get Hodgson some match fitness. For the same reason I’m giving Webb a start despite getting an email about Legg breaking the clean-sheet record. Southern First Division West vs. Fairford, 17 April 2019  Formation: Spade Starting XI: Webb, Pilcher, Day, Nightingale, Parker, Donaldson, Smith, Hodgson, Nixon, Jones, Rae Subs: Legg, Maguire, Jefcoate, Harding, McAdam, Thirlwell, Paul Taylor Exactly at 2’ Hodgson crosses from the right to Day of all people and as if he were some kind of striker he sends in a screamer just above the carpet to the bottom right corner. Exactly 20 minutes later our second goal comes up the middle with Donaldson intercepting their GK’s long kick, sending it forward to Rae who then has such a perfect pass it leaves Nixon mano-a-mano and he beats the goalie. Our third is from a corner with Hodgson, Donaldson, and Rae doing the short, simple passing so perfectly, ultimately getting the ball to Jones’ right foot. Jones gets his brace early in the second and it’s a pleasant day in South London. POM: Robbie Jones (2 goals, 2 key passes, 1 chance created)  The Days Between Despite having already faced Billericay I still read the scouting report when it comes in. I notice that their starting GK doesn’t enjoy big matches. I plan to exploit that somehow. We’re slight favorites against Billericay, with 6-4 odds. It took extra time at home to beat them last time and boy do I hope today’s match is easier. FA Vase Semi Final at Billericay, 20 April 2019  Formation: Club (DC r, DC c, DC l, WBR, WBL, MC r, MC c, MC l, ST r, ST l) Starting XI: Legg, Pilcher, Spearing, Carroll, Maguire, Al-Ziod, Harding, Bill Taylor, Barlow, Thirlwell, Kirkpatrick Subs: Webb, Nightingale, Parker, Smith, Hodgson, Duckett, Paul Taylor Oh no. Carroll is Confused by my “you deserve to be in the finals” speech and when I directly address him to cheer him up he remains confused. Ouch. Despite all these instructions to play short passes in a Control mentality my players often just hoof it forward. Like when Harding booted one towards our opponents’ goal from about a third of the way into our territory. Luckily Thriller is able to direct the ball so it continues toward the goal, he then out runs the defenders to catch up to Kemar who had already beaten his man. Faced with the prospect of trying a goal or passing to Kemar, Thriller chose wisely and Kemar puts us in the lead. Twenty-two minutes later Kemar returns the favor and Thriller gets his goal, beating a one-on-one. Ten minutes after switching to the Diamond, the combo of Kemar to Paul Taylor gets a shot on goal but it’s blocked at point blank. This leaves the goalie completely out of position when Barlow bangs the rebound in. “Confused” Carroll finished the game with an 8.4 rating. Couldn’t have been too confused! POM: Kemar Kirkpatrick (1 goal, 1 assist, 5 key passes, 3 chances created)  |
The Days Between
The Whitehawk scouting report brings relief. I think we’ll be able to handle them, even though the pre-match hype machine says the odds are even. I want another trophy and Whitehawk stands in my way getting to the FA Trophy Final. Go get them, gentlemen! FA Trophy Semi Final at Whitehawk, 23 April 2019  Formation: Club Starting XI: Legg, Parker, Day, Nightingale, Jefcoate, Cullen, Smith, Hodgson, Nixon, Duckett, Rae Subs: Webb, Pilcher, Al-Ziod, Harding, McAdam, Paul Taylor, Kirkpatrick Rae has been in a slump since he signed that contract so I was a bit hesitant to give him the start. But 30 seconds (yes, seconds) in he receives a Nixon pass and gets a great shot off before the central defenders can crash in on him. Slump over! In the 24th minute, Day doubles our lead with a header directly from a Duckett corner kick. Whitehawk strike back 27 seconds after the restart but their right striker was offsides. Close call! In the 67th Jefcoate gets called for pulling that right striker down in the box. Chicken Legg dives the wrong way and our lead is now in question. I had to make some changes, the two with yellows plus recent misfit Jefcoate, which pays off when Shadi feeds Nixon who again feeds Rae and I’m back on comfortable footing. We end up with 64% possession but I worry about the 7 on-target shots out of 25 attempts. POM: Alex Rae (2 goals)  Whitehawk somehow managed to have 7 yellow cards but no player was sent off. Our opponents aren’t usually that adept. The Days Between Not much of anything at all happens until a couple hours before our match with Bideford. Our U18 squad is in their league final, hosting Stoke’s U18s. It’ll be interesting to see how many fans attend. Oh wow! 658 fans! And we won on penalties, after 9 rounds. Crazy stuff! This match is kinda machts nichts to me. It’s a league match, sure, and we can keep our perfect record going but if we lose, we lose. Next week Legg with get his chance at home to get the clean-sheet record. Southern First Division West at Bideford, 27 April 2019  Formation: Club Starting XI: Webb, Pilcher, Spearing, Carroll, Maguire, Al-Ziod, Harding, Bill Taylor, McAdam, Paul Taylor, Kirkpatrick Subs: Legg, Parker, Nightingale, Thompson, Jones, Duckett, Thirlwell It takes 15 minutes but McAdam gets a rare goal courtesy of Paul Taylor, fed by Bill Taylor (no relation) on a post-corner breakaway. Then seven minutes later it’s Shadi to Kemar. Then it’s déjà vu all over again with Bideford getting a goal after we fail to properly clear a corner. Then we strike back via Bill Taylor’s assist to Kemar. My speech at the break is all about complacency and everyone get motivated except Spearing and McAdam, who actually gets stressed. And sure enough, 93 seconds after play resumes we give up a goal off a lovely cross to their striker’s head. Ping pong. In the 54th another Taylor assist and Kemar goal. Then not ping pong but more like punch to the gut. Kemar gets number four from a ridiculously long cross from Maguire, who was being swarmed by opponents. Just before I can change up to the Diamond, Kemar picks up a twisted knee (see, we are cursed, another lower body injury!) and comes off. Despite being set to counter-attack, we manage to score our final goal off a free kick down on the left side, deep in Bideford territory. It was an interesting combo of Harding-Spearing-Thirlwell-Spearing. POM: Kemar Kirkpatrick (4 goals)  That twisted knee for Kemar? Turns out it was merely a flesh wound. He had no red or orange “Inj” marker after the match. |
The Week Between
Oh finally! An end to the two-matches-per-week biz. The lads can finally have some down time. In Summary Another highly successful month with no loses and us still alive in all our remaining cups. Those victories were all fair and square, no gifting of opponents being sent off.  What took you so long?! Life, man. Plus I realized I was playing these matches very quickly and not actually taking time to enjoy matters. Also, I spent a good amount of time setting up my spreadsheet of what I can Roster Management where I project the next couple years and where each player will be. I generally schedule things out to 5 or 6 years in the future. This becomes super-important when you are in the Premier and need to figure out if that new youth intake is going to start when he’s 18 or 21. Here’s what my DR projection looks like:  |
May 2019
I get by with a little help from my friends Training Matters I give up. What the hell am I doing wrong?! I think I might just have to hand training over to my staff. But wait! What if now that we are playing only once a week the lads won’t be so tired and do better in training. Let us see.  Financial Matters We lost almost £77k last month. Still have over £12.5m in the bank. Board Confidence Still Untouchable, up to 93% now. Hot damn! I am awesome. (Never mind the Sugary Daddy stuff.) Dynamics No new tales to tell. Player Development Some months back I worried how Marcus Thirlwell’s tutoring wasn’t really producing effects. I am happy to announce that his Determination is up to 9. His time with Macey should end around the middle of May so there is hope still that he hits the double digits. I get an unusual loan offer on 4 May. A team called Swallownest F.C. who are way down in the 10th level of the English football pyramid want to take on U18s bench-rider Grant Appleton until the end of the season as a starting MC. They are fourth in their league and 8 points back from promotion with 3 matches to play. Godspeed, Grant. May they find victory from your feet. Now let’s go get Chick Legg that clean-sheet record! Southern First Division West vs. St. Ives, 4 May 2019  Formation: Club (DC r, DC c, DC l, WBR, WBL, MC r, MC c, MC l, ST r, ST l) Starting XI: Legg, Pilcher, Spearing, Carroll, Parker, Jefcoate, Barlow, Smith, Nixon, Taylor, Kirkpatrick Subs: Webb, Maguire, Nightingale, Harding, Hodgson, Duckett, Thirlwell The match starts quickly and 27 seconds in Kemar gets tackled from behind in the box and Nixon comes in for the penalty shot, this time he gets it right. It takes just under 23 minutes to get our second goal. Kemar for some reason took the corner kick, sending it directly to Barlow who is nowhere near goal. Doesn’t matter. He launches one in from way out in right field, 25 yards away. Five minutes later Kemar gets that goal he was denied at the start, courtesy of a long-range pass from Jefcoate. Pilcher gets one from a free kick and our first half ends- Wait! Scratch that. Pilcher gets two from free kicks late in the first half. The man is on fire! The final half of the match sees us move to the Diamond at 60’ and Kemar getting his brace after a hella-slow counterattack. He had two opportunities to get a trio but he was getting sloppy near the end. And Legg gets the clean-sheet record! POM: Kemar Kirkpatrick (2 goals, 1 assist, 3 key passes, 1 chance created)  I was expecting an email after the match celebrating Legg’s 20th clean sheet. I did not receive one. All that misplaced hype… Earlier in the morning my U18s had a friendly against the youths of a team called Chipping Sodbury. What a weird name! I would also say Swallownest F.C. is silly name. England be funny, yo. The Week Between Appleton accepts the offer to go out on loan. I wish him well and tell him it’s a chance to showcase his skills, to which he agrees. He’ll end up only getting two matches but Swallownest are on a righteous winning streak, 5 games, scoring 14 goals and conceding 1. As the season end draws near, and the transfer window too, our players are starting to draw interest from teams higher up the pyramid. Namely, Exeter wants Spearing, Oxford for Kemar, Paul Taylor to Accrington, and Hereford lusts for Nightingale. I’m pretty open to these ideas but Kemar will only leave on a loan and Nightingale won’t leave at all as I feel Spearing and Carroll will leave. It’s wonderful to have everyone with their Condition at 97% or higher. Well, except Macey, who’s working his way back from his twisted ankle. Southern First Division West at North Leigh, 11 May 2019  Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c) Starting XI: Webb, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Cullen, Smith, Hodgson, Nixon, Duckett, Kirkpatrick Subs: Legg, Parker, Day, Taylor, Jones, Thirlwell, Macey A walk in the park, this one. We demoralize them with 3 goals in 6 minutes early on. They never really find their sea legs and we add two in the latter half to make sure they don’t get any crazy ideas. POM: Mark Nixon (2 goals)  In a post-match press conference all the questions are about players leaving. Also, Webb’s agent comes asking for a new contract. Not today, bub, you’ve got two years left on your current contract. (And I really want to sell him off soon anyway.) |
The Week Between
More transfer speculation comes rolling in. The fact that Norwich is linked to Kemar is interesting. They are mid-table Championship these days. We’re getting close to Premier League teams being interested. Nonetheless, I’d be willing to send him there on loan. Before our Wimborne match Kemar is finally linked to a Premier team. It’s Newcastle, who are in the relegation zone with one last match to play. They need to beat Tottenham and West Brom need to lose to Southampton for that to happen. I’m loving these weeks when we have only one match. Most of the players are either Superb or Fully Fit in their Sharpness. Today we are moving to the Club formation to get some MCs some extra work. The subs are chosen so we can switch to the Diamond for the final third of the match when we have the lead, naturally. Southern First Division West vs. Wimborne, 18 May 2019  Formation: Club (DC r, DC c, DC l, WBR, WBL, MC r, MC c, MC l, ST r, ST l) Starting XI: Legg, Pilcher, Spearing, Carroll, Parker, Al-Ziod, Bill Taylor, Barlow, Nixon, Rae, Kirkpatrick Subs: Webb, Maguire, Day, Harding, Hodgson, Jones, Macey Again our scoring starts with a Nixon penalty kick; it was Rae being fouled this time. However, that’s all the news that’s fit to print for the first half. Kemar is rating 6.4 and nobody else is in the 7s except Nixon. Ergo, “I am not happy with your performance out there.” It takes 8 minutes for Rae to respond to my admonition. Day picks one up in garbage time and Kemar ends with a 6.2 rating. I am not pleased. Wimborne get a goal in extra time because Barlow got lazy. I am pissed. POM: Terry Barlow (1 assist, 3 key passes, 2 chances created)  How Barlow got the POM is beyond me. I also fine Kemar a week’s pay for his 6.2, which he accepts as fair. The Days Between Back to mid-week matches. I need a “grumposaurus” emoji. Thirlwell’s mentoring by Macey comes to an end on 19 May. I deem it moderately successful. His Determination went from 4 to 9 and his Personality went from Balanced to Spirited. I’ll probably use Macey to mentor Meilir Pugh or Tommy Watkins next and then pay a revisit to Thriller. (Pugh and Tommy both have 11 Determination and Balanced personalities.) The squads’ personalities can rub off onto some players so I’m hoping that happens with Thriller to get his Determination into the double digits. Our penultimate league match. Because we have a cup final on Saturday, the second stringers get their starts on Tuesday. Southern First Division West at Swindon Supermarine, 21 May 2019  Formation: Club Starting XI: Webb, Nightingale, Day, Smith, Maguire, Jefcoate, Harding, Cullen, Thompson, Paul Taylor, Macey Subs: Legg, Parker, Pilcher, McAdam, Jones, Duckett, Thirlwell Another match where the first goal comes off a penalty. This time Harding gets the honor. It doesn’t take long for Taylor to get on the board too and things are going well. His brace comes from a classic Brixton move: Wait for two defenders to get confused and start debating on whose ball it is then pounce on the ball and score. To start the second half the Supermarines out-Control us and get a farcical goal, their dude was feet offside. A few minutes later a prayer of a high lob by Maguire to short-stuff Macey results in the defenders on either side of Eddie holding him down. I let Eddie take the shot, denying Taylor his hat-trick, because Macey’s playing uninspired and needs the boost of confidence. But then we allow a second goal from a free kick near the byline. Their left centreback outjumped Day and Thompson. I still switch to Diamond at 60’ and Macey’s header for goal comes 12 minutes later. How he was able to out leap the defender is beyond me. Their defender is 13cm taller and 3 points better in Jumping Reach. POM: Paul Taylor (2 goals, 1 assist, 1 key pass, 1 chance created)  |
The Days Between
Oh goodie! A press conference. This one is for the Southern League Cup. The journalists kept asking questions about Totton’s manager. I don’t pay attention to other managers, especially this far down the pyramid. But I pretend like we’re friends. That seems to satisfy them. There’s a cliché in the realm of NFL talking heads. It goes something like this: It’s hard to beat the same team three times in a season. I hope you’re sitting down when I drop this bombshell. NFL sportscasters are worthless and aren’t really that accurate. Shocking, I know. Totton does not have a prayer. Southern League Cup Final vs Totton, 25 May 2019  Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c) Starting XI: Legg, Pilcher, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Taylor, Hodgson, Nixon, Duckett, Kirkpatrick Subs: Webb, Parker, Nightingale, Smith, Jones, Taylor, Thirlwell I start with the “Don’t it for the fans” speech, which motivates Kemar, Barlow, and Carroll. I hope that carries through to the match. In the tunnel a journo asks why Duckett get’s the Captain’s armband. “He merits it.” My motivational speech does nothing. We can’t penetrate their defense and they hit us on the counter. Attacking we must go! Nine minutes later Hodgson misses a chance to equalize but the shot goes wide. A third of the way into the match Hodgson redeems himself by sending a short, simple pass to Kemar at the near post and he squeaks one in. Three minutes later Hodgson gets his second assist after sending a cross across the mouth of the goal to a wide-open Duckett. In the 38th Kemar once again fails to convert a 1-v-1. A minute later he makes up for it by sinking a Duckett pass. I think our opponents were expecting a cross to the opposite post as they left Kemar alone right in front of the goal. And we finish the half with a Duckett cross to the middle where Nixon is able to outleap everyone and head in a goal. At the half I praise the crew and dial back on the aggressiveness. Everyone responds favorably to my praise but Carroll. Twelve minutes into the second half Nixon receives a Barlow pass just to the right of the penalty spot, does a weird pirouette, and launches a screamer into the back of the net. I was going to swap him out at 65’ but now he’s on a hat trick! So then I take out Kemar (preservation), Spearing (yellow card), and The Jordanian Prince (low condition) for Thirlwell, Nightingale, and Parker. And we win our first Southern League Cup!!! POM: Daniel Duckett (1 goal, 2 assists, 4 key passes, 5 chances created)  Tottenham beat Manchester United 1-0 to win the FA Cup Final. I bring this up because the match took place at Wembley Stadium at 1500. We played at the same venue at the same time. Another ramification of using a non-official database to start your FM save. The Days Between Our next match is against Welling for the FA Trophy. Welling are 23rd of 24 teams in the Conference National and are going to get relegated. The scouting report on them is very favorable for us. They’ve only scored 33 goals all year and have been in poor form recently. They have a fairly decent squad but pales in comparison to ours. Most of their better players are loanees. Around 18,000 spectators have arrived today. All I hear is “chi-ching” as we get half of the gate receipts. :-) Now to give them a performance! (Due to tiredness I’m not fielding the best squad. I hope that doesn’t bite me in the hindquarters.) FA Trophy Final vs Welling, 28 May 2019  Formation: Club (DC r, DC c, DC l, WBR, WBL, MC r, MC c, MC l, ST r, ST l) Starting XI: Webb, Nightingale, Spearing, Carroll, Parker, Jefcoate, Harding, Smith, Cullen, Macey, Rae Subs: Legg, Maguire, Pilcher, McAdam, Jones, Duckett, Kirkpatrick My dressing room speech goes over like a fart in a church with nobody motivated and Carroll actually getting confused. What part of, “You deserve to win the trophy and I expect you to win it” is so confusing? Ingrates. Well, at least Carroll’s confusion didn’t last long! In the 12th he hoofs one forward and as it flies over everyone’s head, Rae sprints after it, collects it, and sends the goalie one way but sends the ball the other way. Twenty minutes later it’s Carroll again, feeding Smith who gets an assist off Cullen’s goal. Teddy ran around a mass of people in front of the goal and surprised the goalie. Twas awesome. We remain two up at the break and I tell the lads I’m proud. I warn Macey that he needs to do better. I also Calmly tell Nightingale not to pick up a second yellow. Macey ain’t done nuttin’, actually getting worse but I really want Kemar to rest. At 68’ I go to the formation that is a girl’s best friend and take off Nightingale, Smith, and Carroll for Jones, Duckett, and Pilcher. And wholey moley, Macey scores on a breakaway initiated by Pilcher’s long boot forward. The goal was a beauty, going over the goalies fingers but below the crossbar. Ten minutes later, Macey is showing me my doubting is unfounded, kicking in a close-range Rae pass that he headed down from a Jones cross. YES!!! Another trophy for Brixton and the lads! POM: Alex Rae (1 goal, 1 assist, 2 key passes, 2 chances created)  Excellent, another bit of hardware and we made £86k. Back in the black for the month. |
The Days Between
As our final league match is coming up I get the privilege to attend a press conference. Yeah me! I try to avoid giving Mangotsfield “bulletin board material” and at the same time express confidence in my team. Let’s see how those scoundrels in the press manipulate my words. Actually, they didn’t really do that. “…confident of getting result.” Yep, I expect to win. What I didn’t say is that I’ll be fielding the team of the future. A couple of kids from the Seniors and the rest from the U18s who will probably be starters next year. I foresee a massive sell-off come June and July. I gotta make the game a little harder, more realistic, so I’ll pretty much take any offer except for some true gems. (cough)Kemar(cough) Speaking of Kemar…and stop me if I said this before, but, I plan to loan him out next year. Hopefully he’ll go to a Premier League team. I don’t know how we’ll keep him so I imagine I’ll have to sell him with a £10 million buy-back clause. In Summary Has there ever been a team who had three matches in a four-match span that sees all opening goals coming from penalties? I’m glad we have! It’s almost as if the referees are my friends! We have almost completed a perfect league season and secured two trophies. I’m feeling confident we’ll close out the season with two wins and I’ll go down in the annals of history as the best football manager* ever. * In the 8th level of the English pyramid. See, I can be humble.  |
June 2019
I'm so dissatis-, dissatis-, dissatisfied We have two more matches before our season is over. A league one and the FA Vase Final versus Hungerford. After those are done I’ll be neck-deep in figuring out the roster, meaning who to elevate from the U18s, who to sell on from the Seniors, and giving out new contracts, both players and staff. Let’s take care of those matches before I do the normal beginning of the month thing. Here we’ll see the youth of tomorrow. I have Kemar in there because if he can manage a hat trick he’ll lead the league in goals and then should get a POM award, pulling into the league lead too. It’s a beautiful day in South London with the temperature at 17° Celsius, 63° Fahrenheit, with high clouds. The stadium is nearly half full with 3,415 tickets sold. Did the fans come to watch an undefeated season or the new kids on the block? Southern First Division West vs. Mangotsfield, 1 June 2019  Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c) Starting XI: Gareth O’Keefe, Tom Johnstone, Shane Pilcher, Mitchell Nightingale, Dean Rice, Bill Taylor, Alan Coates, Tommy Watkins, Mark Nixon, Meilir Pugh, Kemar Kirkpatrick Subs: Adrian Lee, Angelino Ferreira, Kevin Jenkins, Tasos Noulas, Paul Taylor, Marcus Thirlwell, Ashley Hibbert I promised myself I would only Praise and Encourage the team today. I get that opportunity right after 8’ when Nixon’s long range shot gets deflected by the GK right to Kemar’s left foot. Brixton up, 1-0. Four minutes later Maggotsfield get a corner and Bill Taylor “shoved” an opponent in the back. Dammit! I wanted O’Keefe to get a clean sheet on his debut! HOLY SHEET! He blocked it!!! I guess one good turn deserves another, and the refs are still my friends, so we get a penalty call after 21’. Kemar steps up… And bounces it in off the underside of the crossbar! Brixton up, 2-0! By the way, the guy who committed the penalty was the one who got stonewalled by O’Keefe. We go into the half feeling good. Except Pugh. He missed an absolute sitter and is rating at 6.3. I tell the lads they were great, singling out our awesome goalie and giving Pugh a little “I have faith in you” pep-talk. Oh my! Five minutes into the second Rice sends in a prayer of a cross and Kemar is somehow able to head it in from an impossible angle at the far post. We shift to the Diamond at 55’ so I bring off Mr. Hat-Trick Guy, Pilcher, and Nixon for Paul Taylor, Ashley Hibbert, and Kevin Jenkins. And thus ends the match and league play. POM: Kemar Kirkpatrick (3 goals, 1 key pass, 1 chance created)  What a wonderful season! We are stocked with great young players and I’m feeling fine. I’d like to point out that our Regista/Ball Winning Midfielder/Deep Lying Playmaker Alan Coates performed a 9.0 match, nabbing 3 key passes and 3 chances created. He’s gonna be amazing. The Days Between The scouting report for Hungerford gives me great hope. On paper they are not better than us. And just like another team who should not be mentioned, their best players are in on loan. Later on I learn we are 4-7 odds to win. The FA Vase pre-match press conference is really short. “Does winning this before make your job easier or harder.” Neither. “Your U23 manager might leave to go to some po-dunk club nobody has ever heard of, not even their owner’s own mother. Should he go?” Next question. Here it is, lads! Final match of the season, some more beautiful hardware up for grabs, chance to end the season on the highest of notes! I’m gonna take advantage of all 12 sub slots just to give as many players a chance to get in on the good stuff before they ride off into the sunset, for the summer. Over 6,100 fans have shown up at Wembley on a hot London day (82° F!) with no breeze to cool things down. Let us watch the hot action of the Hunger game! FA Vase Final vs. Hungerford, 4 June 2019  Formation: Spade Starting XI: Webb, Pilcher, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Cullen, Barlow, Thirlwell, Nixon, Duckett, Kirkpatrick Subs: Legg, Parker, Maguire, Day, Jefcoate, Harding, Smith, Hodgson, Paul Taylor, Jones, Macey, Rae My speech barely registers with the squad with only Cullen and Duckett motivated. In the tunnel I’m forced to lie about this being Legg and Day’s last match. Legg will be around. Day, no. After 14’ of nothing I prepare to Shout “Get creative!” when a highlight begins. After some sloppy passing, Nixon is able to thread the eye of the needle, passing to Kemar for our opening salvo. Brixton up, 1-0. I do get by with a little help from my refs. Cullen sends in a free kick and Duckett gets shoved to the ground. Thriller makes it Brixton up, 2-0. Not two minutes later one of their guys mugs Duckett on the sideline and gets a straight red. Again, I evidently am related to the refs. Jesus. At 55’ a Hungryman picks up his second yellow. I wonder how much I’m paying them? At 60’ I swap EVERYONE. In the 72nd we get another penalty from another free kick. This is embarrassing. Harding makes it Brixton, 3-0. They do get four shots on goal and manage to miss them all from close range. Then the match ends. Very unsatisfying. Of the 22 players to get time, only three had a 7.0 or higher rating. Two goals off penalties. Two opponents sent off. We should have dominated them even if I kept the Control Mentality for the whole match. I mean, look at the POM and what he accomplished. POM: Teddy Cullen (7.2, 2 key passes, 1 chance created)  I can’t even feign interest in the post-match presser, giving the most blasé answers possible. The players don’t seem to notice as their Morale is Perfect to a man. Nonetheless, it was a tremendously successful season. Really hard to be mad when you’ve run the table. All while allowing less than half a goal per match and scoring almost 4 goals. I doubt (and hope) we don’t have such an easy time next season.  |
Now onto the beginning of the month stuff and the off-season.
Training Matters According to my AssMan, five players had Impressive Performances on the training front for the season. Sadly Carroll won’t be around next year. Nixon might go too. Clubs are hella interested in a lot of my youths.  Financial Matters We made just a smidge over £11,000 in May, not too bad considering our general trend. For the season, we made £650,000. We get a new kit sponsor. We’re now advertising for someone to the tune of £11,000 per annum. I guess it’s better than a kick to the shins but still not a lot of money. Board Confidence I am Untouchable at 100% confidence. Damn, I’m good! After the lads go on holiday the Board asked for a meeting to discuss “improving our youth level.” They want to gauge my opinion on whether to strive to achieve a higher grade for the academy setup. Damn skippy, I do! Dynamics Again, nothing new to report. For now... Player Development By the beginning of June, Jordan Nickson has already become Competent at DR. Methinks he has a high Versatility. Thirlwell did not advance at all in his Determination after the tutoring by Macey ended. Five players get a call up for some summer action. Al-Ziod for Jordan, Kemar and Robert Carrol for England U19s, Simon McAdam for Northern Ireland U19s, and Noah Harding for Wales U19s. A couple days later Gareth O’Keefe is summoned by Ireland for the U21s, which is insane as he won’t turn 17 for another six months! Mark Nixon also will play for Ireland but for the U19s. Shadi’s first game with the Jordanian seniors see him getting a goal and a 7.4 rating. Too bad he won’t be with us much longer. Gary Ferguson gets a call-up for the Euro U19 Championship representing Scotland. Good on, ya! Contracts Twelve player contracts are up for renewal with four of them having contract extension available to me. I trigger Chick Legg, Marcus Thirlwell, Liam Roberts, and Gary Ferguson. I already know the six MCs I’m gonna rock with next year so Ferguson was only kept to be a U23 body. Chris Day, Robbie Jones, and Scott Thompson won’t be offered new contracts. Andy Hodgson and Shadi Al-Ziod have triggers but I plan on selling them off. I need to offer new contracts to Noah Harding, Derek McLeish, and Ryan Collopy. On the staff side of matters, one of the scouts is up but he’s pitiful so I’ll let him walk. I want to renew a Physio, the U18 AssMan, and my only U18 Coach. The U18 Physio is only rated at 13 in that skill so his best hope is I can’t find someone better. New Players I need a new Vice Captain. I want that next one to also be a mentor. Because we are for sure going to lose Spearing and Carroll I want a central defender, preferably left-footed. It takes a while to find one who meets my needs and wants to come to Brixton. It’s going to cost us a pretty penny. Well, 80,000 pounds to be exact. He comes to us from a team in Ireland’s First Division, which is the second level of the Irish pyramid. He surprisingly doesn’t ask for a high wage despite his high price. You’re probably asking yourself if I paid too much. I did. There just aren’t a lot of left-footed DCs who can mentor and want to come down this far in the English pyramid.  He has an interesting spread of abilities. Not particularly great on things germane to a centreback but really good in a lot of other places. I might try to get his MC up to Accomplished but I’ll leave DMC as is. I decide to do a little scouting myself. I decide to see if there are any cheap, young talented lads out there. I set the search parameters to this:  Only 10 players fit the bill and I have my scouts report on them all. I eventually learn none of them want to come to Brixton. Offers & Departures After having put a lot of players on the Transfer List only Spearing and Carroll were drawing much interest. A lot of interest. Scottish Premiership side St. Johnstone swooped in late for Carroll and he signs with them on 16 June. I transfer listed Al-Ziod, even though he was under a month left with us, and he signed a pre-contract with Aston Villa on 16 June. Good luck, Prince! (Villa is 5th in the Championship.) On 14 June Ipswich came in with an offer for Mark Nixon but as it was only £2,800 I denied it. He immediately pitched a fit and I had to remind him he was still on contract. He didn’t like that I upped his asking price to £10,000. Over the rest of the month Barnsley would pop in every couple days with the same offer as Ipswich. Sigh. How droll. Oh damn. I knew Kemar was going to draw interest. I didn’t think Arsenal would be the first to put in an honest-to-god offer. On the day before his 17th birthday they arrive with a very low-ball bid so I have to upgrade it, knowing that he’ll get pissed like Nixon. I ask for £1 million, 40% sell-on fee, and £10 million buy-back clause. They repeat their first offer and I end negotiations. There must be a glitch in the matrix because Kemar didn’t come asking for anything. I forgot to mention this earlier: For the season he had 62 goals across all matches. Amazing. An offer even came in for Nightingale. It’s from Hereford and only £2,000. He’s in my plans for a while yet so I say no. Tuesday, 18 June I get an email about who’s going up to and down to the English Regional Premier Divisions. Hereford, the team pursuing Nightingale are one of the teams coming down. Why would Mitchell want to go there? I have no fears of losing him. Spearing is moving on to Exeter, a League One side, for the lowly fee of £5,000. Duckett agrees to a move to Swindon for £10,000 in League One. New Staff I need to replace one scout as his contract is almost over. I opened the Staff Search tool and narrowed it down to Scout and immediately noticed this guy.  Pablo Nickerson is a Model Professional American, has good judging abilities, and has a maximum Determination and Adaptability. He’d be an ideal Chief Scout. However, he only wants to be Director of Football. I do have an opening there and will need one soon when I start trying to off-load some players. I offer £350 per week, two years, and a 10% promotion wage raise. He joins us on 3 June. Also, the board, without telling me, seriously upped the number of staff I can have. I can have 3 more U18 coaches, 4 more U23 coaches, and 3 more scouts. Oh yeah! On the other side of the coin, some of my staff might be leaving as journalists keep asking about the interest they are drawing. Notably my U23s Manager, Mick Hunter, has been linked to Maldon & Tiptree. They are no Brixton, don’t know why he’d want to go there. They are at the level we are currently at but in a few weeks the official promotion up will happen and we’ll be above them. On 11 June he departs for Chesham, a similar team to M&T. I offer my U18 manager, Reggie Jeffries, a new contract to replace Mick. I found a good candidate to be our new U18 manager but he has no desire to be the U23 manager, hence my elevation of Jeffries. The board allows me to have three more U18 coaches and four U23 coaches. I eventually manage to find some that aren’t complete shit. Quite a few of them are European, which is pretty cool because I’ll get their scouting knowledge. Not that it matters yet, we can still only scout UK and Ireland. They hail from Austria, Belgium, Faeroe Islands, Netherlands, Slovakia, and of course England. Team Rankings For the EPL fans in the house, here are the ranking in this AU: 1. Man United 2. Liverpool 3. Arsenal 4. Man City 5. Chelsea 6. Tottenham 7. West Ham 8. Leicester 9. Southampton 10. Stoke We are now 348th, a mighty big jump from 694th last year. Sundry Items Tuesday, 25 June we advance to the new season. One of the items that I have to immediately address is the board wants to meet to make available more money for my AssMan’s wages. Odd. The Brexit news comes in and like I said some years back, nothing will change in the world of association football. That Was Then, This Is Now Welcome to a new segment, one in which I re-examine something I once said and we’ll see if I was wrong or right. Let’s go back to my very first update when I introduced the team to the world. This is what I had to say about our only right midfielder Steve Pearson: “He’s not that good except his speed and Teamwork.” He stayed with us for a season and a quarter or so and in that time he made 46 appearances, scoring 17 goals, making 19 assists, and winning 5 Player of the Match awards, for an average rating of 7.76. I was wrong. He was good. And we made £20,000 when we sold him on to Brentford, in the Championship. The start of the season is upon us! The lads report on 1 July and we are going to see a lot of squad turnover but I still predict a promotion. |
July 2019
Hope springs eternal Financial Matters It really takes a bite out of your bottom line when you have to pay out bonuses for winning the league and cups. We shell out around £114,000 but I’m more than happy to do that. Board Confidence As the game resets itself for the new season I take a hit on board confidence. This is because I’m no longer getting credit for all those wins. It bothers me not as I’m still Untouchable but only at 90%. Dynamics With the departures of Day, Carroll, and Duckett we are down to one Highly Influential Player, that being Chick Legg. Hopefully Jefcoate will graduate up from the Influential Player group. I’m hoping that O’Shea is in one of those groups by the time I have to pick the new Vice Captain. Player Matters Little-used David Donaldson moves on to Tranmere, who just got themselves back into League Two. We made a whopping £800 off the move. On 5 July Nixon takes a walk to Barnsley. I don’t recall approving this transfer as it included a friendly and I had already set up all the friendlies I wanted for the pre-season. I’m surprised it was only £3,000. I don’t drink so it couldn’t have been that. I doubt I’ll ever figure out what happened. Oh danggggg. On 14 July Wrexham declare their interest in Macey. This is an unexpected development. I hope he doesn’t want to leave. Millwall, in the Championship, arrive at Brockwell Park on 19 July with a respectable offer for Paul Taylor. An initial fee of £2,500 along with £3,000 in two installments, £2,000 more after 10 league matches, £2,000 after 10 league goals, and 40% of the next sale. Things are a bit crowded at striker and Paul wants to go. I say yes and play the waiting game. I have to wait over a week but he finally agrees on 27 July. Good luck, Paul, you’ve been a wonderful player here. Pilcher comes to me on 20 July saying he wants to go to Blackpool. They haven’t made an actual offer for him of late so I ask Macey to flex his captaincy and convince Pilcher to drop the matter for now. It works. So of course four days later, Leeds, now in the Premier League try to low-ball us to unsettle him. On 23 July I put Kemar on the Loan List as I want him to get Premier League experience because he’ll stagnate if he stays with us. He of course gets upset but I explain that it’s just a loan, not a permanent move, and I need to do this for his development. He agrees with me. |
New Players
I need one, possibly two, left backs and let me tell you, nobody worth a darn wants to come to us. I also need a defensive midfielder and a striker for the U18 squad and I’m having no luck there. I’ve scouted over 50 players. Back in early April I mentioned signing a youth striker named Mark Marshall. I finally made an offer of £1,000 for him on 8 July. I just wasn’t finding any good youth strikers and need one in the U18s as I only have one there. I promised him we’d get promoted this year and offered £300 per week; he agrees on 10 July.  Youngster Ibrahim Agu picked up a gashed leg in training on 9 July which leaves us thin on the right wing for the next 6 to 14 days, and Mark Marshall hasn’t signed yet, so I go hunting for a trialist. My search parameters are “Unattached” and “Accomplished at either MR or AMR.” I found this chap.  He agrees not four hours later and I now have 4 weeks to determine if he’s worth keeping around. Now that I know that a squad’s personality can rub off on a fellow squaddie I’m not worried about his 7 Determination. I’m very happy to see that he is “very well suited to Southern Premier football” and that he “could improve a lot in the future.” Of course 10 hours later Mark Marshall signs. :-D I can’t seem to find a U18 DL worth a damn so I finally pull the trigger on this left wingback Steve Pike. I sure hope he can learn DL. It costs me £2,000 to lure him away from AFC Telford. I think once O’Shea has finished mentoring Nightingale, Pike will get some love.  He signs with us on 13 July. I don’t immediately elevate Rice to the Seniors as I need him on the bench for the U18 match on 14 July. |
I also need another trialist at central midfield. I offer Unambitious Glyn Davies who looks promising. If only I could find a mentor for him. Oh dang. Turns out he’s already suited for Conference South and can improve a lot. Now I need a mentor in the midfield! By 25 July I decided to make a permanent offer. In his four matches he’s rated 9.3, 8.3, 7.5, and 7.3. Pretty impressive.
 Trial Day is announced on 16 July so I send my chief scout to take a gander. The scouting reports come in four days later and all of them but one are super expensive (£35-50k p/w) and/or have significant gaps in their game. The one who was good just wouldn’t get playing time to justifying bring him in. Scouting meetings take place at 2345 every other day. At first I think the late night delirium has gotten to me when I see this kid available for a free. I could use an extra left winger and super-sub for the left side...  My scout thinks he’ll ask for £240 per week, max, so I offer £250 for two years when I notice he came up through Chelsea’s academy, figuring he’s gonna get lots of interest, so I want him to sign quickly. Sure enough, four hours later Chester, in the Conference North, make an offer. Dammit. A couple days later, League One side Bristol Rovers offer Wharton a contract. Our chances of landing him plunge. Maybe if he signs with them I’ll try to take him on loan. He signs on 25 July but goes immediately into their senior team. Drat. Knowing I didn’t have any true defensive midfielders in the U18s I offered a trial to a youngster who’s already on a £5 per week youth contract with a team at the same level of the pyramid as Brixton. On the 50th anniversary of man landing on the Moon I offer him a professional contract. Nathan Kingdon has the audacity of telling me he doesn’t want to play at Brixton so I have to make him an “amazing”offer. Dude, I’m doing you a favor plucking you from obscurity! Still, I make him a standard offer for Brixton. If he accepts, I will owe Halesowen £5,000 with another £8,000 possible in other clauses. Yes, I’m starting to flex Brixton’s Sugar Daddy status about. He agrees on 23 July.  |
Friendlies
This training camp I try not to have too many patsies. I schedule the usual weaklings but add some Conference South, Conference National, League Two, and of course League One Swindon due to the mystery trade of Nixon.
Seasons tickets sold should be around 400, which is better than last year’s 230. Tickets prices went up to £8 from £6 last year. Still a bargain. By 21 July the numbers are up to 387 so we’re getting closer but my assistant also notes that another 100 are expected to sell. That’d be great to have close to 500. The Season Ahead We are 1-5 odds to get promoted and 3-2 odds to win the division. If my math is correct, and it rarely is, the Southern League Premier Division sees the top two teams getting promoted to the Conference National League South. In similar news, on 31 July I have to decide on win bonuses. The middle tier for winning the league is £75k and the domestic cups is £375k. That’s a lot of money. I opted for the highest tier of the league, £105k, but opt for the low end on the cups, £225k. That Was Then, This is Now Let us look back two years to our batch of youth players who made up the bulk of the initial squad. I never really planned for them to be around for a long time as I expected “real” youth academy graduates and spot signings for leadership and mentoring would be the way we formed. GK: Robert Webb, Carl Friend. Both are still with us, with Webb in the Seniors and Carl in the U18s. I hope to off-load them soon. DR: Tom Johnstone, Peter Maguire. Tom started a couple of matches for the Seniors early in our first year but was sent down to the U18s when Shadi Al-Ziod arrived. He’ll get more starts this year in the Seniors. Peter started a lot of games for the Seniors but he’s gonna be sold off as Tom and Kevin Parker have higher potential. DL: Kevin Parker, James Jefcoate. Kevin has been a wonderful utility player at full back the first two years and will start at DR this year. Jefcoate split time starting with Al-Ziod but now will be our primary DL. DC: Ricky Spearing, Robert Carroll. These two gents were the rocks in the center of our defense for two years but they drew attention to themselves and now are playing higher up the pyramid and in Scotland. We only got £10,000 for them combined but I think the game engine did a better job of figuring out “reality” for transfers in the 7th level of English football. DMC: Connor Smith, Simon McAdam. Connor started many games for us defending in the middle of the field but as more midfielders came in he didn’t get as many starts. I’ve moved him to DC to be our third or fourth choice there. Simon kind of had a similar trajectory but I’m looking to offload him now. MC: Terry Barlow, Teddy Cullen, David Donaldson. Terry was another stalwart in the midfield but too lost playing time as other, better MCs came in. Teddy got some time starting but David got less. They are both gone and I hope to move Terry soon. MR: Steve Pearson. He was a beast for us for one and one-third seasons but £20,000 from Brentford was too good to pass up. ML: Daniel Duckett. Another beast on the wings but got two whole seasons in before going to Swindon for £10,000. I had forgotten he got 36 assists for us in our first year. ST: Paul Taylor, Ben O’Donnell. Paul was a good player for us, having some good streaks of scoring. Ben had an amazing inaugural season with us getting 38 goals, eclipsed only by Captain Eddie Macey. Brighton’s offer of £45,000 was way too good to turn down. Our initial batch was amazing. If our youth academy ever produces great defenders eventually Parker, Johnstone, Jefcoate, and Smith will too depart. After our last friendly I’m going to start training three new formations just to make our fight a little bit harder. Despite that, and having let a lot of regulars go, I’m still optimistic we’ll be able to win the league. |
August 2019
Tis but a scratch Training Matters I don’t know what to say. No negative news! Double up the huzzah!  Financial Matters We done losted £77k last month. We still have more than £12.25 million in the kitty. Board Confidence No changes since 1 July. Dynamics Nobody has joined Legg in the Highly Influential Player bracket. O’Shea is still lumped in with the Other Players group. Drat. Friendlies Just two more matches to go. One against a David, one against a Goliath. Hopefully we David the Goliath. The other one I’m not worried about.
Player Matters The month starts with an offer for Pilcher from Barnsley. It’s an embarrassing offer so it gets denied. The next day Leeds return with an offer for him but they continue with the lowballing so I tell them off. At the same time Marlow, a league below us, want to take on GK Carl Friend for a season-long loan. I accept the offer. They are willing to take on 100% of his staggering wages of £110 per week. On 8 August he agrees to the deal and is off to get some learnin’ in. The daily trend of Pilcher offers continue with Queens Park Rangers offering £500 for him. Nope. On the 4th it’s Millwall who try to swindle me. QPR come back on the 7th but they don’t up their offer. The bids continue but the values never increase. (This is one of those things that really bothers me about Sports Interactive. This happened all the time in FM2014; you’d think they’d program a better AI in those four years.) Two days before our first match Leeds again comes a-hunting for Kemar. I again say no and he enters my officer afterwards. I tell him that he won’t get as much playing there as he thinks so I denied the offer for his own good. He sees the light and thanks me. Player Development About once a week when you are playing Football Manager 2018 you’ll get an email from someone on your staff updating you on the progress of a player. I get such from my Head of Youth Development on 3 August about Tasos Noulas. Because the “Squad’s general character has had a positive effect lately” his Determination went from 14 to 15 and his Personality changed from Balanced to Fairly Determined. I love this game.  Before our finally friendly I was forced to pick the new Vice Captain. My AssMan suggest James Jefcoate but he’s only 18. He’s also significantly better at Leadership, Teamwork, and Work Rate than O’Shea. Hmmm…I wish there was a way to ask your Captain for advice. James gets the nod. New Players I did my maths wrong and it turns out I had to move Glyn Davies to the U23s. I thought that a player could be in the U18 so long as they turn 18 after 1 July. Turns out it’s after 1 September. Ergo, I also have to move Tasos Noulas to the U23s. I had him in the Seniors during pre-season but we’re crowded in the midfield so... I needed another MC for the U18s, a DMC to be specific. A hunting we will go, a hunting we will go, hi-ho the merry-o – Oh look what I found! A Henson Debellotte.  He is tall, I like a tall DMC for half-back purposes, and his is Grenadian, which fits the Brixton-Caribbean motif. Pretty great Physicals for a lad of 16-and-a-half. If his Determination increase he’ll be a good captain for the U18s and U23s, what with that 13 Leadership and all. He signed on 18 August. Aren’t those MidJourney AI-generated faces awesome?! While I was looking for players I stumble across recently-departed Paul Taylor. He got injured. Out for 5 weeks with a hernia. Poor lad. |
New Tactics
My “threat” to change formations gets off to a start two days before our first match. I’m going with a 4-4-2 Diamond with Standard Mentality.  I’m going with this mostly to get Coates familiar with the Regista role and get his DMC up to Natural. I also want Bill Taylor to get Natural at AMC. It’s like déjà vu all over again. The Club.  I’m turning to this old standard really just to get my fullbacks also Natural at wingback. It’s also a good formation to give my wingers some rest and get central midfielders Match Fitness. And finally, here we return to a really old formation, the 4-5-1.  It will be our Counter-Attack formation. I’ll eventually turn to the Diamond for our counter tactic but for now it gives me another opportunity to get the players who need AML or AMR up to Natural. Once I get all my starters Natural in the positions they need I’ll totally rethink my formations. Ideally players who come up through our youth system will learn what they need to before graduating to the U23. If not, they round things off while they are out on loan. The New XI It’s now time to look at the differences of starters for the first match, just like I did last year. The biggest difference is the formation. Like I explained earlier, I want to get my key midfielders Natural in DMC or AMC depending on their future. There are also a number of right midfielders who need to get Natural there.  The second thing you’ll probably notice is we have only two returning starters. As already explained, this is quite by design as I’ve tried to move on from the initial batch of youth players I started the game with. Technically that includes Parker and Jefcoate but I won’t move on from them until next season. The rest are proper youth intake players or lads who I found through scouting, Pilcher and O’Shea to be precise. |
Now let’s get to the first match of the season! We’re taking a step back in time, kinda. A lot of stuff above was written throughout the month, what happens below is done in “real time.”
We are predicted to win the league and our opponent are predicted to finish 20th. We better win this! Southern League Premier Division vs. Banbury, 10 August 2019  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, DMC, MR, ML, AMC, ST r, ST l) Starting XI: Legg, Parker, Pilcher, O’Shea, Jefcoate, Coates, Hibbert, Pugh, Taylor, Macey, Kirkpatrick Subs: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Smith, Ferguson, Harding, Leary, Thirlwell Over 1,800 Brixton fans see Coates get his first assist ever and Kemar’s first goal of the season just 86 seconds in. His second goal comes in the 30th. His third comes 45 seconds later. Did I ever mention he was an amazing product of the Brixton Youth Academy? In the 40th Coates gets a free kick and sends the ball wide of the wall to a lonely Taylor who gets his first goal of the season. I expect this duo to lead us to greatness over the next few years. Having seriously taken my foot of the pedal I’m surprised when Macey beats a one-on-one in the 67th. That’s all the scoring. We finish the match without allowing a single shot on goal. This is awesome. POM: Alex Rae (2 goals, 1 key pass, 1 chance created)  There is a little bad news. Both Pugh and Hibbert got bruised thighs during the match. Pugh’s cleared up by match-end but Hibbert will be out for 5 to 8 days. Some good news though is that we made a smidge over £15k from the well-attended match. This bodes well I think. I’ll have to check our balance after payroll goes out on Sunday to see if £30k a week is enough for us. The Days Between I checked the finances. We spend about £23k in wages per week. So we should slowly make our way back to black for the season. Slowly. The higher income is partly courtesy of 512 season tickets sold, an increase of 184 over last year. Another contributor is that our first U18 match drew 333 fans. We made around £2,000 on that. This bodes well and I believe our U23s will also draw good crowds too. Now it’s time for our first away match. Hopefully if one of their players makes a mistake the rest of them will also go off the cliff in response. Only two changes to the line-up today, Watkins in for an injured Hibbert and Ferguson in for a tired Coates, who got a full 90 minutes as a 15-year-old. He’s pooped! Southern League Premier Division at Leamington, 13 August 2019  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard Starting XI: Legg, Parker, Pilcher, O’Shea, Jefcoate, Ferguston, Watkins, Pugh, Taylor, Macey, Kirkpatrick Subs: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Nightingale, Roberts, Harding, Leary, Rae This time it takes 12:17 before Kemar gets on the board with a left-footed placed shot. He’s really slipping. That good news is countered by Macey’s continued struggles. He’s had four shots and they’ve either been right to the goalie or wide of the mark. Make that five. Luckily he gets a second assist and Kemar gets a second goal, this one a header from a great cross. Just before the half Eddie tries for his third assist but Kemar can’t reach the cross as he’s being held down by a defender. Kemar’s hat trick comes in at 40:42. Like I said, he’s slipping. And to make me look like a putz, Eddie scores 45 seconds later. Just over 5 minutes into the restart Kemar feeds Eddie for a goal so I bring our score-bot off along with a tired Pugh. New hire O’Shea pulls on the shirt of a Leaming and Chicken Leg can’t quite reach the penalty shot. Minutes later Taylor can’t get a corner to a Brixton player but the rebound finds his foot and this time his cross meets Rae’s head for our sixth goal. With seven minutes left Macey finally gets his hat trick and we’re in seventh heaven. And then eighth heaven after Macey helps Rae to a brace. Off the restart Watkins assists Rae to a hat trick. Oh boy. I have created a monster. POM: Eddie Macey 9.9 (3 goals, 3 assists, 4 key passes, 4 chances created)  There is some bad news, Meilir Pugh has a tight calf and will be out the next 2 days. My young wingers are breaking down far too early. |
The Days Between
It’s cup draw time! Oh how I missed you. Not! This time it’s for the FA Trophy Second Round. This time we get to host the Archbishop of Canterbury. They are a minnow, way down in the County Leagues. They aren’t too far away so hopefully we’ll get a healthy amount of visiting fans. I’m tempted to throw the match just to ease fixture congestion but the board expect me to win this competition. About that monster I created. On the last day of the Premier League transfer window, 15 August, Huddersfield arrive at 5:58 a.m. with an offer for Kemar. It’s the standard £2,000 that teams have been so fond of lately. I decide to press my luck and offer him out on loan instead. I ask that they pay his wage, a paltry £500 per week, and pay a monthly fee of £10,000. No whammys! No whammys! No whammys! They accept! They are predicted to avoid relegation and don’t exactly have the greatest of facilities but I really didn’t want Kemar to stagnate with us. Maybe next season he’ll be drawing actual adult-sized offers northward of £1 million. I mean, I’d love for him to just stay with us but let’s be honest, a youth of 17 already Premier-worthy has no business at Brixton FC. I’m fine with letting him go, as far as coverage goes. Macey will do just fine, and Thirlwell and Rae are more than capable at this level. Also McLeish will get more opportunities so I can assess whether he’s gonna be worth a darn. I’m not sure he’ll be good enough for League Two or higher but I should know by the end of this season. The next day, 16 August, Worksop approach with a loan offer for U18 ST Jamie Hopkinson. Jamie is our worst player and his contract is up at the end of the season. I accept the offer and go looking for another ST to put in the youth squad. I was going to invite Junior Fox back but he signed a contract with Enfield Borough F.C. before I can get to him. Ergo, I send out my scouts looking for youthful strikers. They are still looking at DMCs though so it might be awhile. Alright, can we still win with Kemar gone? Frome are a weak team, predicted to finish 19th and currently 20th. Southern League Premier Division vs. Frome, 17 August 2019  Formation: Club (GK, DC r, DC c, DC l, WBR, WBL, MC r, MC c, MC l, ST r, ST l) Starting XI: Legg, Nightingale, Smith, O’Shea, Johnstone, Rice, Coates, Harding, Roberts, McLeish, Thirlwell Subs: O’Keeffe, Parker, Pilcher, Taylor, Hibbert, Macey, Rae Thirlwell’s early chance goes begging but the resultant corner doesn’t. Liam Roberts ends up with the ball and coolly passes it to Derek McLeish for his first Brixton goal ever. A corner 10 minutes later again finds Roberts but his shot goes off the left post. No worries, though, it goes right to Nightingale who slams it home. After 20 minutes Thirlwell has sent in three shots right to the goalie. Each one results in a corner but only one sees us score. Frome pull one back after a corner and some sloppy play by O’Shea. Am I beginning to regret this signing? On the restart Thrilwell gets a breakaway but his shot goes off the underside of the crossbar and Frome’s defense clears the ball. I give the crew a Calm warning about their play and O’Shea get a little extra attention because he didn’t react to my team talk. (He’s captain today as Jefcoate and Macey aren’t on the pitch.) The second half starts with a McLeish skyball on a breakaway and yet another corner from a Thirlwell kick right to the GK. And another. So at 64’ I put us in the 4-5-1 Counter and add Parker, Hibbert, and Macey to the mix. But before the changes can take effect, Thirlwell changes up the script. This time he gets dispossessed in the 18-yard box but the thief’s pass goes to an empty spot and McLeish pounces on it before anyone can react. McLeish almost gets his hat trick in the 85th but his shot goes just wide. This time I give a mildly Assertive speech saying they need to do better against better teams. Smith with his 6.7 got confused and demotivated but Thirlwell gets fired up by my personal admonishment. POM: Derek McLeish 9.1 (2 goals, 2 key passes, 2 chances created)  My maths are seemingly accurate afterall! We made £14,233 off that match. Our next match is at home as is a U23 match on Monday. We might be in the black in a week’s time! I take time after the match to have a one-on-one with McLeish to congratulate him for being awesome on his debut and he thanks me for the kind words. Liam Roberts also had his debut, grading out at 9.0 with 2 assists, 4 key passes, and 3 chances created. He too gets a coach talk and thanks me. Speaking of debuts, Kemar had his with Hudderfield. Against Liverpool. He rated a 6.7 in 82 minutes of play. He’ll have better days I’m sure. The Days Between If it’s a Sunday, it must be a draw day! For the Southern League Cup we get to host Phoenix Sports, a step below us in the pyramid. For the FA Vase we travel to Long Eaton, two steps below. We best come away with two wins. That U23 match I mentioned earlier brought in just over £6,000 off 830 spectators. This is good. This trend needs to continue. Right after training camp I went to get Chick Legg to tutor Gareth O’Keeffe but the game wouldn’t let me. I figured it must have been because Legg was not 25 yet. On 25 August in the weekly “Player development advice summary” email from my AssMan (that never gets old) he suggested the arrangement. I get the players together and they are both amenable. Gareth should see his Determination go from 15 to 18 and his Personality from Ambitious to Driven. Two games at home in a row is a good time let O’Keeffe get his first start of the season. It also helps that our opponent is 21st in the league. Hopefully we aren’t still dealing with the hangover of Kemar’s departure. Southern League Premier Division vs. Chesham, 21 August 2019  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, DMC, MR, ML, AMC, ST r, ST l) Starting XI: O’Keeffe, Parker, Pilcher, O’Shea, Jefcoate, Ferguson, Hibbert, Pugh, Taylor, Macey, Rae Subs: Legg, Johnstone, Nightingale, Roberts, Harding, Leary, Watkins It’s a gusty, drizzly Wednesday evening in South London, not so bad as to keep away 1,638 fans. My Assertive demand to win produces no reaction so I am now worried. Those worries are allayed before 10 minutes when Chesham’s left central defender takes his time gathering the goalie’s distribution, enough so that Macey pounces on the ball like a hungry cat on an unsuspecting mouse. Brixton 1, Chesham 0. Chesham make another mistake in our end and we slowly return to the scene of the earlier crime and Macey provides Rae with a chance and he gets it in on his second try. Brixton 2, Chesham 0. Our third comes 10 minutes later when Taylor boots one in from 20 yards out. Brixton 3, Chesham 0. I think you get the picture. We dominate. The only bad thing about the first half is Macey picking up some bruised ribs. Tommy Watkins gets his first action at Striker at the restart. He gets a header in from a Hibbert cross at 63’. POM: Alex Rae 9.4 (2 goals)  Macey has an amazing ability to recover as his ribs are no longer bruised by the end of the match. What a relief! |
The Days Between
Somehow I managed to reset or never properly set Alan Coates’ training to learn defensive midfielder, Regista role. No wonder why he wasn’t improving. Sigh. Royston should present more of a challenge as they are 9th in the league table. With some tired strikers I’m breaking out the rarely, if ever used, 4-5-1 Counter. Southern League Premier Division at Royston, 24 August 2019  Formation: 4-5-1 Counter (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, DMC, MC r, MC l, AMR, AML, ST c) Starting XI: Legg, Parker, Pilcher, O’Shea, Rice, Coates, Harding, Roberts, Robinson, Leary, Thirlwell Subs: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Nightingale, Smith, Ferguson, Hibbert, Macey Our first goal comes in the 12th with a Coates free kick out to the right that finds Pilcher who heads it in for his first goal of the season. Sadly, that’s all the news that’s fit to print for the first half. Fudge. Royston score 16 seconds into the second stanza because Pilcher’s long pass goes directly to their right full back who too believes in Route One. I switch to an attacking mentality but the next action sequence doesn’t happen until the 60th. Thirlwell is all alone to the right of the big box having chased a long Coates pass but he has to wait for reinforcements but then his cross never makes it to Leary. The down side of a one-striker formation. I decide to switch to the Club and move Thirlwell, Robinson, and Leary. The actions starts to happen but Hibbert can’t noggin a Macey cross from the byline. This is followed by another Hibbert misfire and a Coates complete flub. We had 24 shots, 11 on target, they had 4 and 1. Very dissatisfying. I’m going to get away from the Counter and single-striker formations. POM: Alan Coates 9.0 (1 assist, 6 key passes, 3 chances created)  In other matches news, Kemar rocked another 6.7, as did Hopkinson, while Friend got another clean sheet. The Days Between Okay, so I removed the 4-5-1 from our repertoire and added the Spade. I know, I know, it’s a single-striker formation but having the Shadow Striker is good enough. Trust me. Sunday is draw day! FA Cup First Qualifying Round. We get to host either Brockenhurst or Skelmersdale, both of which are two levels below us. This is good as I like to ease my way into things. Our next opponent is Bishop’s Stortford and they actually have two really good players, a DC and an AMC. Luckily for us neither one of them is preforming that well. I hope that trend continues. We’re going back to the Diamond Standard but I’ll be sans my starting centrebacks as their Conditions are at 91 and 92%. I guess technically that’s not too low but Pilcher is young yet and I don’t need him jaded by Guy Fawkes Day. Southern League Premier Division at Bishop’s Stortford, 27 August 2019  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, DMC, MR, ML, AMC, ST r, ST l) Starting XI: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Smith, Nightingale, Jefcoate, Coates, Hibbert, Pugh, Taylor, Macey, Rae Subs: Legg, Parker, O’Shea, Ferguson, Harding, Leary, McLeish It’s a wet and gusty night so I begin to rethink the short passing instruction. It takes 15 minutes for anything to happen and that only comes after I shout encouragement and change the tactics a little bit more aggressive. It pays off immediately with Rae getting a breakaway though his shot is right at the keeper. The Fates must be smiling upon us as the rebound goes to an open Macey and we are up. That’s all that we get in the first half though. Rae is not performing well so I give him a personal pep-talk that seems to motivate him. I also switch up to Attacking mentality. We miss several easy shots early on and I worry my pep-talk is a demotivator despite the green, positive feedback. After 20 minutes I pull things back to Control and pull Rae and Taylor off for ineffectiveness, and Coates as he is getting exhausted. And boy does that work a charm! We get a breakaway with Ferguson at Regista sending a long ball to Macey who then passes it to Harding at AMC. Noah gets tripped but the orb continues to roll towards the goal. Ferguson was not lazy after his pass, streaking up the middle of the field, latching onto the ball, and sending it to the upper right from 18 yards out. Phew! We now have a two-goal cushion! The cushion goes to three shortly after the restart as we take a long time playing out of defense but McLeish sees that Macey has an inch of separation and a perfect pass allows Eddie to nutmeg the keeper. It doesn’t take long for McLeish to get his twist of Fate when Nightingale sends a prayer upfield and Derek is on the loose, scoring from way out. The goalie was caught flat-footed. That was a good bounce-back, both in the sense of the match and the second half. Hopefully this portends well. POM: Eddie Macey 8.8 (2 goals, 1 assist, 1 key pass, 1 chance created)  In loan news, Friend gets another clean sheet and Hopkinson gets a goal. The Days Between It’s 28 August and my scouts have finally found a striker to add to the U18s but he has a lot of callers. My scouts are finished with the list of strikers who are worthy so I’m forced to choose between a tall slow kid and a tall scaredy-cat. I go with the cat because he is alread known to us.  Ronnie Hollett was actually part of our youth intake back in February but his low Determination and Unambitious personality, not to mention our surplus of strikers, meant I didn’t offer him a contract. That lack of Concentration and Bravery sure didn’t help either. It costs us a £250 signing bonus and £200 per week to lure him down from Highgate, south of Birmingham, which is northwest of London, where he’s from, for the pleasure of his services. He also gets an extension if we get promoted, which is all fine as he’ll just be a U23 body on the cheap. In other news, more international call-ups happen. Simon McAdam for Northern Ireland U19s, Noah Harding and Meilir Pugh for Wales U19s, and Gareth O’Keeffe for Ireland U21s. Go get ‘em, lads! |
Biggleswade, another funny English name, are in “Woeful” form and I hope to add to that. O’Keeffe goes on International Duty tomorrow so he gets the start so he’ll be top fit in case he doesn’t get any actual playing time while he’s away. Also Leary and Watkins get starts.
Southern League Premier Division vs. Biggleswade Town, 31 August 2019  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard Starting XI: O’Keeffe, Parker, Pilcher, O’Shea, Jefcoate, Coates, Watkins, Leary, Taylor, Macey, McLeish Subs: Legg, Johnstone, Smith, Ferguson, Harding, Hibbert, Thirlwell This match is over in the 40th after McLeish scores 4 goals, Macey scores 2, and Leary scores 1. Things go worse when they have a player sent off in the 43rd and another in the 69th. One cool thing was this half-time talk option. Never seen the bit about pundits before.  POM: Derek McLeish 9.7 (4 goals, 2 assists, 2 key passes, 1 chance created)  Eek! Another 6.7 goalless match for Kemar. This can be bad. Summary Well, it feels foolish to complain about a tie, our first non-victory since 23 February when Everton beat us in the FA Cup Fifth Round, when we’ve been dominating everything else. So I won’t. We still are a mighty team even though Kemar is off to Huddersfield. I really wanted him to get out and improve his game and to give our other strikers playing time. He’s yet to have a good game but that’s alright. Our other loanees are doing well for their low-level teams. There is one thing that is bugging me though. Thirlwell has been less than Thrilling since we entered the regular season. He had 13 goals in 6 friendlies but since then he’s done nothing, rating at 6.2, 6.7, and 6.5. Not even an assist!  That Was Then, This is Now Remember Dick Pring? He was a right winger I made fun of back in my third update. Well he is doing really well for his team, East Yorkshire Carnegie FC, in a league up in northeast England, two rungs below us. He’s doing well, 1 goal, 3 assists, and a 7.48 rating in three matches. For his career he has 6 goals, 9 assists, and a 6.80 rating in 72 league matches. Good on him! Overcoming a horrible name and all. |
September 2019
Weekends weekends safely state Ima freakin' dominate Training Matters Urgh. Here we go again. McLeish had a great August so I don’t understand this training drop. One of these days I’ll figure out what I’m doing wrong.  Financial Matters My optimism of last month has faded. Somehow we lost almost £50k. I did some poking around and I think it mostly comes down to scouting costs. I guess scouting around 125 youths is costly. Also, we only had that one U23 home match, which gave me false hope of more money. We also saw a tremendous drop in attendance between our first U18 match and second, from 333 to 23. Board Confidence My rating dropped to 83% but that is due to the fans being unhappy about Kemar going out on loan. Also, they are quite pissed about my signing of Ronnie Hollett. What the hell? Does the game engine note salary and signing bonus against Potential Ability? Do the fans not realize we have a Sugary Daddy? Chillax, Brixton! Dynamics Huzzah! James Jefcoate is now a Highly Influential Player. You’d expect nothing less from your Vice Captain. Player Development Holy moley! Alan Coates in one month jumped from League Two level to Championship level according to my AssMan. I suppose he was undervalued as he had no starts but with several starts under his belt he’s being overvalued? That’s a ridiculous jump so there’s gotta be inaccuracies going on. In other good news but not as great, new hire Glyn Davies, who last month was an “extra body” signing, has seen his Determination go from 6 to 8. Sometime between FM2014 and FM2018 Sports Interactive made it so that your squad’s personality can transfer to others. Brilliant! And more! Our wing sub, Gary Leary, now has a 17 Pace. Dang that’s super-fast! And even more! Jamie Hopkinson, out on loan, has seen his Determination go up one to 15. He’s doing well for Worksop, scoring 2 goals and rating at 7.53. |
The Days Between
The month starts with another Queens Park Rangers offer for Pilcher. It’s still worth a total of £2,000 so of course I nix it. An hour later Sheffield United come in with the same offer. Heavy sigh. Another hour, another offer, another no; sorry, Cardiff. They wait four hours before returning with the same offer. It’s the last day of the Championship transfer window so I’ll be dealing with this all day. My AssMan reports that he thinks that Tommy Watkins now has the potential to be a Championship-level player. Excellent...now I have two young right wingers who should be with us a long time. We have three players out on International Duty, Gareth O’Keeffe, Noah Harding, and Meilir Pugh. Only Pugh is a starter but with Gareth away, U23er and former Senior backup Richard Webb gets to ride the bench. Oxford are stinking up the joint so we should be alright with a couple of starters out due to tiredness. Southern League Premier Division vs. Oxford City, 4 September 2019  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, DMC, MR, ML, AMC, ST r, ST l) Starting XI: Legg, Parker, Pilcher, O’Shea, Rice, Ferguson, Robinson, Leary, Taylor, Macey, Rae Subs: Webb, Johnstone, Nightingale, Coates, Roberts, Hibbert, McLeish There aren’t a lot of action sequences in the first half with a 30 minute void after some early chances. We finally get first dibs off a corner that goes to Fergie, who passes to O’Shea, whose weak shot eventually wanders over the line. I think that’s his first Brixton goal? Correction, it was so weak that a defender was able to get a foot on it but then it still went in. He gets the own goal. In the second Parker gets called for a b.s. penalty when he happens to stand in his place while an Oxford players leaps onto him. I switch to the Spade with an Attacking mentality and take off Rae and his 6.3 rating. At 60’ I take off Macey and his 6.3 rating. I also take off marginally effective Leary. On come McLeish and Hibbert. My genius shines through 7 minutes later when Hibbert nods on a Legg long kick to Taylor in the middle and he sends a lovely pass to a streaking McLeish. His shot goes off the right post and into the goal. Whew! With 15 minutes left to play Taylor picks up a bruised thigh so I throw Liam Roberts into the mix. It goes all quiet from then to the end. Of note, not a single individual pep-talk for players subbing in results in a boost in morale. Heck, my pre-game speech also was flat. Am I losing the team? Probably not. At the end I Calmly tell them that we got away with that today and they all get fired up. POM: Gary Ferguson 8.1 (3 key passes, 2 chances created)  So…I learned a lesson. When the game tells you a player has pulled a hamstring but can play through it, don’t listen. We are going to be sans Pilcher for 8 day to 3 weeks. Fuck. And Taylor’s bruised thigh will have him out 3 to 6 days. Brixton’s bugaboo of lower body injuries continues. We have an FA Cup match in three days. Fuck fuckity fuck fuck fuck. I’m turning over a new leaf. I’m not going to admonish players for any rating in the sixes. Five point nine and lower I will. I’m concerned that I’m doing it too much for youngsters. I suppose maybe I’ll change my mind once we reach League Two. Maybe. The Days Between I sent out my scouts to scour the islands back some months ago and their assignments are come to a close. In two weeks the Irish teams will have their youth intakes so I won’t be setting new scout assignments until I pick over those kids. Ideally I’ll find a good left centreback and left advanced midfielder. If Pilcher has any delay in his recovery that theoretical kid could get thrown into the fire. Also, saving some money in scouting costs. The report comes in for our next opponent, Brockenhurst. They are dreadful. Every player is rated half a star in current and potential ability. If we don’t slaughter them I’ll be severely irked. For the first FA Cup match of the season there is a press conference. I call Brockenhurst a weak team, tempting fate that the match engine will hose us over. :-D Pugh and Harding are back. Pugh is in top condition so he gets the start at AML, while Harding is a bit tired and might stay on the bench. Thirlwell returns to the bench. If we are up at half by a good margin I’ll bring off Macey and see if 45 minutes of play brings back the Thriller. Because of Taylor’s injury and Harding’s tiredness, I bring up Terry Barlow from the U23s to start at AMC. FA Cup First Qualifying Round vs. Brockenhurst, 7 September 2019  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard Starting XI: Legg, Johnstone, Smith, O’Shea, Jefcoate, Roberts, Coates, Hibbert, Barlow, Pugh, Macey Subs: Webb, Parker, Nightingale, Ferguson, Harding, Watkins, Thirlwell Only Legg, Barlow, and Pugh understand my Assertive message that I expect nothing but a win. That makes me add in a personal message for Eddie Macey, Passionately imploring him that I want a good performance. Crickets. Oh phuq. Oh thank you, Eddie! Not four minutes in Pugh crosses in from the left, Roberts nods it back to Macey from inside the six-yard box but Macey’s back is to the goal. Not to worry, Hibbert is free at the right corner of the small box, Macey back-heel passes it to the Doctor and he sends it in with emphasis. Exactly 10 minutes later Roberts passes to Eddie just outside the six and he nutmegs a defender to squeak one by the goalkeeper. Much relief. Even when Eddie screws up he’s doing well. He lost possession just outside the 18-yard box and when the defender tried to clear the ball it bounced of Macey toward the left post where Pugh pounced on the ball and put us up three. Before 30’ Eddie gets his second goal when Barlow feeds him nicely up the gut and he gets a narrow-angle shot from the right. Wow. Eddie heads a Pugh cross to Hibbert and we go to five. And spot on 43’ Macey’s desperation shot bounces off the right post to Pugh who gets his second. I do swap out Macey, his 2 goals, and his 4 assists at half for Thriller. Marcus gets motivated by my expression of his high talent. Fifteen seconds in he’s alone against the keeper and kicks it right at him. And again 7 minutes later. Oh boy. Pugh does make it eight with his hat trick. Holy shit! Exactly 120 seconds into 2 minutes of extra time, Thriller receives an over-the-shoulder pass from Roberts that leaves him all alone with the goalie. He kicks the ball from just right of the penalty spot and the ball starts heading wide, but not too wide, hitting the inside of the right post for our ninth goal. Brockenhurst never even got a shot off. POM: Eddie Macey 9.7 (2 goals, 4 assists, 4 key passes, 2 chances created)  We drew a pinch just below 3,000 spectators netting us just over £36k for the match. We are in the black for the month now. At the post-match presser there aren’t any trap questions but I do tread carefully, being kind to our opponent. |
The Days Between
For the next round of the FA Cup we are given the honor of hosting Leiston in the Conference North, a league above us. They were just promoted and are expected to place 17th. I rate this a medium challenge. We see them in two weeks. Some loan updates for ya. I guess Huddersfield’s coach was a bit underwhelmed by Kemar as he put him in the line-up for their Monday evening U18 match. He scored 3 goals, rating at 9.6. Hopefully this clears out his cobwebs and he gets some Seniors time soon. Hopkinson meanwhile scored his fourth goal in five appearances for Worksop since his loan began. I’m taking kind of a risk. Though Canterbury are two steps down I don’t have much faith in my second string, who I’m giving time today just to keep the starters fresh. FA Trophy Second Round vs. Canterbury, 10 September 2019  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard Starting XI: Legg, Parker, Nightingale, Smith, Rice, Coates, Robinson, Leary, Harding, McLeish, Rae Subs: Webb, Johnstone, O’Shea, Ferguson, Watkins, Pugh, Thirlwell You know it’s gonna be a good match when your Advanced Forward receives a cross and recovers his own shot and makes it in from even a tighter angle before 4 minutes have expired. Said player later gets tripped in the penalty area and Harding scores. He gets a second less than two minutes later, heading in a Parker cross. McLeish gets another followed by the Bishop getting a great goal from a perfect cross off the end line. Rae rounds off this scoring with a fine header in the 69th. (insert Bill & Ted guitar riff here) POM: Noah Harding 9.3 (2 goals, 2 key passes, 1 chance created)  The Days Between It’s now time to see who we face in the FA Trophy Third Round. We visit the Romulans or Maine Road. Correction: Romulus. They are a rung below and Maine is two down. So, Easy Street? The Romulus-Maine Road match happened later that evening and those weird aliens will be our opponents. Long Eaton? I’ll long be eaton my hat if we lose this match. A lot of second-stringers get the nod today. FA Vase Second Round at Long Eaton, 14 September 2019  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard Starting XI: O’Keeffe, Parker, Smith, O’Shea, Jefcoate, Ferguson, Hibbert, Pugh, Taylor, Macey, Thirlwell Subs: Legg, Johnstone, Nightingale, Roberts, Harding, Leary, Watkins We go into the locker room ahead two but the first 40 minutes were plagued by weak Macey and Thirwell efforts. Our first goal was an own goal originating from Macey who then got one at 41 minutes. So naturally we resume and go directly into a Thirlwell shot directly at the keeper. Ninety seconds later he sends in the hardest shot I’ve ever seen! I’m surprised the programmers didn’t code a ball going through the net. Twas amazing. Ferguson makes it four, newly-subbed Watkins makes it five, and Pugh makes it six. I was wrong to doubt them. POM: Marcus Thirlwell 9.6 (1 goal, 3 assists, 8 key passes!!!, 5 chances created)  Meanwhile in Huddersfield, Kemar is still goalless but at least he’s up to a 6.8 rating! :-/ |
The Days Between
Our opponent for the FA Vase Third Round is – drumrollllllll – Sunderland Ryhope Community Association F.C. Man, that sounds like taking on the local YMCA team. Maybe I’ll run out the kids. Our next match is on a Wednesday as is a U18 match. We get 500 spectators of the youth and in the process make £3,200. It’s weird that we get 500 for a youth match at 1900 on a Wednesday. Their previous home match was on a Monday that drew only 13 fans. I wish I understood the disparity. Farnborough is our next opponent. They are 16th in the league so I expect an easy night. Fun fact: Farnborough host a yearly international airshow/trade exhibition. I hope we fly right past their defenders. Southern League Premier Division at Farnborough, 18 September 2019  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard Starting XI: Legg, Parker, Pilcher, O’Shea, Jefcoate, Coates, Watkins, Pugh, Taylor, Macey, McLeish Subs: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Nightingale, Roberts, Leary, Harding, Rae Thirty-four minutes it takes to crack the Farnborough defense and it comes from the left for McLeish, with Pugh in the supporting role. We get another before the half and after the half, as do Farnborough. They also see a player sent off in the second half, which doesn’t prevent them from scoring off a corner. A very schizophrenic match, that one. POM: Derek McLeish 9.2 (2 goals, 1 assist, 1 key pass)  One more notable item from before the match. O’Shea and Pilcher have finally built an onfield bond, as have Macey and Taylor. This improves their performance and the squad’s Match Cohesion. After the match, rating at a 7.2, Kevin Parker’s agent demands a new contract. He’s with us until 2021, and has an option year I can trigger, so I say no. Sometimes you can ask the player to sack his agent in these instances but I never do. Immediately afterwards, Parker sacks his agent and wants to talk to me. I tell him he has too much time left on his current contract and would have to wait. He understands and his morale returns to Perfect. I’ve never seen a player sack his agent after I’ve denied renegotiation. This game always has something new! I heart SI. The Days Between As we move into the Christmas season IRL, we move into the Youth Intake season in IRL. Hahahahahahah, see what I did there? I’ve sent my scouts out to scout the 226 youth in the Ireland youth intake day. Find me some gems, gentlemen! Again the U18s have a match before the Seniors. Twenty-two fans turned out for a Youth Cup match and saw us beat Yeovil U18. Again, I don’t get the U18 turnout algorithm. It’s FA Cup time! We are facing Leiston, a league above us in the Conference North. They are seventh in their league but we are somehow 1-4 favorites. I think that means the pundits think we have an 80% chance of winning. Math is hard. FA Cup Second Qualifying Round vs. Leiston, 21 September 2019  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard Starting XI: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Smith, O’Shea, Rice, Roberts, Hibbert, Pugh, Harding, Macey, Rae Subs: Legg, Parker, Pilcher, Ferguson, Leary, Taylor, Thirlwell Oh yeah! Over three thousand fans show up! In the tunnel some journo points out O’Keeffe hasn’t given up a goal in a long time. I hope this isn’t some kind of trap… It’s a little bit of back-and-forth for the first 30 minutes then O’Shea rolls his ankle. Before I sub him off we intercept a throw-in deep in our end. Some great passing allows us to exploit the left sideline then Pugh sends it off to the right only for Hibbert to send it into the middle where Macey boots in a screamer. Macey gets his second goal minutes later but this time Pugh gets the assist. My mid-point speech is all about not getting complacent, which gets almost everyone’s attention. Rae ended the half with three horrible shots so I pointedly tell him though he wasn’t bad, he can still improve. That seems to get his attention! Rae’s woes continue and at 65’ I want to bring him off but with concerns of tiredness and yellows off come Pugh and Rice for Leary and Parker. Rae is good for one thing: Getting his opponents to get straight reds. This allows me to move to Defensive at 80’ and see the match out. Keeping Rae in turns out to be a good bit of work as he ended the match with a 7.4 rating. POM: Ashley Hibbert 9.0 (1 assist, 5 key passes, 4 chances created)  Oh fiddlesticks! O’Shea is going to be out for 3 to 5 weeks. Looks like a lucky youngster gets elevated! On the positive side, we made £40,569! We’re back in black (for the month, that is). Even better news is that Kemar got his first goal for Huddersfield. Against Man U even! I gave him a call and praised his performance. Gotta keep things tight between us. |
The Week Between
Hey, look! We have a whole week off! Well, not really, we have a U23 match on Monday and a U18 match on Wednesday before the Seniors play away on Saturday. Matter of fact, all matches are away. Maybe our pitches will “heal” up. Draws, draws, everywhere there’s draws. For the Southern League Cup we’ll host either Royston or Deal. Let it be Deal, Royston might have our number still. For the Third Qualifying Round of the FA Cup we get to host Bognor Regis Town. Mr. Philbin is a league above us and are mid-table there. Here’s some great cup news not related draws: Kemar had three (THREE!) goals against Bradford City in the League Cup. That’s an emphatic way of getting off the snide! So far in my troll of Irish training grounds the only player rated at more than two stars that wants to move to Brixton has a Casual attitude, a Determination of 7, and a Jumping Reach of 1. It was nice to have a whole week off for the Seniors to get all rested up. It’s also nice to get back to league play, especially when facing a middle-of-the-road team such as Merthyr Town. Southern League Premier Division at Merthyr Town, 28 September 2019  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard Starting XI: Legg, Parker, Pilcher, Smith, Jefcoate, Coates, Hibbert, Pugh, Taylor, Macey, McLeish Subs: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Nightingale, Ferguson, Leary, Harding, Thirlwell Again with the slow starts! It takes 29’ for Macey to cross from the byline to McLeish, who knocks it in. Pugh then shows how good he is at being dispossessed. Lucky for us Merthyr’s right back tries to clear the ball but it hits Pugh and deflects right to McLeish standing in the left corner of the 18-yard box. He quickly gathers the ball and passes it to Taylor flying up the middle and we double our lead. Our third goal comes directly off a deflection. Hibbert’s cross hits the left centreback and right into goal. I wasn’t expecting a fourth goal but newly-on Thirlwell gets a point-blank shot past the GK after a well-timed pass by McLeish. POM: Derek McLeish 9.3 (1 goal, 2 assists, 3 key passes, 2 chances created)  We won but I’m not exactly ecstatic. We were accurate on only 3 of our 12 shots. Pretty bad. Doing better was Kemar, he was accurate on 2 of 3 shots with one going in during Huddersfield’s beating of Crystal Palace. Huddersfield are now up to 13th. The Days Between In the final minutes of the month I have a sit-down with the scouts who have been scouring Ireland for youth footballers. So far they’ve only found one player who is willing to listen to an offer and actually worth offering. He’s a defensive midfielder from Salthill name Adrian O’Laoi. I have no idea how to pronounce that last name. The Laoi part makes me think he’s from East or Southeast Asia but that O’ part keeps me at the opposite end of the Eurasian continent. I’ll probably offer a contract and despite my scouts thinking Salthill won’t demand compensation, I’m willing to offer up to £1,000. His 3.5 star rating makes me think he’ll be League One worthy so a thousand pound note is doable. Summary What can I say, we continue to dominate. We’ve yet to lose a league match and we’re still in all cups, outscoring our opponents 22 to 1. I’ve not been able to find exactly what I need in the Ireland youth intake day though it looks like we’ll sign a kid for defensive midfielder depth.  That Was Then, This is Now Back two years ago in August 2017 I made an assessment of Alex Rae. I noted that our Head of Youth Development believed he could be a Conference South-quality striker but that his slow speed, inability to jump, and his weak frame might result in his dismissal. I specifically called him out for needing an 11 Pace and I’m happy to report he’s there. His Jumping Reach is now double-digits and his Strength has gone from 5 to 9. He is now assessed to be Conference South worthy will room still to improve. He’s not exactly scoring as prolifically as he was last season but McLeish has done plenty to cover for him. |
October 2019
I’ve got a peaceful, easy feeling Training Matters I give up.  Financial Matters Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. We took a loss of £50,000 last month. At this rate we won’t dip below £12 million until January. Board Confidence Huh. My approval rating dropped 4 points to 79% but I’m still “Untouchable.” I did some poking around and I got a 15 point drop in the “Tactics” area in which I’m rated. I guess the fans don’t like that I’m sticking with the Diamond for an entire month? Fickle, fickle fans. Dynamics No news that’s fit to print. Player Development Look, a loan report!  Kemar’s performance was good enough for him to come in second for the Premier League Young Player of the Month award. With a cup match against a seriously lesser opponent I’m fielding my second picks. Sure hope the Phoenix doesn’t rise to burn me. With O’Shea still nursing his tender ankle I’m bringing Rory Collopy up from the U23s to start at left centreback. This will be his first competitive action for Brixton. Southern League Cup Second Round vs. Phoenix Sports, 2 October 2019  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, DMC, MR, ML, AMC, ST r, ST l) Starting XI: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Nightingale, Collopy, Rice, Roberts, Watkins, Leary, Harding, Thirwell, Rae Subs: Legg, Parker, Smith, Taylor, Hibbert, Macey, McLeish We have a sizeable crowd today who get to witness another back-heel pass in the six-yard box for a goal, this time it’s Thriller being fancy and Rae getting the goal. Best part of all is that it came in the fourth minute. Around three minutes later the same players get an assist and goal, with Thriller’s assist coming from a backwards header that surprised everyone. From there on it’s just more cake walking highlighted by another Thirlwell to Rae score as Alex gets his hat trick. The own goal was unbelievable. Harding sent the ball to the left corner but Leary was already dreaming of the post-match snacks or something so he didn’t pursue it. Phoenix’s right DC gathered it and started dribbling for the goal and tried to pass it to the goalie but it was more of a cross and went right past the goalie and in. This is another Sport Interactive schizophrenic programming error. Before the half can end their other DC chops down Thriller just outside the box and gets a straight red. You may have noticed no player names are underlined above. I did not make any substitutions. Give the second stringers some extra minutes, you know. POM: Alex Rae 9.6 (3 goals, 2 key passes, 1 chance created)  After the match Rae’s agent comes asking for a new contract. He’s with us until 30 June 2021 and, if we get promoted that season and he gets into 10 matches, an extension is triggered. So a big fat nope for Paul Irwin. Of course Rae wants to talk about the matter but I point out the time remaining but what was left unsaid is that he’s not been as great this season as he was last season. We made £10k or so from the match. I really need to rethink appearance fees and goal bonuses during contract negotiations. First World problems, I know. |
Great to see this dynasty return!
|
The Days Between
As noted in my last update, we would be facing Deal or Royston in the next round of the Southern League Cup. We get to face Royston, who put a smack-down on Deal, though it was their first win since 27 August. Ouch. More international matches are coming up and we’ll be sans two starters, Alan Coates and Meilir Pugh, and two high-quality subs, Gareth O’Keeffe and Dean Rice. Looking at the schedule I’m not too worried as they will only miss the FA Vase cup match against Sunderland YMCA. Before we can get to our next match, FA Cup, I’m tortured with a press conference. The questions are all about our confidence on a match we “should be winning.” Then they turn to Kemar outgrowing Huddersfield. No comment. The next morning Huddersfield had their pre-match presser with Kemar and a permanent move being one of the questions. Their manager declined to answer the question. It’s gonna be costly if you want him. Bognor Regis are not that good of a team according to the scouting report. I feel a trap though. FA Cup Third Qualifying Round vs. Bognor Regis, 5 October 2019  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard Starting XI: Legg, Parker, Pilcher, Smith, Jefcoate, Coates, Hibbert, Pugh, Taylor, Macey, McLeish Subs: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Nightingale, Ferguson, Robinson, Harding, Thirlwell It takes almost a third of the match but we strike first with Hibbert muscling off a defender to send a low cross from the byline to a wide open McLeish at the far post. I think I could have even tapped that one in. That though was the only highlight in the first half therefore they get an Assertive talk about complacency. Deflections, blessed be thy name. Three minutes into the new half Taylor tries to boot a goal from far but the ball deflects off a defender right to Pugh who has a clear shot. His shot deflects off the goalie and goes in. We are riding luck again. Except Macey. His one-on-one at 62’ sees him send the ball up into a theoretical upper deck that Brockwell Park does not have. The game closes out with several half-assed shots by Macey, McLeish, and Coates; we end up getting 9 shots on target out of 32 attempts. Pathetic. POM: Bill Taylor 8.4 (1 assist, 3 key passes, 3 chances created)  In the post-match press gathering I was asked about Coates being at DMC so I told the assembled masses that his versatility must be used. The bloodsuckers also ask about Macey’s pathetic display and I actually go off my normal Calm script and Assertively call him out. I did not get a reaction out of him so I get him front and center before my desk. Luckily he took it like the professional he is. In positive news we made around £46,500 on the day. The Days Between Remember how I said there was a DM in Ireland who looks kinda promising? I decided to offer a contract. I forgot though that because he’s not English (or is it British?) the transfer wouldn’t happen until his 18th birthday, 24 May 2021. Oh never mind, Adrian O'Laoi. I still would like an additional U18 DC though. This Adrian Partridge guy is very slow but he does have some reasonably good Technical and Mental attributes and he is a tall Professional.  I offer a pretty standard Youngster contract: £180/week for 2 years with an option. Speaking of youths, our U18s are in a league with pretty regular match days and now are in a youth cup that plays in groups kind of like the World Cup and Champions League. The kids are all getting plenty of action and all are in the 90s for Match Sharpness with all but three 95% or higher. We got a fist full of cup draws and for the FA Cup we… go to Solihull Moors who are currently 23rd in the Conference National. Bummer. I wanted a home match. Despite being two levels up the pyramid their lowly position there gives me hope. Awesomesauce! Kemar got an assist in Huddersfield’s 3-2 victory over Tottenham. I took a look at things and he is playing a Complete Forward in a 4-2-3-1 formation. The Terriers started the season with three losses but have turned it around recently. Hopefully he scores more goals and they remain a strong team. I’ve been rocking the Pre-Match Tactical Briefing lately so I hope that carries over into the match. Today we take on Reddit. We’re gonna down-vote them until they run to the dark corner of the web and cry themselves to sleep. Southern League Premier Division at Redditch, 8 October 2019  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard Starting XI: Legg, Johnstone, Pilcher, Smith, Parker, Ferguson, Robinson, Leary, Harding, Thirlwell, Rae Subs: O’Keeffe, Nightingale, Jefcoate, Roberts, Taylor, Watkins, Macey What? Not Reddit? R-e-d-d-i-t-c-h? As in Red Ditch? Why is the ditch red? From the blood of our enemies? Unregardless™ Thriller makes another appearance, beating the keeper after out running everyone on the defense; Leary’s pass was perfectly placed. His second try isn’t so clean and he gets stonewalled. Rae follows suit at 15’ and I mean that he beat the keeper. A minute later he is un-Thriller like and beats the goalie a second time. The good times come to a screeching halt at 20’ when Harding breaks his hand and has to be subbed immediately. Luckily within 15 minutes Rae’s hat trick comes from another great Leary pass. And with us on Easy Street before the half Rae gets his fourth. Alex is back! I figured the final 45 would go by quietly but after I sub off Rae, his replacement Watkins receives a Thriller pass and chips one in from 18 yards out. Then we see the match out. POM: Alex Rae 9.8 (4 goals)  So let’s peak into the trainer’s room to get the latest on Harding’s hand. What do you means he’s not here? How was he able to heal up by the end of the match?! Maybe he’s Superman? Or Wolverine? Deadpool?!? On my way from the doc’s room to my office I get accosted by yet another agent. This shmoe represents Johnstone and must feel that an 8.7 for a right fullback means an extra £200 a week. I walk right past him and when the player himself tries to walk in 9 minute later, I have Macey tackle him before he crosses the threshold. Eddie convinces him to cool his jets. |
The Days Between
That Adrian Partridge kid still hasn’t signed but a team way down in the 11th level of the pyramid has offered him a contract so maybe that’ll make him realize he should just come to Brixton. The next day Cheddar also offer him a contract. I don’t know how much cheddar they offered. Anybody remember that slang from late 80s, early 90s? Just me. Drat. The Belgian U23 Coach that I hired over the off-season got a crash course in English and is now fluent. This is a really cool, immersive game. Oh yes, Sunderland YMCA. We are short of some players on international duty but this will be an easy game so I’m not worried. The second stringers are not as fit so Sunderland will face my preferred starters. And it is at this moment that I realize today’s opponent is the team way down below who offered Adrian Partridge a contract. I hope he came to the match to see what he could be a part of. FA Vase Third Round vs. Sunderland Ryhope CA, 12 October 2019  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard Starting XI: Legg, Parker, Pilcher, Smith, Jefcoate, Roberts, Hibbert, Leary, Taylor, Macey, McLeish Subs: Webb, Johnstone, Nightingale, Ferguson, Watkins, Harding, Thirlwell We get an early chance but Macey sends it right to the goalie. Our next highlight doesn’t come until 36’ when Macey does something he’s actually good at: Crossing from the byline to McLeish’s forehead, resulting in a goal. McLeish gets them again on a breakaway as prescribed by Doctor Hibbert, heheheheheheheh. Complacency is highlighted at the break but Roberts and McLeish get stressed. This shouldn’t be a problem. Macey does redeem himself though with a goal just before 62’ and I start shuffling players out. POM: Derek McLeish 9.3 (2 goals, 3 key chances, 2 chances created)  We should have stomped them. I guess I can’t expect domination all the time. The Days Between Sunday is draw day and for the next round of the FA Vase we travel to Boston, not New England but a team in the Conference North, where they are the top of the league. This could be a problem. I’ve got a pocket, got a pocket full of cup draws. Next up is the FA Trophy. Supposing we get past the Romulans, we get to host Harrow, currently in a league equal to ours. Huddersfield U23s had a mid-day match just hours before our match. Kemar got to play for some reason but he did well: a goal, an assist, and an 8.2 rating. I took a look at his Transfer tab and nobody is interested. That is good news for us trying to keep him, I suppose. I’ll be interested to see what happens in the January transfer market. Guess who’s back, back again? Gareth O’Keefe! He didn’t get any playing time while away with the lads of Ireland so he gets today’s start. Not to mention I’m treating him pretty much as the cup goalie. Coates came back Jaded so he gets three days off and Pugh came back Tired so he gets the day off. We are in all competitions still and we better win today or the board will be mad. FA Trophy Third Round at Romulus, 16 October 2019  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard Starting XI: O’Keeffe, Parker, Pilcher, Smith, Jefcoate, Ferguson, Watkins, Leary, Harding, Macey, Rae Subs: Legg, Johnstone, Nightingale, Roberts, Robinson, Hibbert, Thirlwell What can I say? It’s always a good thing when all three of your strikers score. Macey was a bit slow getting things going for himself but got two before the mid-way point and a third 23 seconds into the second half and his fourth 33 seconds after the restart. Just over a minute later he almost had his fifth! I swapped him out early and Thriller got two after Rae got his first. POM: Eddie Macey 9.9 (4 goals, 1 assist, 4 key passes, 2 chances created)  What’s a guy gotta do to get a 10.0 around here?! Maybe if that fifth goal had gone in? |
The Days Between
We have a quiet few days. Adrian Partridge still hasn’t signed but two more teams of lesser quality make offers. C’mon, dude! Solihull are two rungs above us but have now dropped to the lowest position of the Conference National. I have no idea how they’ve remained up for the last two season as their roster is littered with underachievers. Our U18s are better than them. In other words, I smell blood in the water. FA Cup Fourth Qualifying Round at Solihull Moors, 19 October 2019  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard Starting XI: Legg, Parker, Pilcher, Smith, Jefcoate, Coates, Hibbert, Pugh, Taylor, Macey, McLeish Subs: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Nightingale, O’Shea, Roberts, Leary, Thirlwell They start out in a really narrow formation so I immediately add the Exploit the Flanks command and set our width a little wider. Things start off slow and I begin to worry. Have no fear, Eddie Macey’s here! Well, out by the right corner flag where he launches a long cross to the far post for McLeish’s waiting forehead. We’re up one before 10 minutes. Slight relief. In the second the Moors get an early free kick way too close to our goal for comfort. They almost score but Legg gathers it in a scrum but an offisides is called anyway. Ten minutes in it’s a repeat but this time Eddie’s cross is low and Derek’s goal is off his left foot. Much more relief. The subs come on naturally around 65’ with Parker, Pilcher, and Pugh bowing out for Johnstone, O’Shea (making his return!), and Leary, of course. And that proves fortuitous when Leary lifts the ball high and long for charging Eddie, who gets a crazy looking goal from a side kick 10 yards out. Detecting an imbalance in the Force, Macey restores the natural order, crossing to McLeish for our fourth goal. What is that? Like our fourth match this month with a hat trick or better? POM: Derek McLeish 9.7 (3 goals, 2 key passes, 2 chances created)  The Days Between In the next round of the FA Cup we get to face Shaw Lane of the Conference North. They are doing well there so this could be a minor challenge. And if we lose, we’ll make some cash from hosting. On Monday, Huddersfield lose to Leicester, 3-2, but both Huddersfield goals came courtesy of Kemar. Excellent, Smithers… Adrian Partridge still hasn’t signed but it looks like another central defender might join our team. Josh Scott is a bit of an enigma. He’s not tall, can’t jump, and can’t head the ball. His Natural Fitness and Stamina aren’t starter quality but if he were to join Brixton he ultimately would be our second best behind Pilcher at DC and Johnstone at DR; he’s rated at 4.5 stars of Potential Ability. He doesn’t really have the Pace for a great DR but his Acceleration is top-notch. His ball skills would never support him being an attacking fullback. But his team, Hyde, who are in the same level of the English football pyramid as us, are asking only £1,500, according to my scouts. He’s also Inconsistent and has a Competitive Streak. I would put him in the U18s until January if he were to come.  Also, I can’t believe a 17-year-old would have such an extensive history.  I go ahead and offer £1,000. Portsmouth are also interested, they’re in the Championship, so this will probably bring a protracted wait period just like Partridge’s. I was going to offer him Hot Prospect playing time but now I have to make him a Backup. And then his contract demand comes in. He wants £700 per week plus a £210 appearance fee. No. If he didn’t have the Competitive Streak and wasn’t short I would do this. Dammit. Just another lovely day in South London. I have no fear, so the second-stringers are here. Southern League Premier Division vs. Hitchin, 23 October 2019  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard Starting XI: Legg, Johnstone, Pilcher, Nightingale, Rice, Roberts, Robinson, Leary, Harding, Thirlwell, Rae Subs: O’Keeffe, Parker, O’Shea, Smith, Ferguson, Pugh, Watkins The great thing about crossing is sometimes you miss because the target man is being pulled down. Thirlwell crosses, Rae is held down, Thirlwell gets the penalty opportunity, and scores. Thirty minutes later they try a reprise and this time an unmolested Rae heads one in. In the 52nd we seal the deal with another header, from a Harding free kick to Nightingale to Rae. I do some late subbing, just two, because O’Shea needs match sharpness and Leary needs a rest. Pugh’s emergence with fresh legs against tired Hitchin defenders proves to be just what Thriller needed for his brace. Even though I go Defensive, allowing us free kicks deep in your territory is unwise as Nightingale nods one in from Robinson’s restart. POM: Marcus Thirlwell 9.5 (2 goals, 1 assist, 3 key passes, 1 chance created)  I’m back to being money-obsessed. From that match we made £12,220. I love me some cold, hard cash, even if the Queen’s mug is on it. Oh joy. Big teams are sniffing around my players again. The managers for Barnsley and Queens Park Rangers were in the stands to watch Pilcher. Oy. |
The Days Between
I lose patience with Adrian Partridge so I change his contract to £200 per week and a £500 signing bonus. My impatience costing Brixton money...not the first time, not the last time, I’m sure. O’Shea is back for his first start in over a month, against a team who shouldn’t be such a push-over. Dorchester are eighth in the league and have a pretty good striker in Aaron Moore, who already has won four POM awards this season. His only downside for this league is his 7 Stamina. Hopefully he’ll tire out and not present a challenge in the second half. Southern League Premier Division vs. Dorchester, 26 October 2019  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard Starting XI: Legg, Parker, Pilcher, O’Shea, Jefcoate, Coates, Hibbert, Pugh, Taylor, Macey, McLeish Subs: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Smith, Ferguson, Leary, Harding, Watkins It takes 74 seconds for Macey to display his superior skills to the Dorchester team. It was a classic “from the back” build up with Coates passing to Taylor, to McLeish, to Macey. It’s what I’ve always dreamed of. (sniff, sniff) The second Macey goal is almost an exact duplicate of the first, 17 minutes later. More tears from me. :-) Just after a third of the match has transpired, Eddie finalizes his claim on the POM award assisting Hibbert after some more up the middle play. Three minutes later there is no longer doubt as Macey gets tripped in the box and scores on the penalty. Naturally, I dialed things back at the half but that doesn’t stop Eddie getting a fourth just 3 minutes in. And there it is folks, our first ever player with 5 goals in a match. Eddie, you freaking beast! This is I believe our first ever 10.0 rating too. So naturally, with the FM gods on our side, Dorchester gets a man sent off at 60’ and we see out the match, but not before Taylor makes it 7. Then he makes it 8. POM: Eddie “The Beast” Macey 10.0!!! (5 goals, 1 assist, 2 key passes, 2 chances created)  That Dorchester striker, Moore, rated a 5.9. The Days Between The Lower Leg Injury Bug doesn’t just hit the senior team. Rory Collopy, in the U23s, managed to hurt himself in training (all four of his injuries have come from training) pulling his ankle ligaments; he’ll be out 1 to 2 weeks. Shortwood United actually has some pretty good players, notably an 18 y/o striker, a 19 y/o midfielder, a 22 y/o Irish leftback, and a 22 y/o Italian striker. The good news is that all but the midfielder have Determinations in the single digits. That means I’m going to put O’Keeffe between the posts. Southern League Premier Division at Shortwood, 29 October 2019  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard Starting XI: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Pilcher, Smith, Rice, Roberts, Watkins, Leary, Harding, Macey, Thirlwell Subs: Legg, Parker, O’Shea, Ferguson, Robinson, Pugh, Rae It’s a cold, wet, dreary night in western England which matches my mood for the first 22:39 of this match. Finally we get some action and the Target Man/Advanced Forward combo of Thriller and The Beast works to perfection. Another 17 minutes go by before the favor is returned with Thriller’s height and heading ability proving too much for the Short defenders. I say “Another” because I swear we’ve been scoring 17 minutes apart a lot recently. Not five minutes on from the midway point Rice fouls a Short player out wide in our end with the resulting free kick getting headed by their tall Argentinian right midfielder. Mighty O’Keeffe’s hands smother the ball and we retain our lead. The action slows down with nary an action sequence until 82’ when a player named Renew pushes Fergie during a free kick into the box. Thriller’s penalty goes in after he jukes the goalie to the right but shoots left. POM: Marcus Thirlwell 9.1 (2 goals, 1 assist, 2 key passes, 2 chances created)  I checked on the 17 minute thing. It happened in the Dorchester match, three days before. So not a lot. Memory is a funny thing. The Days Between By the by, Jamie Hopkinson has been tearing it up for Worksop. In 11 matches, he has 7 goals, 3 assists, and is rating at 7.37. Pretty good. Summary What can you say about a month in which you concede zero goals? We’re awesome. Evidently not awesome enough for some scrub DC to immediately sign with us though.  That Was Then, This is Now Remember back in September 2017 when I was scouting the Irish Youth Intake Day players and ended up signing three of them: Mark Nixon, Stephen Dunne, and Martin Duggan? But one of the ones I wanted, Jesse Gilroy, got away? Where is Jesse these days? Well, for his original team, Salthill, he had 10 appearances, 5 goals, 3 assists, and 2 POM awards, earning him a 7.2 rating. But then he was released on a free and signed by Swindon in League Two. After two years there he was bought for £500,000 by Bournemouth, in the Premier, but loaned to Petersborough, in League One, where he’s scored 2 goals in 7 matches. On top of that, he’s capped for Ireland U21s. I should have Shortlisted him so I could have possibly swooped in before Swindon caught wind of him. |
November 2019
And so it goes November starts with four cup ties. Three of these matches are at home, including the FA Cup, so I expect to make some money. Training Matters I gave up last month so I don’t know how much lower I can go.  Financial Matters Well blow me down! We made a profit in October! Just a smidge over £31,000. Nice. Still a loss of £264k for the season though. Board Confidence Back up to 81% but oddly Tactics is back to 100%. It’s the fan reaction to my signing of Ronnie Hollett that is “dragging me down.” Dynamics Except some minor shuffling in the “Other Players” group there are no other changes in the squad dynamics. Player Development YES!!! O’Keeffe’s Determination if finally going up now from Legg’s tutoring. It started at 15 and is now 16. Similarly, Nightingale’s is going up due to his linkage with O’Shea, starting at 10 and now up to 12. If you remember, shortly after his arrival to the team through the 2018 Youth Intake, Bill Taylor’s Media Description changed to “Hard working midfielder” because his Teamwork and Work Rate jumped up to 15 each. Well now that his Stamina is 15 his description is now “Tireless Midfielder.” Awesome. I didn’t get a Loan Report email this month but Kemar came in second again for the Premier League Young Player of the Month award with 3 goals. So begins three home cup matches in a row. I feel fortunate that we have a full week off after this match. I feel unfortunate that this match is against the only team that delivered us our first non-win this year. I wonder if I’ll get the option to implore the lads to get revenge in the pre-match speech. Lucky for us that they are on a four-game losing streak. Southern League Cup Second Round vs. Royston, 2 November 2019  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, DMC, MR, ML, AMC, ST r, ST l) Starting XI: Legg, Parker, Nightingale, O’Shea, Jefcoate, Coates, Hibbert, Pugh, Taylor, Rae, McLeish Subs: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Smith, Ferguson, Roberts, Robinson, Macey Royston get first dibs on action, a free kick deep in our end. Hibbert shows some unexpected defensive acumen and clears the ball upfield. It takes a minute but we finally turn that into a goal for McLeish. Aside from that, Royston are doing a pretty good job thwarting our attacks. At least for a while, then McLeish gets a brace. And then Rae gets them on the break, twice. So, slow attacks on Royston generally don’t work, counter-attack them. Check. McLeish’s hat trick comes when Taylor get his trick of assists. Rae gets a hat too. The only blemish started with a brilliant interception by Coates but his back-pass to Legg was soft, from the corner of the 18-yard box and that ball got intercepted by a Royston striker. POM: Alex Rae 9.7 (3 goals, 1 assist, 2 key passes, 2 chances created)  |
The Week Between
Carl Friend had a good game, rating a 7.5 despite allowing a goal in Marlow’s victory over Hanwell. As we were dismantling Royston, Jamie Hopkinson was dismantling Maine Road, scoring three goals for Worksop. His performance was noteworthy enough to draw a question from The Non-League Paper, they want to know what his long-term development plan is. I play coy and talk about how pleased we are with his progress. Kemar somehow managed only a 6.9 whilst scoring a goal in a draw against Leeds. Huddersfield are now up to 11th in the Premier League. It can’t be a Sunday without a cup draw. For the League Cup Fourth Round we get to host Fleet. This is not much of a challenge. And finally on 5 November Adrian Partridge decides we are worthy of his services. Welcome to the family, roster filler. The busy week continues. I receive news that Meiler Pugh gets the call up for Wales U19s and will miss our home match against Harrow in the FA Trophy. No worries. Have fun! Then news rolls in that Coates and O’Keeffe, as well as U23 defensive midfielder Simon McAdam, get call ups too. Rats. In a U23 friendly, striker Mark Marshall picked up a gashed leg. In two and four days the U18s have matches. Our only other U18 striker, Ronnie Hollett, is going to be gassed as he just played in the U23 match. Methinks that Tommy Watkins, up in the Seniors, is going to have to pick up some of the slack. It wouldn’t hurt to try to find another U18 striker though. I found this guy, Andy Flynn. His Unambitious personality and low Determination don’t concern me because I know that Captain Macey can school him up. His Dribbling, First Touch, Heading, Teamwork, Work Rate, and Natural Fitness delight me. His Pace isn’t too bad when you consider his height.  All those praise points stand in contrast to what my scouts think. I’m not scared about the theoretical low ceiling of potential ability because he really is just a temporary, 2-year U18 striker. With him being 17 already I have to offer a Full-time contract; he gets one worth £250 per week for two years with the standard bonuses and an extension upon promotion clause. With this match being the FA Cup, we get a press conference, naturally. Despite Shaw Lane’s superior league we are considered favored and the first question is again about complacency. I tell the journalists that the lads will not be sitting on their laurels. Due to the importance of the match O’Keeffe gets to stand between the posts, and Coates and Pugh start too as they’ll have enough time to recover before they head out for international friendlies. FA Cup First Round vs. Shaw Lane, 9 November 2019  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard Starting XI: O’Keeffe, Parker, Pilcher, O’Shea, Jefcoate, Coates, Hibbert, Pugh, Taylor, Macey, Thirlwell Subs: Legg, Johnstone, Smith, Ferguson, Robinson, Leary, McLeish We have a good crowd here tonight. Still not a full stadium but 3,000 fans should make Brixton rock. And they do, in frustration at 8’, when Pilcher can’t contain a simple pass from Parker deep in our end. Shaw’s left striker steals, sends it to the right striker, and O’Keeffe somehow lets it past. Our chances at an equalizer 4 minutes later are denied twice, one because of the crossbar after a Thriller header, and once when The Beast is offsides. And again, five minutes later Thriller can’t get one on target. Then another five go by before Macey is completely stonewalled. Finally after switching things up to be attacky Thriller crosses to Macey who is perfectly placed to prevent the keeper from being in the right position. Game tied. It takes 4 minutes from Taylor to pull out of his slump and feed Thriller who has finally dialed in his scope. Thriller must have been triggered because he gets another goal 122 seconds into 120 seconds of injury time. I can relax now. However, before the restart I Assertively remind them about the evils of complacency. Macey shows his leadership, giving us a 3-goal cushion just before the 62nd minute, with Hibbert getting his second assist. Macey is still not satisfied, fighting tooth and nail in the six-yard box after a free kick aftermath scrum of epic proportions. I did not foresee such a turnaround. POM: The Beast 9.7 (3 goals, 2 key passes, 2 chances created)  Damn, that was an intense first half. I’ve become comfortable with blow-out wins so I needed that to bring me back to reality. Maybe I should take press conferences more seriously too. |
The Days Between
I receive a training report on Glyn Davies on Sunday morning. Take a look. Notice anything…interesting?  Pretty amazing report for a player with an Unambitious personality. Several attributes rose significantly. His Stamina is on a straight-up trajectory. Does an Unambitious personality get countered by a high Professionalism? I’ll have to pay attention to these matters. Maybe it’s time to see what he does with a start with the Seniors? FA Cup draw time! A bunch of League One and League Two teams are in the pot. We get to host a League Two team, Mansfield. Sunday’s surprises keep coming. Andy Flynn agrees to join us! He’ll be thrown into tomorrow’s U18 match. Welcome, son! In said match, we got 7 yellow cards. MC Nathan Kingdon is now suspended for the next game. I wonder if my U18 Manager has hidden attribute called Player Discipline, which is really low? Today’s match is another cup tie but the opponent is in a league similar to ours. With some players away on international duty and others still a bit tired from Saturday’s competition, I brought up not only Glyn Davies, to start, but also Ryan Collopy as a sub. FA Trophy Fourth Round vs. Harrow Borough, 12 November 2019  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard Starting XI: Legg, Johnstone, Nightingale, Smith, Rice, Roberts, Robinson, Leary, Davies, Rae, McLeish Subs: O’Keeffe, Parker, Collopy, Ferguson, Harding, Hibbert, Macey I immediately swap the roles around so that McLeish is an Advanced Forward on the left and Rae is a supporting Target Man on the right. After 12 minutes it pays off with Derek crossing to Alex at the near post and Alex heading it in off the underside of the crossbar. The match is over 90 seconds later when we have a near identical build up but Derek gets cheeky and heels the ball back to Leary, who crosses to the far post this time and Rae already has his brace. The hat trick comes in at exactly 19:30. Liked I said last month, Alex Rae is back! POM: Alex Rae 9.6 (3 goals, 4 key passes, 2 chances created)  Davies had a mediocre match, coming in at a 6.7 rating. I wish he would have done better in front of his family. The Days Between Now that we’re on to the next round of the FA Trophy we need to find out who we face next. Turns out we’ll play Macclesfield Town at Brixton. They are near the bottom of the Conference National, two rungs above us, so I rate this as a moderate challenge. Our next opponent is Boston United and the team report is interesting. They are a young team and nobody is above two-star ability currently but several are rated three or more stars in potential. Maybe their youth will give them the hunger to beat us. Ascot United, a team in a league below, want to take U18 AMC Grant Appleton on for a loan spell. He turned 18 last month and I should have moved him to the U23s but there are already four central midfielders there. Appleton is taking up AMC spots on match day that I’d prefer Dennis Hammond and Kevin Holness get so they can get Natural there. That is a long way of saying I approved the move. Today’s line-up is a bit unorthodox. We have some players on international duty or tired from such, and I’m giving some starts to secondary players when the primary players are well-rested. Let’s hope this doesn’t blow up in my face. FA Vase Fourth Round at Boston United, 16 November 2019  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard Starting XI: Legg, Parker, Pilcher, O’Shea, Jefcoate, Ferguson, Watkins, Leary, Harding, Macey, Thirlwell Subs: Webb, Johnstone, Nightingale, Roberts, Taylor, Robinson, Hibbert It appears to be backfiring on us for the first 26 minutes, which is when Watkins hoofs one forward for Thirlwell in the box, Marcus gets pushed, and Thriller sinks the resulting penalty shot. A Harding long shot from outside the box gives us more cushion a few minutes later. And more cushion comes in the 53rd when a Bostoner picks up his second yellow. After that I put the clampdown on Boston to ensure we can safely end the clash. POM: Noah Harding 8.3 (1 goal)  Not only did Harding have that goal he also completed 107 passes, which is a metric phuq-ton and exactly the kind of build-up play that I like. Good on ya, Noah! |
The Days Between
Something cup draw this way comes. Our next FA Vase match will be against a County Leagues (way on down there) club called Walsham-Le-Willows. Sounds like a quaint village in the English countryside. To the wikis! It IS a quaint little village! It has around 1,200 residents in the parish, which is the lowest level of English government. The club has been around since 1890 and they have a lovely little logo.  That is pretty neat. Love the tree and ball. Kevin Parker picked up a bruised ankle in training the day before the match so will miss this one. Due to the lack of U23 matches and the resulting drop in match fitness, I’m bringing up our Angolan right back Angelino Ferreira to sit the bench and relieve probably Pilcher after 60 minutes. Southern League Premier Division at Chippenham, 19 November 2019  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard Starting XI: Legg, Johnstone, Pilcher, O’Shea, Rice, Roberts, Hibbert, Pugh, Taylor, Macey, McLeish Subs: Webb, Ferreira, Smith, Harding, Watkins, Leary, Rae It’s par for the course today with a Macey goal before 10’ and a fluke goal for the opponent before a half-hour. A clearance by Rice hit the back of a Chippendale and bounced right to their striker for an easy goal. And when I tried to change the Tactics to Attacking at the half the game crashed. This is the first time FM18 has crashed on me. FM14 used to crash all the time and I guess I got comfortable. :-D Let’s see what the replay brings. My pre-game speech went over like a dad joke at a PTA meeting but I feel obligated to give the same one out of fairness. After 17 minutes of nothing I gave a Shout of Demand Moore but just a microsecond after hitting that button we get an action sequence. Taylor gets a free kick about 25 yards out from Chippenham’s goal and it goes in off the underside of the crossbar. Just after a half-hour Macey gets his obligatory goal and it seems that we’ve been spared embarrassment by a crashing game engine. Maybe I should reboot more than once every two weeks or so? Despite the win, there was some commonality with the crashed game. Pilcher got a yellow card, McLeish phoned it in, and generally the team had mediocre ratings. POM: Bill Taylor 8.0 (1 goal, 1 assist, 1 key pass)  No telling what could have happened if the game didn’t crash. We probably would have won but we’ll never know. The Days Between I’ve noticed that it’s taking my midfielders forever to learn the DMC position. I know from earlier experiments that players can learn things super-quick. Back in October 2017 Peter Maguire learned DR to Natural from Accomplished in 22 starts and 7 sub appearances. This bears watching. It may be that I’m training them for the Regista role, which I’m not too sure is being implemented correctly. It may be just my imagination. Kings Langley are 23rd on the table and I have some tired kids who are normal starters. Ergo, second teamers are getting the start and Glyn Davies gets on the bench as I would like to see if he can impress me. Southern League Premier Division at Kings Langley, 23 November 2019  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard Starting XI: Legg, Johnstone, Nightingale, Smith, Rice, Ferguson, Watkins, Leary, Harding, Thirlwell, Rae Subs: O’Keeffe, Parker, Pilcher, Roberts, Davies, Pugh, Hibbert The Regista role really worked today as after 15 minutes Ferguson saw that Thriller was shoulder-to-shoulder with a defender so he launched a long ball, gathered easily by our striker, and he rounded the keeper for an easy layup. Not 10 minutes later we get a repeat but it’s Tommy Watkins with the super-early cross, again it’s Thriller on the receiving end, and he gets his brace. It takes a penalty just before 60’ for him to get his hat trick though. Also, for the second game in a row, we get a goal from a free kick. Thank you, Gary Leary. POM: Marcus “Thriller” Thirlwell 9.6 (3 goals, 2 key passes, 2 chances created)  I decided not to use any subs beyond Parker in for Johnstone, as Kevin is coming back from the minor injury. |
The Days Between
Grant Appleton has a great debut for Ascot, getting a goal, and rating a 7.9 in their victory. On Sunday, 24 November, Shane Pilcher asks to leave for Chesterfield, a League One team. I explain that we have a slew of great youngsters and if he stays he can be part of the magnificent group who will ultimately be better than Chesterfield. That seems to mollify him. For now. Basingstoke. This poor team in real life had a new owner who was really just after their stadium as he was a land developer. He essentially ran the team into the ground and then left, leaving them with no place to play and not even a team bus. (I paraphrase mind you. I learned that bit from Loki Doki and I may not have remembered it correctly. But I did contribute to the new bus fund!) Hopefully they’re doing better in this alternate reality. Southern League Premier Division vs. Basingstoke, 27 November 2019  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard Starting XI: O’Keeffe, Parker, Pilcher, O’Shea, Jefcoate, Coates, Hibbert, Pugh, Taylor, Macey, McLeish Subs: Legg, Johnstone, Nightingale, Roberts, Robinson, Leary, Rae Wow! Our first goal, not 150 seconds in, is from a super narrow angle by Dr. Hibbert after a corner kick goes awry. With a Finishing of 8 and Composure of 4 it was quite unexpected. Basingstoke are not dissuaded and their goalie is having an outstanding game denying Macey, Taylor, and Coates goals. Persistence wins the day though and Taylor realizes passing is his better option, getting an assist from McLeish’s goal after 38 minutes. Macey finally gets his goal 60 seconds later when we dominate after play restarts. The play was really funny: Macey was one-on-one and it looked like the goalie tried to do a flying karate kick at him. I laughed and laughed.  The second half goes smoothly. Rae’s goal is one of the FM Specials: Defender kicks ball out from deep in their end but an opponent is just a few yards away and the deflection goes right to a striker near the goal. I’m sure their coach had a Basingstroke from that. Too much of a stretch? My bad. POM: Ashley Hibbert 9.6 (2 goals, 1 assist, 4 key passes, 3 chances created)  The Days Between A quiet few days. No new scouting reports to pore over. No injuries in training. But then a niggling memory tickled the back of my mind. Thriller’s contract is up in 7 months. He’s on £200/week so he’s quite the bargain. I imagine this is gonna be costly. Nope! “Only” £500/week in base salary and £150 appearance fee. He has an agent now and the agent wants £3,000 for himself. Oh excellent! A Clash of the Titans. Number 1 visiting Number 3. Ain’t skurred! Southern League Premier Division at Hereford, 30 November 2019  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard Starting XI: Legg, Johnstone, Pilcher, O’Shea, Jefcoate, Roberts, Hibbert, Pugh, Harding, Macey, Thirlwell Subs: O’Keeffe, Parker, Smith, Ferguson, Robinson, Leary, McLeish Pre-match I tell the crew that we are favorites for a reason and go out and prove it. Thriller does and show’s that he’s worth £500 plus per week, courtesy of a Dr. Hibbert long, low pass up the middle. His second is from a Macey pass as Thriller ran up the middle. His first shot went off the right post but the rebound came right back to him and he hit it in stride. His hat trick only takes 26:09 and Macey gets his second assist. And this is why we’re the favorites. POM: Marcus “Thriller” Thirlwell 9.6 (3 goals, 1 key pass, 1 chance created)  You know, it dawned on me, Meilir Pugh actually hasn’t been performing as well as he could. He hasn’t scored a single league goal, only three assists in league play, and rating at only 7.48. My use of “only” is semi-ironically considering the overall quality of our runs. He does have 4 goals in 5 FA Cup matches so maybe he has a high Important Matches rating. Yes, I’m crying over spilt milk. |
Summary
A pretty standard month for Brixton though with a few more challenges the usual. We added two youths to keep up with the fixture level for the U18s. It’s pretty cool to see finally how large a team I can keep whilst keeping everyone match fit. Hopefully next year the U23s will have more matches as they are generally not getting many in.  That Was Then, This is Now Last month I mentioned Jesse Gilroy, an Irish Youth Intake Day attempted hire back in 2017. I did sign Mark Nixon, Stephen Dunne, and Martin Duggan. Where are they now? Back just after the team returned from vacation I accidentally approved his transfer to Barnsley, who are current fourth in the Championship, for £3,000. He is an infrequent starter for them with two starts and one sub appearance. He has no noteworthy stats and is rating at 6.65. Dunne signed with Shamrock Rovers, first in Irish Premier League, in February 2019 and walked at the end of his contract on 30 June 2019. He has no appearances with the Seniors but in 10 appearances with their U19s he has one goal and two assists, rating 6.73. Duggan also signed with Shamrock and also has zero senior appearances. In thirteen U19 appearances he is rating 6.78 with one assist. Dunne and Duggan left on free transfers so I made nothing from their departures. |
December 2019
Just another day at the office Training Matters Fuuuuuuuudge. Now Bill Taylor is getting in on the act. Is it that I’m playing them too much? I’ve been watching videos and that’s the only thing that jumps out. Maybe I should go back to the use of all available subs again. Oh, and if a player is playing in too low of a league they can get stalled out too. Nothing I can really do about that.  Financial Matters We lost just a bit less than £9,000 last month. Not too bad in the grand scheme of things. We have four home matches this month so hopefully we make bank. With us in the FA Cup Second Round we’ll earn at a minimum almost £25k from that just in appearance fees. If we win that we’ll double the amount. Not to mention the crowd size. December should be good for us. Board Confidence Up to 84% confidence with the board! Do a little dance. Dynamics No updates on this front. Player Development Nightingale’s Determination is now up to 14. This is freakin’ awesome. O’Shea may not be the best central defender but he is getting the youths smarter. And even better news is that O’Keeffe’s is now up to 17. Speaking of Determination, I know I’ve signed some Unambitious players with low Determination of late but I gotta stop doing that. Personalities can rub off and so far I’m been seeing success but if I keep bringing in too many scrubs, things can change quickly. Freakin’ awesome, man! Kemar wins the Premier League Young Player of the Month award.  On 2 December I get an email about Ashley Hibbert’s progress. My Head of Youth Development thinks, and my AssMan agrees, that he is now a good player for most League One teams. Oh, and here’s the loan report. Everyone is doing well but Friend. I’m really only concerned about Kemar and he’s absolutely killing it.  The Days Between I knew things weren’t settled with Pilcher. On Monday evening, 2 December, he again wants to talk. This time it’s about a new contract, which I promise him will happen at the end of the season. I know he’ll cost a lot, what, with his Premier League ability and all, so I’ll try to stall for as long as possible. If we get an amazing DC in the youth intake then I’ll enact his extension and try to sell him off to a worthy team for a handsome price. If not, well, I guess I’ll break out the checkbook. Marcus Thirlwell signs his new contract on the afternoon of 3 December. He’s kinda cheap now but in a few years the escalator clauses could make him expensive. He's definitely worth it though. |
With a FA Cup match coming up on Saturday I’m starting mostly second-choice players on Wednesday against Tiverton. Priorities, man! Snow is in the forecast so it could be a sloppy game.
I’ve been meaning to get Nightingale trained up at DMC as my AssMan thinks he could learn. This necessitates Peter Maguire getting a start at right DC and I’m gonna go ahead and give Glyn Davies another shot at starting at AMC. Southern League Premier Division vs. Tiverton, 4 December 2019  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, DMC, MR, ML, AMC, ST r, ST l) Starting XI: Legg, Parker, Maguire, Smith, Rice, Nightingale, Robinson, Leary, Davies, Thirlwell, Rae Subs: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, O’Shea, Harding, Watkins, Pugh, Hibbert Things start with Nightingale getting an assist from a Leary goal just after 10 minutes. That goal started with a Parker throw in on the right side. Almost exactly 5 minutes later we get almost an exact duplicate though Nightingale passed to Thirlwell who then passed to Leary. Strangeness. The goal even came from the exact some spot. At least Leary’s hat trick came out different: Solid build-up play then a cross from Rae. After that the goals keep coming and we end the match comfortably. Things were going so well that I didn’t even make any subs. Nightingale, Maguire, and Davies all performed quite well with Mitchell getting two assists. POM: Marcus “Thriller” Thirlwell 9.6 (2 goals, 2 assists, 3 key passes, 3 chances created)  Leary could have easily won POM with his 3 goals but I guess not because he “only” had those and no other noteworthy statistics… /eyeroll The Days Between Oh boyyyyy! Kemar scored another goal and is now tied for second in the entirety of the Premier League. Damn. I’m gonna go ahead and guess that 15 different teams will make offers for him in the upcoming January transfer window. Mansfield Town are gonna kill us. They have a lot of good players and the only thing that might save us is they have a few injuries and a lot of tied players. Dammit. But first we have to have the press conference. We are 5-4 favored but the press questions make it seem like we’re doomed. FA Cup Second Round vs. Mansfield, 7 December 2019  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard Starting XI: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Pilcher, O’Shea, Jefcoate, Coates, Hibbert, Pugh, Taylor, Macey, McLeish Subs: Legg, Parker, Smith, Harding, Watkins, Leary, Rae Allll riiiight! Nearly 3,700 butts in the seats today. They get to see a team that forgot to put on their passing boots. We keep losing possession and make poor, long range passes. We also forgot our shooting boots as several shots are denied. In the first half we hold them to zero shots but only 2 of our 9 are on target. I switch us up to a more attacking posture but things go from bad to worse as Macey is now rating 6.3 and then O’Shea injures his groin. I keep him in and switch us to the Spade after McLeish misses a wide open net. He comes off, Macey already came of, and Coates bow outs. Hopefully Smith, Harding, and Rae can make a difference. And holy shit it’s Pugh and Hibbert to the rescue, with the former getting the assist and the later getting the easy goal. That was the 83rd minute and we were able to see out the match with no threats. I do chastise Macey and McLeish with their 6.3 and 6.4. We shouldn’t be relying on our wingers to score. POM: Bill Taylor 7.8 (5 key passes, 2 chances created)  Well, that was taxing. I sweated off a few extra pounds on that one. Now we need to put it all behind us. At least O’Shea injury was temporary. |
The Days Between
And now that we are on to the next round of the FA Cup we have a chance to face some mighty powerful teams. Hopefully we get to travel to a megabastard and rake in the bucks. Tottenham, Chelsea, and Arsenal get drawn early as does Huddersfield, so we won’t face Kemar. There goes Liverpool, Man City, and Crystal Palace. Man United is gone. Good bye, Norwich. And we get Sheffield Wednesday, of the Championship. It’s an away match so we should lose but make a pretty penny. A cup match against a team below us on the pyramid who we beat twice in the past? Time to roll out the Second XI again! I’m bringing up Tasos Noulas to the bench to get him time late in the game at AMC, which he is being super slow in learning. This will also be his debut. Southern League Cup Fourth Round vs. Fleet, 11 December 2019  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard Starting XI: Legg, Parker, Nightingale, Smith, Rice, Ferguson, Watkins, Leary, Harding, Thirlwell, Rae Subs: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Pilcher, Roberts, Robinson, Noulas, Hibbert Before 2:30 my brilliance in team selection pays off courtesy of Thriller. So the slaughter begins. Thriller gets a quarto, Leary a trio, and Rae a duo. The only downside is Smith getting concussed at 66’, pulling Pilcher off the bench. Even he gets a goal. POM: Marcus “Thriller” Thirlwell 10.0 (4 goals, 5 assists, 10 key passes, 4 chances created)  No miracle recovery for Smith. He’ll be our 2 to 3 weeks with that concussion. Dammit. Well, time for Ryan Collopy to step up. The Days Between Interest in Pilcher is once again on the rise, which makes sense seeing as we are nearing the transfer window again, with Chesterfield and Sheffield United leaking quotes about him. Also, a team way down in the 10th level of the pyramid wants U18 GK Dan Gracie. He just turned 18 last week and in the last year of his contract with no renewal in sight. I approve the move. Steve Pike is a WBL who I picked up on 13 July who was only Competent at DL. I just noticed that I made a promise to him that he would get a chance to play coming off the bench. I try to keep to my promises. I figure taking on this minnow of a team was a good time to give him the opportunity. FA Vase Fifth Round vs. Walsham-le-Willows, 14 December 2019  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard Starting XI: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Pilcher, O’Shea, Jefcoate, Coates, Hibbert, Pugh, Taylor, Macey, McLeish Subs: Legg, Parker, Collopy, Pike, Roberts, Robinson, Thirlwell McLeish hasn’t been impressive lately and that trend continues today, getting a beautifully headed goal waved off for offsides just after 5’. It takes another 25 minutes for any more action, culminating in a simple low cross from Hibbert across the mouth of the goal for a wide-open Pugh. The joy doesn’t last long as on the restart Johnstone heads the ball to Gareth but the weak effort is intercepted by a striker and launched past our goalie. In the second we get an early chance but once again McLeish botches matters. At least he can cross, enabling Macey to head a goal in, which is a miracle considering he still only has a 3 Heading. Those two do it again after the restart, taking only 40 seconds to give us a two-goal lead. I throttle us back and return to the Control mindset. At 65’ I bring on Collopy, Pike, and Robinson. Of course Johnstone has to come off as he hasn’t improved since the midpoint, rating 6.1 before and after the break. Pilcher moves to his spot, a rare visit there for him. POM: Eddie Macey 8.8 (2 goals, 2 key passes, 1 chance created)  I’d normally be inclined to say that we were hungover from the blowout against Fleet but there were no common players between the matches, at least amongst the starters. A little financial update, we made around £9,500 for the match, bringing us up to £46,462 for the month. |
The Days Between
It’s Cup Draw Sunday again! We get two for the price of one today; Southern League Cup and FA Vase. For the first, we get to host Totton, who I’m pretty sure we’ve beat before. (I checked later on, we beat them twice last year in league play by a combined score of 8-0. We also beat them in the Southern League Cup Final, 5-1.) For the second, we get to travel to Brantham. They are a creampuff. Maybe even worse than our last opponent. GK Dan Gracie agrees to go to Enfield Borough for the remained of the season on loan. He gets a little lippy on the way out saying I’ll see the errors of my ways for undervaluing him. I paraphrase. I’m putting Terry Barlow on the bench today. He featured a lot in the previous year but I’ve been slowly trying to phase out the initial set of youths as I think it’s a bit unfair that we were stocked so well from the get-go. I was hoping someone would put a bid in for him, at least for a loan spell, but the four League One and League Two clubs that are interested haven’t approached us yet. Plus, I really don’t have a third AMC to select on days like today, i.e., against a team we should be beating. (We beat them back on 21 August, 6-0.) FA Trophy Fifth Round at Chesham, 17 December 2019  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard Starting XI: Legg, Johnstone, Nightingale, Collopy, Jefcoate, Roberts, Watkins, Leary, Harding, Macey, Thirlwell Subs: O’Keeffe, Pilcher, Parker, Ferguson, Barlow, Robinson, Hibbert It takes a while but we get a Macey goal from another flukish play; right centreback tries to clear, hits left centreback on the tush, bounces right to our guy. At least the box was more congested and not the typical “empty spaces” ricochete. The second goal was much more typical. Slow build-up, crisp passing, Macey crosses low to Thriller, we’re up two. Then they get a fluke goal. Well, it was pretty standard fare and Legg only has himself to blame. It was an easy stop and it went right through his hands. But have no fear! Liam Roberts is here! Harding found himself by the right post and while all eyes were on him, Roberts snuck into the 6-yard box, hitting Noah’s pass in stride. Very praise-worthy play, that one. After that it’s just pure domination with great crossing and even better heading. Even Liam getting his second goal from a Harding free kick. However... For the second game in a row, one of our defenders goofs up, catching our goalkeep flat-footed allowing an easy goal. This time it was our Vice Captain, Jefcoate. The game ends shortly after Leary has to be pulled for a pulled hamstring. POM: Liam Roberts 9.4 (2 goals, 1 key pass, 1 key chance)  The Leary news is pretty bad; he’ll be out 11 days to 3 weeks. Dammit. It’s not like we’re flush with spare left wingers, especially ones who can play on the right too. I think it’s time to switch back to Spade, with a smattering of the Club. I checked, this is the first time since 18 September that we allowed two goals. Not counting friendlies. (I totally mis-remembered this. I thought it had been ages.) Interestingly, the game blamed Legg for the second goal, not Jefcoate. He got a 6.3 in the second half so I had some sharp words for him in the locker room. You know, it’s been a while since one of the agents showed up randomly demanding a new contract when a player had a good game. I like this feeling. What? Who’s waiting for me in my office?! Effing Johnstone’s agent. Get the fuck out of here! The Days Between Leary’s injury and contract demands from agents got me thinking. I need to sign Leary to a new contract. I offer almost double his current salary and add two years to the contract, with an option for a third upon promotion. And of course a cup draw is due. In the next round of the FA Trophy we get to host Harrogate, way up in the north of England. We faced them in the FA Cup back in October 2018 and won the day, 4-0. A year on, who will have improved the most? But first is Worcester. For clubs that are not in the standard databases, Football Manager will create logos using the colors of the team plus a random, limited set of graphics. Worcester is landlocked but their logo is a three-mast ship. So…I gotta go get the real logo. Southern League Premier Division vs. Worcester, 21 December 2019  Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AMR, ST) Starting XI: Legg, Parker, Pilcher, O’Shea, Jefcoate, Harding, Coates, Hibbert, Taylor, Pugh, Macey Subs: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Nightingale, Ferguson, Roberts, Robinson, Thirlwell Our post-Fleet clobbering hangover continues with nary an action sequence and the ones we do get end in missed Macey and Pugh shots. Right a 55’ though Pugh’s cross to Macey passes the outstretched leg of our captain only to find its way to Hibbert who is not misfiring today. We get a few more chances but nothing really close to getting that second goal. POM: Meilir Pugh 9.0 (1 assist, 6 key passes, 5 chances created)  A bit of a down day, that one. A win’s a win, I suppose. |
The Week Between
Yeah, winter holidays! The lads were gonna get Christmas and Boxing Day off but with the mediocre performances they’ll get no such break. Leary signs his new contract on the night of 21 December. Now who else needs a re-up? Shit! Twenty-four players are nearing their end. Fourteen of them have options I can trigger. They’ll soon be entering the final six months of their contracts so foreign teams will be able to sign them. Some of them I’ll hold off on until I see what we get in the Youth Intake Day. Central midfielder Gary Ferguson is probably the best example. He’s League Two potential and I have a lot of good players in the middle. If we get an MC on YID who is far and above better I may just trigger his option and sell him off. Same goes for right midfielder Andy Robinson. The first item up for bid is Shane Pilcher. He is Premier League talent and £2,000 p/w is a bargain, though he’ll earn twice as much as Macey, the only player on a four-digit salary, £1,000. He’ll also get a £450 appearance fee and the same for a clean sheet. I could have triggered his option year but then in one year’s time he’d be even more expensive. We didn’t have a Boxing Day match but Huddersfield did. They got a gift of two Kemar goals, beating Middlesbrough. They’re up to 10th in the EPL now. Our next opponent, Banbury, are 22nd in the league. Our match after that is St. Neots who are 6th. Sounds like a perfect time to run out the second stringers. Southern League Premier Division at Banbury, 28 December 2019  Formation: Spade Starting XI: Legg, Johnstone, Nightingale, Collopy, Rice, Roberts, Ferguson, Watkins, Harding, Hibbert, McLeish Subs: O’Keeffe, Pilcher, Parker, Smith, Taylor, Robinson, Rae I’m back to uninspiring speeches so I specifically tell McLeish how much faith I have in him. He’s kind of in a slump so hopefully his turning happy portends good things. It takes over 12 minutes but his slump is over, managing to squeak one under the goalie. Johnstone booted an intercepted pass from the top of our 18-yard box and Derek blew past all the defenders. Big smile. Banbury like to play out of defense and it works surprisingly well for them. Too bad their strikers are not dialed in. Also, too bad one of their defenders is a little grabby, pulling down McLeish so he can’t reach a Watkins cross. Harding is cool, calm, and collected, doubling our lead. The game is sealed in the 65th when Harding is the one receiving a long Johnstone ball then he crosses it at ankle height right to McLeish and he does not miss from 7 yards out. Liam Roberts is the one who actually puts Banbury down for good with a goal with 21 seconds to play. Sometimes you see such a powerful shot that it goes right through the GK’s hands and deflect into the goal; that’s what the final shot was. POM: Derek McLeish 9.3 (2 goals, 3 key passes, 1 chance created)  It was very pleasing to see McLeish return to form. I think he might be with us for at least 3 years and I want to see him to continue to develop. The Days Between The tutoring of Nightingale and Watkins ends on 29 December. Nightingale’s was a smashing success, with his Determination going from 10 to 15 and his Personality going from Fairly Sporting to Resolute. Awesome! Watkins on the other hand…he didn’t really get along with Macey. He went from 11 to 12 on Determination but there was no personality change at all. Not awesome. Kemar scored another goal in Huddersfield’s loss to Arsenal, 3-1. He is still tied for second in the EPL with 15 goals. The top scorer has 16. His value is up to £6.25 million. Oh my. That isn’t even the best news though. On New Year’s Eve he is named the European Gold Boy for 53 goals in 44 appearances. I guess those goals at Brixton counted but it was only because he’s in the EPL that he got noticed. With a lot of contracts coming up for renewal I trigger a couple of options, Webb, Hibbert, O’Shea, and Noulas to be specific. I’m still waiting for Pilcher to respond and I was hoping to only have one out at a time but I go ahead and offer Chicken Legg a new one. He’s fine with being a backup and taking a pay cut. His agent on the other hand wants £7,500. Dafuq?! For our final match of the year we face St. Neots, the fifth place team in the league. Their right wing is occupied by Samuel Swift, who is second in the league in average rating, between Macey and Pilcher. He’s fast (14 Pace) but not as fast as Jefcoate (17 Pace). Southern League Premier Division at St. Neots, 31 December 2019  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, DMC, MR, ML, AMC, ST r, ST l) Starting XI: O’Keeffe, Parker, Pilcher, O’Shea, Jefcoate, Coates, Hibbert, Pugh, Taylor, Macey, Rae Subs: Legg, Johnstone, Smith, Roberts, Robinson, Leary, Thirlwell The Saints get first dibs on the action, deep in our end but Coates does what he does best: Stealing the ball. We then slowly march up the field culminating with Macey getting a step on the central defenders but his shot goes just wide right. Shortly thereafter we get a series of corners, switching from left to right. On the last one, from the right, Coates sends one it but it is headed up field right to Hibbert. He controls the ball then fires it in from 25 yards out into the upper right corner. Holy moley! The Saints have most of the action and when their right back sends a horrible pass into the box Jefcoate gets called for a penalty for tripping the Swift kid right before the ball goes out of bounds. Nobody was within 10 yards of the box. We’re getting FMed. Swifty sinks it. Macey saves us some embarrassment a few minutes later, getting to a shabby Pugh cross before the goalie or the right centreback and tapping in the ball. Despite that, Macey keeps missing lots of chances and making bad decisions, like not passing to a wide open Rae. Not that Rae would have done much with it, he’s been awful today. That is, until the 58th minute when Coates The Regista spies Rae The Target Man with just enough space, sending in a lovely looping ball right to his left foot, allowing me to relax and dial back things. The Saints almost got a legitimate goal when their DL launched one from deep and their right striker got past O’Shea. Unfortunately for them, O’Keeffe is pretty good on one-on-ones, batting the ball away right to O’Shea, who clears it out to the touchline. POM: Alan Coates 9.0 (1 assist, 5 key passes, 3 chances created)  Alan Coates is my favorite player and it pleases me much to see him get the POM award. |
Summary
The month started out on a high note culminating in an absolutely huge match in which we scored 11 goals. Then things started tapering off drastically with lots of sloppy play. Sure, we won each match but we gave up 4 goals in 5 matches. Just another day at the office.  That Was Then, This is Now Remember The Jordanian Prince? Shadi al-Ziod? I transfer listed him back 7 months ago then he signed a pre-contract with Aston Villa on 16 June. He is in their U23s where he is just one of many DLs. He’s had two starts and two sub appearances for them, averaging 7.27. He does not have any games with their senior team. He’s still with the Jordanian seniors though. |
January 2020
Back in black So begins another year. A year that in real life was the most challenging one the world had faced since World War II. Training Matters I think it’s time to bring back Le Sigh. I also need to find some shaking-head gifs.  On a more important front, I’m seeing a lot of players are stalling out. I’m not sure what’s going on. Maybe I’ll find the time to do a more thorough examination but not right now. My first theory is the whole thing about players needing to play in the leagues they are able to and most of our players are playing down to the competition. Financial Matters We lost £31,464 last month. We need to have more home matches and win some cup matches that pay out. Board Confidence Woohoo! Still “Untouchable” and still at 84%. Dynamics Last month, just prior to our match against Chesham on 17 December, Pilcher moved up from the “Others” group to the “Influential Players” group. Awesome. Just in time for him to leave us, I bet. Player Development Kemar once again wins the English Premier League Young Player of the Month Award. Almost brings a tear to my eye.  I’m saving the best news for last. Alan Coates is now Premier League talent. I’d like to send him out on loan but he is only 3 months into his 16th year so it just seems...wrong? Maybe if anybody makes a transfer bid for him this month I’ll say, “No, but how about taking him on for a loan spell?” We’ll see if that works. We didn’t get a loan report this month. Odd. The Days Between On the first of the year Pilcher signs his new contract. Much relief. Now hopefully someone swoops in with a million-pound offer. Having that item checked off, I next offer Ashley Hibbert a new contract. He is at least Championship level so I’ll try to sign him for as long as possible. I find it peculiar that nobody is interested in him. Oh fuck me to tears. He wants £2,200. We’ll be in the Conference South next year and only two teams are forking out the kind of money. He wants like League Two money. Well, I’ll have him until 2021 and live with the fact that I have Tommy Watkins until 2023 as a fall-back. This prompts me to compare the two and I realize that Hibbert is only better than Watkins in Pace, Natural Fitness, and Stamina. What to do about this? We have Andy Robinson too. Hmmm… I’ll move onto Connor Smith then. But then I have a thought. Just two months away from Youth Intake Day. I’ll wait until then for starters and U18 players. I’ll re-sign U23 players for now. I’ll start with our Angolan DR who still can’t mark players and doesn’t know where to position himself. He’s Professional and has a 15 Determination. If I can keep him around long enough I still believe he can be a great tutor for new youths. He doesn’t even ask for a pay raise but I offer one anyway. It’s only £20 more but he’ll get a loyalty bonus too. Oh! Just had a thought. What if he’s around when we get a Brazilian or Portuguese player who can’t speak of lick of English? He’ll be able to help. In other news, I re-signed a physio who has a 20 in Physiotherapy. I’d like him to be the Head Physio but the guy already in that position is locked in until 2022. What the heck does this mean?  I searched the database and the only Joker I could find was a semi-professional team in Estonia called Raasiku FC Joker. That didn’t sate my curiosity so I ran to the googles. It’s a special transfer in French football that allows a club to sign a player outside of the regular transfer window. Each club is allowed only one such transfer per season. The more you know. Chick Legg signs his contract on the morning of the 3rd. This is a relief as now I know he’ll be around for two more years tutoring the youngsters. I like this having two open contract negotiations at a time. With Legg’s done I now turn to Dean Rice, our second-choice DL. For now. He gets the same offer as Ferreira. |
Our first match of the year sees us face a team we destroyed 9-1 back in August. It didn’t seem to affect them much as they are now 7th in the league, only 7 points behind the second automatic promotion spot. Let’s see if they can get their revenge!
Southern League Premier Division vs. Leamington, 4 January 2020  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, DMC, MR, ML, AMC, ST r, ST l) Starting XI: Legg, Johnstone, Pilcher, Smith, Rice, Roberts, Robinson, Leary, Harding, McLeish, Thirlwell Subs: O’Keeffe, Parker, Nightingale, Ferguson, Watkins, Hibbert, Macey It’s very standard Brixton fare today. Lots of rain, lots of missed goals, lots of free kicks off target, and four made goals. We were 10 of 24 for on-target shots. We had six free kicks within scoring distance and missed them all. We hit the posts four times. I guess I shouldn’t be kvetching when Thriller gets a hat trick. POM: Marcus “Thriller” Thirlwell 9.6 (3 goals)  Nope, they didn’t get their revenge. The Days Between I got an email about Nightingale’s progress. Somehow, despite the tutoring from O’Shea ending, his Determination is still going up. Amazing. Ferreira signs his new contact on 5 January and Rice signs his a day later. On 7 January Stephen O’Shea moves up to the Influential Player group and this pleases me muchly. Also on 7 January, League Two side Cheltenham offer £1,500 for Peter Maguire. About time somebody started making offers for my players. I accept it. Our next opponent is Slough House and I hope to send these horses to the glue factory. They are 18th in the league so we shouldn’t have too many problems today. Southern League Premier Division vs. Slough, 8 January 2020  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard Starting XI: Legg, Parker, Pilcher, O’Shea, Jefcoate, Coates, Hibbert, Pugh, Taylor, Macey, Rae Subs: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Collopy, Smith, Leary, Harding, Watkins Well, they may be slow horses but they had just as many on-target shots as us though we have more off-target ones. With just one highlight in the first half that culminated in a sky ball from Macey I Assertively tell the squad I’m not pleased and send them back out with an Attacking mentality. Thankfully young phenom Bill Taylor saves our hide scoring before we’re 3 minutes in. And just another three go by when Hibbert’s early cross to Rae ends with a laser shot from his left foot. Just before the two-thirds mark we get our first penalty in what seems like forever; Macey sinks it. Yet again though Chicken Legg gets FMed when one our defenders sends a pass to him only for it to go wide to an opponent and then into goal. He’s never gonna make his mortgage if he keeps getting denied clean sheets. POM: Ashley Hibbert 8.4 (1 assist, 3 key passes)  I know I should be grateful that I have such a wonderful squad and managerial support but jeez, could I get the lads to not play down to the competition. Really reminds me of the real world Pittsburgh Steelers. Annoying AF. |
The Days Between
Well I did not expect this news: Nightingale gets a transfer offer before Pilcher. I say no because he’s really been coming on of late. The odds come in for our FA Cup match against Sheffield Wednesday. We are 4-1 odds to win. Seems generous with them being in the Championship and all. The press conference is typical, trying to bait me into saying the wrong thing. I was really happy that the last question was about Connor Smith and how he’s been with me since the get-go. I praise his mentality and how impressed I am with his attitude. Speaking of players that have been with me since the beginning, Peter Maguire agrees to move on to Cheltenham. We have a good exchange before he goes; I wish him well. Well, let’s see if we can FM Wednesday. The lads do tend to play to the competition so hopefully they are up for it tonight. FA Cup Third Round at Sheffield Wednesday, 11 January 2020  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard Starting XI: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Pilcher, Nightingale, Rice, Coates, Watkins, Pugh, Taylor, Macey, McLeish Subs: Legg, Parker, Smith, Harding, Thirlwell, Leary, Rae I give them a “Win one for the Gipper” speech in the dressing room. Well, more of a “we’re underdogs, go cause an upset” speech. It doesn’t appear to be working as Sheffield dominates possession. We have 2 shots to their 5 but nobody is on target. In the first 20 minutes of the second there are no action sequences, Macey and McLeish are stinking up the joint. Thriller and Rae to the rescue! Finally in the 88th minute we get a free kick right next to their arc but Thriller’s shot goes high and wide. At 89:50 it’s Taylor, not Marcus or Alex who comes to the rescue, curling one just past the Wednesday goalkeep’s fingertips from 15 yards out. Sheffield Wednesday just got FMed. POM: Bill Taylor 8.3 (1 goal, 2 key passes, 1 chance created)  Shocking. We had no business winning that. We only played well for about 20 seconds and managed to squeak one out. I can’t wait for the press conference after this one. /irony  There were 14,381 fans in attendance with 1,948 of ours making the trek. If only I could get that many at Brixton. We made just over £354k from the match too, which is also insane. I think I got all the questions right in the presser. No, we won’t lift the FA Cup. Yes, we’ll take it one game at a time. Yes, Bill Taylor is awesome and I expect that to continue. The Days Between Now it’s time to find out who gets to destroy us in the next round of the FA Cup. Alright, let’s do this! We’re the fifth ball drawn so we get to host…all the megabastards are still in the pool but Man United…Birmingham or Chelsea. Insert jaw drop here. Chelsea are the closest big team to us, geographically speaking. I wish we got an away match to make more cash. Either way, we best lose this match else next year the board will expect more of me. Next up is Harrogate. We beat them last year 7-2 in the FA Trophy Fourth Round, AND we beat them last year 4-0 in the FA Cup Third Qualifying Round. Why do we have to keep playing them? They must be sick of us and sick of having to travel to London. I’m confident using the lesser players, even bringing up Glyn Davies again for a start at AMC. I hope he gets his act together. FA Trophy Sixth Round vs. Harrogate, 14 January 2020  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard Starting XI: Legg, Parker, Smith, Collopy, Jefcoate, Ferguson, Robinson, Leary, Davies, Macey, Rae Subs: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, O’Shea, Roberts, Watkins, Harding, Thirlwell What a bummer, a smaller crowd than we normally get in a league match, less than 1,300 fans. Macey has four chances in the first 10 minutes and absolutely does nothing with them. Is this a new trend? Is he in a slump? Evidently not but it takes until almost 65’ for Harrogate to get FMed when their right back is on the touchline and sends a glacial pass to their goalie only for Eddie to intercept it and amazingly score on a one-on-one. And then my hubris and O’Shea’s suckiness rear their ugly heads. I didn’t switch us to Defensive as no highlights were happening and then he stood staring at a ball in midfield that Harrogate stole and got a breakaway. Legg let a 17-yard shot go right past him and with only 2 minutes to left in the match we are going up to Harrogate for a replay. Nope! Extra time. Jefcoate and Davies are spent so I take them out. Davies was actually rating well at 7.4. But nothing happens at all in the first ET half, Macey comes off in the second ET half, and nothing happens in the period. On to penalties. We go first. Thriller, in! Harrogate, in. O’Shea (yes, he’s our second-best option), DENIED! Harrogate, off the right post. Watkins, IN! Harrogate, DENIED! Harding, in. Harrogate, in. We can seal it here… C’mon, Liam Roberts! IT’S IN! IT’S IN! IT’S IN! God-damned players. Bring my acid reflux back... My post-match speech isn’t about how disappointed I am but about complacency. POM: Harrogate’s Thomas Newell 8.3 (1 goal, 2 key passes, 1 chance created)  I suppose I really have myself to blame but boy have we been kinda in a slump. I want to shake things up but more importantly I want to get Coates Natural at DMC and Taylor Natural at AMC. We made £8,300 from the match putting us in the black for the year, a whole whopping £1,032. Yeah us! |
The Days Between
Chelsea beat Birmingham so it looks like we’ll pack the stadium with 7,000 fans on 29 January. Huddersfield too is moving on when Kemar provided them one of two goals. I was looking at the schedule and February is going to be absolutely brutal. Nine matches in 29 days. Woof. Remember when I was worried about bringing in too many youths who were unambitious and had low determination? Well, seems I was needlessly fretting. Seventeen-year-old defensive midfielder Nathan Kingdon just saw his Determination go from 14 to 15 and his personality from Balanced to Fairly Determined. Bueno. Now for the FA Trophy Seventh Round draw...we travel to Folkstone of the Isthmian Premier Division, a league equal to ours. Their eighth there so we shouldn’t have too much trouble. Let us hope we can get our groove back. FA Vase Sixth Round at Brantham, 18 January 2020  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard Starting XI: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Pilcher, Nightingale, Rice, Coates, Hibbert, Pugh, Taylor, Thirlwell, McLeish Subs: Legg, Parker, Collopy, Roberts, Leary, Harding, Macey Are we facing an FMed opponent? Probably. After McLeish’s pass to Thirlwell goes to the wrong player, Brantham’s DR passes to their goalie who is walking towards the goal only to turn around in time to watch the ball go past him. This was 83 seconds in. Marcus and McLeish team up at 10’ for some good passing then a goal. I was hoping the duo would combine for another goal so I could refer to them as M&M but our third goal comes from a Hibbert cross to McLeish. So H&M. Hopefully this goal fashioned a victory. Too much? Leary puts the match way beyond hope for Brantham in the 77th when he’s the lucky recipient of a Coates free kick, sending in a screamer to the upper right. POM: Derek McLeish 9.2 (1 goal, 1 assist, 3 key passes, 2 chances created)  When are we gonna start putting the smack down on opponents again? We ain’t been the same since the match against Fleet. The Days Between A cup victory equals a cup draw the next day. But we get a two-fer! In the Southern League Cup we host Dartford, who have beat us in the past. For the FA Vase, please not Harrogate, please not Harrogate. Phew! We travel to Kettering in the Conference North. Dodged a bullet! It’s 19 January and color me surprised that we haven’t had any other offers except for Maguire and Nightingale. It’s gotta be that we are very much below everyone’s radar still being this far down the pyramid. Now I want to talk about players learning new positions. There are several factors that determine how quickly, if ever, he gets Natural. The hidden attribute Versatility, age, “closeness” to positions he’s already Natural at, level of knowledge already at the position (Awkward, Unconvincing, etc.), playing time, etc. Professionalism and Ambition might factor into it too. I bring this up because after a U23 match on Monday, 20 January, left wingback Steve Pike became Natural at left fullback. It took him 21 starts and 11 sub appearances, having started as Competent. (He had 8 non-competitive matches with AFC Telford before coming to us but I don’t know what he played there.) This tells me he likely has a high versatility. Because he’s constantly complaining about training and he came to us with an Unambitious personality (now F. Loyal) I believe I can safely say he has a lower Professionalism and Ambition. I bring this up also because Alan Coates has yet to go to Natural at DMC; however, he started with knowing nothing about that position. His Resilient personality doesn’t tell me much about his Professionalism but it does say his Ambition should be average to awesome. However, his Media Handling Style is Evasive, which tells me his Professionalism is between 15 and 20. He has never moaned about his workload so I’m pretty confident he’s awesome and should be hitting a Natural state soon. (Fudge, whilst looking at Coates’ player card I noticed his favorite club is Man U. I sure as hell hope they don’t make an offer for him.) Now, let’s look at Bill Taylor who is really starting to worry me. He started Accomplished at AMC and is yet to go Natural after 24 starts and 2 sub appearances there. (And then when I checked the previous season I was reminded that he never played AMC there cuz I was training him at DMC. During the pre-season this year I abandoned DMC training cuz his Marking was 5, Tackling 7, and Position 6 and it was foolish training to use him defensively. Might as well be farting in the wind.) His personality is Resolute so his Professionalism is at least 15. So I’m not too concerned after all. I’ll keep an eye on things but Coates and Taylor SHOULD be Natural by the end of the season. Totton. We’ve beaten them thrice before. Their starting GK is an American name Alan Munoz from Independence, Missouri. “Misery” is what I like to call Missouri. I hope we send them home in misery. I’m starting my first choices today so I can have them ready for Chelsea in a week. FA Vase Sixth Round vs. Totton, 22 January 2020  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard Starting XI: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Pilcher, Nightingale, Rice, Coates, Hibbert, Pugh, Taylor, Macey, McLeish Subs: Legg, Parker, O’Shea, Jefcoate, Roberts, Leary, Rae I’m back to winning the pre-match speech. We have conceded a lot of free kicks near our box lately but so far they’ve never scored off them. After two of them we finally get a chance down in their end with my Dream Duo of Taylor and Coates working together culminating in a great shot by Bill through loads of traffic; the goalie never saw it coming. Just before the first 45 come to a close Eddie Macey is way out in no man’s land and lofts in a prayer. I have no idea if that was a cross to McLeish or an honest attempt to score but it worked so I dance a jig. Well, it goes down as an own goal for GK Munoz. I guess he is from the Show Me state; show me how you are pulling for Brixton. :-D  They pull one back just a minute into the second and I am PISSED. Rice was to blame as he just watched the goalie’s long ball land at his feet and just stared at it. It’s Hibbert to the rescue! Just as we reach 70’ Coates sends a corner kick in to the small box only to have it headed out. Right to Hibbert, 26 yards out and he sends in a beauty to the upper right corner beyond the keep’s reach. Oh my. It was a phenomenal half volley. Hibbert seals his man-of-the-match with a simple cross to Rae who rises above and gives us a fourth. But now the hero status switches to Rae when he gets a slight deflection off a weak Liam Roberts effort. And the game ends with me being wrong. I know! Shock and surprise! It’s Hibbert who edges out Rae for the POM award. Rae “only” had 2 goals. POM: Ashley Hibbert 9.1 (1 goal, 1 assist, 1 key pass, 1 chance created)  Well I guess that speech wasn’t as good as I thought. And man, has Macey been super streaky of late. |
The Days Between
Nightingale comes asking for a new contract. Normally I’d ask Macey to talk him off the ledge but Mitchell has been fantastic for us and he’s from our academy. I’m sure Pilcher will be gone soon via transfer or loan so I tell him I’ll give him a new one at the end of the season. He leaves my office pleased. The same day League Two side Mansfield puts £3,000 on my desk and ask to leave with Barlow. I accept and hope he takes the hint. It doesn’t hurt that he’s making £500 per week right now. By the end of the day O’Shea hurts himself in training. He’s digging his own grave even though it’s a minor injury, out 3 days at the most. I’m doing something odd for this match. All the people who will be important to our match against Chelsea will get the day off. That means that a lot of my bench today will be from the U23s or U18s. And I’ll have the bench filled. No real reason for that, just want to get some debuts out of the way if possible. Southern League Premier Division vs. Bishop’s Stortford, 25 January 2020  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard Starting XI: Legg, Parker, Smith, Collopy, Jefcoate, Roberts, Watkins, Leary, Harding, Thirlwell, Rae Subs: O’Keeffe, Ferreira, Parker, Murphy, Pike, Ferguson, Robinson, Barnett, Davies, Marshall, Flynn It takes a while but the Rae-Thirlwell combo works as designed. Not on the design board though was a groin strain for Tommy Watkins just a few minutes later. Rats. There have been a lot of free kicks near the goal this month, for both sides. Harding gets an opportunity for one but the ensuing scrum sees Leary getting fouled and Thirlwell getting his brace. Late in the match Thirlwell almost gets his trick but the GK’s Reflexes overmatch his Composure. POM: Marcus Thirlwell 8.6 (2 goals, 1 key pass, 1 chance created)  So the media describe our win over the Bishops as a hammering. I used to see this all the time in FM2014. Two-nil is not a hammering. How bad is the news for Watkins? Oh damn. Four to six weeks. Fudge. Poor guy. How good is the news for our bottom line? Oh good. We made £13,173. The Days Between The day after the match I notice that Watkins’ initial assessment was wrong and now he is expected to be out on 2 to 4 weeks. That’s some weird physio shenanigans. The scouting report for Chelsea is ridiculous. Ever player is 5 stars in ability and potential except their backup goalie who is only 3 and 3. There is no way in hell we’ll win this. Another observation is they only have one English player in their seniors. Pathetic. I will never let that happen to Brixton. There arent’ any players from the rest of Britain or even an Irishman. For a match as big as our one against Chelsea there has to be a press conference. But it was just about how far we can go (not any further) and if our result against Bishop’s Stortford will make our job easier (no it won’t). Well, here it is fans, our first defeat in a long while. Also, again I’m going with a full bench just because I want the kiddos to get the experience of playing an EPL club. I left Stephen O’Shea out as he’s just not reliable at all. FA Cup Fourth Round vs. Chelsea, 29 January 2020  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard Starting XI: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Pilcher, Nightingale, Rice, Coates, Hibbert, Pugh, Taylor, Macey, McLeish Subs: Legg, Parker, Collopy, Smith, Jefcoate, Ferguson, Robinson, Leary, Harding, Thirlwell, Rae, Roberts I manage to inspire O’Keeffe, Rice, and Pugh. Let’s hope that portends greater things. In the tunnel I’m asked why I sprung some surprises on my team selection. I don’t have an option to say these are my preferred eleven so I say they are the ones who give us the best chance. They almost draw first blood just after 5’ but the shot goes off the crossbar. We get a free kick right outside the 18 but Coates sends it just over the bar. Just before 42’ Rice can’t prevent a cross that makes it to the far post where their Ivorian winger sends a shot right at O’Keeffe but then it bounces right into the goal. Great position, bad hands. We go into the half down one and our attacking three are not doing anything well, only on target with one of seven shots and all rating 6.3 or 6.4. We get another free kick early in the second half but Taylor this time is the one who is high. Meanwhile, O’Keeffe is losing his shit so I have to give him a Shout. Just before 62’ Macey is free with only their “sub-par” goalie to beat but sends it wide. He’s down to a 5.9 now. So off come the underperformers, notably the three attackers. I also switch to attacking. But in the 81st minute things go from bad to worse as Harding goes down with a foot injury. Three minutes later, Rae, with just an “Okay” happiness, has the cross of his life, dubbed so as it finds Thriller at the far post and we do the impossible, tying the match up. I go into lock-down mode immediately. Yes, I’m playing for a tie. Yes, I’m dreaming of a big payday. No, I’m not happy there’s 6 minutes of extra time. No, I’m not happy to see an action sequence start at exactly 90:00 with Chelsea having the ball in their end. I just know they are going to march forward and shatter O’Keeffe’s spirit once again. His body language right now is “Looking Self-Assured”. I fucking knew it! They launched the ball forward and again, a defender gets the ball stopped at the back line but his momentum carries him forward, along with his lack of concentration, leaving the ball ripe for the picking. And the cross is perfect and we’re down a goal again. My switching to Overload and moving just about everyone forward of course results in a successful counter-attack and the final doesn’t really match our efforts. I tell them for being underdogs we actually showed well and we should be proud. Most players think that’s fair, most importantly O’Keeffe who was the unfortunate victim of circumstances. POM: Chelsea’s Victor Rangel 8.1 (1 goal, 1 key pass, 1 chance created)  We had a full house of 7,000 fans of which 350 were from Chelsea, having made the trek south of the River Thames. That brought in £72,946 for us. Gareth ended with a 6.8 despite the 3 goals but Macey ended with a 5.9. He will get a fine. He accepts it but the email relaying the information said he had performed poorly in our 5-1 victory over Totton. Uh-oh. Is the save file corrupted? This bears watching. (Granted, he got a 6.4 in that match but that was a week ago. Strange.) Noah Harding’s injury is pulled ankle ligaments, out 12 to 14 days. The Lower Leg Injury Bug is creeping nearer to Brockwell Park again. |
The Days Between
On 31 January Terry Barlow signs with Mansfield. Good luck, young man! Light up League Two! Summary The fix is in. No less than three matches were gifted to us by the match engine. Our loss was from an FMing. Seems for every match that either we or our opponent were hosed over by SI’s scripting. And what’s with all the non-scoring free kicks this month? Despite all my belly aching, it was a successful month though. All the expected victories and all the expected money. We end the month in the black, £46,824 for the season to be exact. It’s a bit surprising that during the transfer window Pilcher, Hibbert, nor Taylor received offers. Maybe in July? It took me a while to notice this, and it’s still holding true, but Worcester has yet to have a draw. Weird thing that.  [Ed. Note: I don’t actually like AC/DC. Matter a fact, I don’t like a number of bands or movies or songs I’ve quoted. Sometimes things just fit.] That Was Then, This is Now Two years ago I was very much worried about losing money. In 2017 we lost over £1 million. I feared that we were headed for losses of £2.5 million per year. Since then we’ve only lost another £540,750. We are on the upward trend though, having made just under £47,000 this month. Certainly the deep FA Cup runs have helped but so have our increased ticket prices and averaging of 1,657 fans per league match. I also worried back then that we wouldn’t bring in enough money once we reached the Conference South. We are on the verge of making it there. I’m sure we’ll be making more money from matches then and I imagine we’ll sell some players before that season starts. In other words, we’ll be alright. |
February 2020
On the road again It’s now February 2020. In the real world a co-worker picked up a nasty virus at a Super Bowl party and started missing time in the office. We started hearing rumblings of sick people oversea, mostly in China. Then came news of nursing homes in the Seattle area. What a crazy time. Training Matters I’m just going to be positive. Nightingale and Ferreira are becoming some of my favorite players. At this point I’m thinking that our Angolan will be in the Seniors next year and I’ll start training him for DC as my scouts think he can do it. He’s 185cm and has a 17 Pace but his Marking and Position are still low, both only 4.  Financial Matters Thanks to that match at Sheffield and hosting Chelsea we made £344,770 last month. Much joy. Board Confidence Up to 90% confidence now! Woot! Dynamics Well, this is a new one on me. Due to O’Shea’s decreasing ability, he dropped from the Influential Players group down to Others. I didn’t realize he was tanking skill-wise but he’s been sucking on the pitch for a month or two now. Kevin Parker on the other hand moved up to Influential. Excellent. Player Development O’Keeffe is now Driven. Moreover, his Determination is now 18. I’m so happy. Nightingale’s Determination continues to improve too and is now up to 16. Kemar came in second for the EPL Young Player of the Month award as he had only 1 league goal for the month. He got another plus an assist in the FA Cup. I hope to start the month on a high note. Chesham sound like the perfect victim. Southern League Premier Division at Chesham, 1 February 2020  Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, DMC, MR, ML, AMC, ST r, ST l) Starting XI: Legg, Parker, Smith, O’Shea, Ferguson, Robinson, Leary, Davies, Rae, Thirlwell Subs: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Collopy, Roberts, Hibbert, Pugh, McLeish Despite Chesham getting the first several chances we get the first goal from a partially odd situation; Leary scored from almost on top of the penalty spot, he usually scores around the left post. From there on it’s a pretty dominating performance with Thirlwell getting an unassisted goal courtesy of a poorly cleared ball. Yet once again we concede when a defender fails to move onto a ball they’ve controlled. Today’s bozo is Parker. And again it’s Thirlwell trying to console the defender by scoring on the restart. Of all things, it was an O’Shea’s long ball for the assist. CURSES!!! The same schmoe who scored earlier got a direct header off a corner. It’s a rare score against us that isn’t some kind of fluke or scripted FM shenanigan. I have some stern words for the kids but have to buck-up Rae who not only is sucking today but got all wounded by my chastising. That and my change to an attacking mentality pay off in 51 seconds when Rae embarrasses the goalie, slotting one into the back of the net from point blank range. That’s all that’s worth noting in the second half except that Chesham has oodles of chances because our defenders are already dreaming of who they’ll woo on Valentine’s Day. But FM isn’t done FMing as at four minutes and ten seconds of four minutes of injury time Glyn Davies gets injured. Poppycock! POM: Fucking Chesham’s Leo Blackburne 8.8 (2 goals, 1 key pass, 1 chance created)  Thirlwell also had an 8.8 from two goals but I guess because he was selfish he didn’t get the award. Lame. Davies’ injury isn’t too bad as he’ll only be out 2 days for a bruised ankle. He rated a 7.5 so I guess he’s earned himself some more game time. For now. The Days Between I think it truly is time to change up formations. I wonder if that’s why we are kind of stalling out on the pitch. I’m going with a new formation I call Shovel. It’s like the Spade (4 defenders, 2 central midfielders, 2 wingers, 1 attacking midfielder, and 1 striker) but I drop the two CMs back to DMC with Alan Coates being on the right as a Segundo Volante and Liam Roberts on the left as an Anchor Man. It’s a little more defensive but I think we need that right now. It still allows me to have both Taylor and Coates on the field at once learning their new positions. Moving on, Saturday night’s scouting meeting starts with an interesting nugget. Our former striker Ben O’Donnell is available for loan. He’s only a backup for them, scoring 2 goals in 13 appearances. His team, Brighton, are 18th in the Championship. He’s been in terrible form and it appears he’s been demoted back into their U23s. I’m going to scout him to see if there’s any chance he wants to come home on loan in the summer. He’s clearly way too good for the Conference South but maybe just a month or two to rebound. Our U18s are in a cup and have progressed to the semi-final. The draw for that cup was on Sunday, 2 February, and they drew Queens Park Rangers U18s, which cause a friendly to be cancelled. This caused me to poke around some more U18s windows and I noticed on their Dynamics page that they have a Team Leader. He is Jose Parker, a product of our youth academy. I like this level of granularity. I don’t know if he’ll be better than League Two so I envision him as being like Angelino Ferreira, a mentor in the U23s for ages. U18 Ryan Shaw agrees to go on loan to Horndean, a team we used to share a league with. He is not in my plans beyond this season and I have plenty of central defenders in the youth squad so I have no quibbles letting him seek full-time playing. He’s highly agreeable. Speaking of loans, here’s the loan report.  Kemar and Hopkinson have been a resounding success. Appleton looks to be on course for that. I wish the loan reports would show GK statistics. Clean sheets, percentage of shots save, you know, that kind of stuff. |
This might be Legg’s last regular start for a while. He’s not been impressive even though most of his conceded goals haven’t been his fault. I grow impatient with him. Same with Macey though it’s his lack of consistency that is bugging me.
Southern League Premier Division vs. Weston-super-Mare, 5 February 2020  Formation: Shovel (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, DM r, DM l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c) Starting XI: Legg, Johnstone, Pilcher, Nightingale, Rice, Coates, Roberts, Hibbert, Taylor, Pugh, McLeish Subs: O’Keeffe, Parker, Collopy, Ferguson, Noulas, Leary, Thirlwell Hey look! Their sponsor is McDonalds! Sorry, Weston, you can’t have it your way. And I can’t have it my way. My Passionate “do it for the fans” speech only receives one rave review, from Pilcher. Gulp. We get a penalty opportunity early when Pugh gets pulled down during a Coates free kick. So this month’s script is free kicks and penalties? Bill Taylor scores, by the way. Not five minutes later McLeish picks up a bruised ankle but he manages to carry on. Sticking to the script, Weston then get a free kick but Taylor gets the rebound in the box and starts a counter-attack that ends with the rare Rice cross to Hibbert for our second goal. And then Pugh makes it three when Taylor feeds him the scraps from a botched corner kick. Nightingale makes it four before the half when, surprise, surprise, an Alan Coates free kick goes right to his right foot at the left post. Body language showed that about half the team was looking complacent before that goal but as we head into the locker room everyone is looking Confident, except McLeish who is still complacent. He gets dismissed but that is because of his ankle. Thriller gets in on things just before 60’ so our high-flying continues; it was another Rice assist though this one was a long one from deep in our zone. By the way, we have ANOTHER TWO free kicks near their goal but the second one results in a Weston counter-attack that Legg is incapable of stopping. POM: Dean Rice 9.2 (2 assists, 3 key passes, 2 chances created)  Yep, Legg needs some bench time. McLeish's ankle injury is minor, out 1 to 3 days. The Days Between I’m not surprised when Hibbert’s agent shows up with a contract demand. I don’t have the option to talk to him about it so I have to shoot it down. He’s asking for Pilcher money but unlike Pilcher, I have better options in the wings. So of course he wants to talk but in this case I give him the stiff arm and pass him off to Macey, who handles the situation. For now. Biggleswade Town. Did I already laugh at that name? If not, here it is. Hahahaha. I just hope at the end of the match against this bottom-sitting club they aren’t the ones laughing. And we better not concede. And Macey better light things up. Southern League Premier Division at Biggleswade Town, 8 February 2020  Formation: Shovel Starting XI: O’Keeffe, Parker, Pilcher, Smith, Jefcoate, Noulas, Ferguson, Robinson, Davies, Leary, Macey Subs: Legg, Johnstone, Collopy, Roberts, Taylor, Hibbert, Thirlwell My speech about expecting a win produces no effect so then I tell Macey I expect a performance and again blank faces. Something must have got through though as he scores 68 seconds in from a U23 DMC Tasos Noulas-supplied ball. Nice. His brace comes just before 5’, thank you very much Andy Robinson. Noulas makes it 3-0 just after 10’ though his shot went off a defender. Before a third of the match is gone a long cross by Robinson, that their goalie totally mis-times, makes it to Leary just feet from the far post for an easy tap in. Eddie’s hat trick happens at 37:38 and I’m beginning to wonder how soon is too soon to go Defensive. The sixth is an FMing with their DR passing right to the goalie who just watches the ball come to him and it goes between his leg. Hell, I was never that bad when I was in youth league soccer. We start the second half in Defensive posture but stay in the Shovel. At 60’ I switch us to the Club and make some key substitutes. The only action is Eddie as a Defensive Forward on Support role sending a pass to Davies now in the Box-to-box Midfielder role; his shot is on-target through traffic from 15 yards out. POM: Eddie Macey 9.7 (3 goals, 1 assist, 1 key pass, 1 chance created)  Just what the doctor ordered: A Brixton Butt Stomping. We scored a lot, they barely bothered our defense. Lovely. Because Macey’s performance was top-class I told him so after the match. I think it’s fair that if I fine him for a poor match I should praise him for an outstanding one. And we didn’t concede! |
The Days Between
Nope, Ben O’Donnell has no desire to come home on a loan spell. Drat. I really didn’t expect him to, what with him being Championship-level these days. Evidently my U23 Manager is attracting interest from Dunstable, in our former league. I sure hope he doesn’t leave. The BBC caught wind of it and asked me about it. Damn office leaks. Speaking of the U23s, we hosted Leyton Orient’s U23s on Monday night and got 1,974 fans. More than our Seniors usually bring in. So weird. At least we made almost £16,000 for the event! Now on to Frome. Their home stadium is called Badgers Hill. I kid you not. They are 21st in the league so we are favored. Southern League Premier Division at Frome, 11 February 2020  Formation: Shovel Starting XI: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Nightingale, O’Shea, Rice, Coates, Roberts, Hibbert, Taylor, Pugh, Rae Subs: Legg, Parker, Collopy, Ferguson, Smith, Thirlwell, McLeish Sometimes I give the “you should be winning this so just play your natural game” speech when we are playing away. Of late I’ve been reluctant to do so as we generally don’t do well when I do it. Today three players actually get motivated by it but it’s too soon to tell the effect as 31 seconds in Rae is pushed while trying to head a Pugh cross. Bill Taylor scores. It is an effective speech today as Pugh and Hibbert dominate feeding each other goals. O’Shea even gets into net on our second penalty of the day. I am pleased. Until the FMing swings back on us. Yet another free kick near the goal. This time it’s off target, hits the right post, then bounces off O’Keeffe and into goal. Stop it, SI! After that there are seven action sequences, all in our end. It’s quite annoying. POM: Ashley Hibbert 8.8 (1 goal, 1 assist, 3 key passes, 2 chances created)  I let the players know their second half performance was unacceptable. Gary Ferguson got stressed by that and my pointed words at him about his laziness. He got stressed then double-stressed. He has a low Pressure rating. Noted. The Days Between The next day I get an email about Leary’s training. He spontaneously saw his Determination go from 15 to 16 and his personality go from Fairly Determined to Spirited. I think Spirited tells me that his Professionalism is at least 11 but considering he’s never bitched about training and has seen consistent improvement, I have a feeling it’s 12 or higher. Kettering on paper don’t look so tough but they are fifth in a league above us so I am a little concerned. I’m trying something new today. I’m using Nightingale at DMC as our Anchor Man. (Hell, I just noticed that we have five away matches in a row this month. Three of our nine matches are at home, which is not good for the bottom line.) FA Vase Seventh Round at Kettering, 15 February 2020  Formation: Shovel Starting XI: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Pilcher, Smith, Rice, Coates, Nightingale, Hibbert, Taylor, Pugh, Thirlwell Subs: Legg, Parker, O’Shea, Roberts, Harding, Leary, Macey Okay, I promise not to be a curmudgeon today. The action is hot and heavy from the get-go and Connor Smith, way back at the left centreback position, sends a long one up to Thriller who is able to out run all the defenders and doesn’t get bothered by the one-on-one; goal came at 72 seconds. It takes over 20 minutes and several Kettering threats before the use of an AMC in the Shadow Striker role shows my tactical brilliance. Pugh crosses to the near post and Taylor heads it in from a narrow angle. Nom nom nom. Right before the half Johnstone sends in a prayer, similar to the one Macey sent in last month, but it bounces of the crossbar and right to Thriller for his easiest brace ever. I didn’t want to but before 65’ have gone Taylor and Coates have picked up yellows so they come off. Coates’ replacement Liam Roberts fouls late and O’Keeffe can’t stop the ensuing penalty. I’m a little irked but become soothed when Thriller gets his hat trick in stoppage time with Pugh’s replacement Leary sending in a lovely cross from the byline. Not satisfied with his performance, Leary sends in another cross, not from so deep this time, to the far post where his buddy Dr. Hibbert puts down the patient for good. POM: Marcus “Thriller” Thirlwell 9.6 (3 goals, 1 key pass)  See! I wasn’t all negative. Still wish we could get more clean sheets though. |
The Days Between
With youth intake day coming up I decide to fill the last scouting spot that the board will allow. I find a 34-year-old Luxembourger with a 19 Adaptability. His Determination, Judge Ability, and Judge Potential are in the lower double-digits but that Adaptability is key too. Hopefully he’ll join before the end of the month so I’ll have more scouts to beat the bushes to find that hidden gem. On 16 February Legg’s mentoring of O’Keeffe comes to an end with the email saying Gareth only gained a little and was a little disappointed. I do not understand this as his Determinaiton went up to 18 and his personality changed to Driven. Seemed successful to me! Now for the FA Vase Quarter Final draw. Harrogate is still in the mix, darn it. Yes! We avoid Harrogate. Yes! We host. We’ll play a team called Congleton Town who are a league below us. They are about 20 miles south of Manchester. Another cup match but I’m running out the secondary players. Our opponent doesn’t scare me even though they are 7th in a league comparable to ours. FA Trophy Seventh Round at Folkestone, 18 February 2020  Formation: Shovel Starting XI: Legg, Parker, Collopy, O’Shea, Jefcoate, Roberts, Ferguson, Robinson, Harding, Leary, Macey Subs: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Smith, Coates, Hibbert, Taylor, McLeish Oh sweet, five happy players after I tell them to prove the pundits were right to back them. Uh-oh. Our opponents are getting better at free kicks. One didn’t go in directly but after two passes Legg isn’t able to stop a long shot from 15 yards out. Macey, who despite being horrible at Heading usually doesn’t miss headers but he’s been denied twice today by the crossbar. By the half we are only on target with 2 of 11 shots. Plus we are dominating possession, 65% to 35%. I question their passion at the half and send them out. Which means that in the first 10 seconds O’Shea lets a striker steal the ball and it’s that dude’s inept finishing that allows us to stay alive. Luckily we have Harding, who is surprisingly adept at beating one-on-ones. Macey crosses to him near the penalty spot just after 52’. O’Shea and Robinson have to come off at 63’ because they have yellows, not to mention O’Shea is rocking a 6.3. On come Hibbert and Smith. It was a good decision as 12 minutes later Hibbert scores after…wait for it…a failed free kick. I know! Right?! I switch to Defensive to see out the last 15 minutes, hopefully. I also switch to the 4-4-2 and move McLeish into be a Target Man and slide Macey over to be a Defensive Forward. That pays off exactly at 89’ when Derek steals a long ball from a defender and does a pivot-shot from the top of the box. Woo! That was quite the comeback. POM: Folkestone’s Kyle Woodward 8.3 (1 goal)  I don’t understand how their goal scorer got the POM when Harding also had a goal but other actual stats. One thing is clear, Macey, Legg, and O’Shea are sliding. Especially O’Shea. I only triggered his extension solely for the mentoring. The other two will stick around for the same reason. But after next year? Goners. I got an email saying that Andy Robinson spoke to the press after the match, commenting that it was my half-time speech that inspired the troops to the comeback. I love you too, Robinson. The Days Between That new scout agrees after the match. This is great news. So excited! He doesn’t speak English but has a basic understanding of German, so at least he and I can talk. (I’m fluent in Deutsch.) I get an option to send him on an intensive language course and that 19 Adaptability will make things go smoothly. For the FA Trophy Quarter Final we get to face Macclesfield at their place. Boy I was hoping to host so we could make some money. But hold on a second. I thought Macclesfield sounded familiar and went looking for why. We had been scheduled to play them but when my game crashed in mid-November I guess that draw was lost to the Windows Gods and I had to advance through that again but I forgot to update my file in which I write these things. We ended up playing, and beating, Chesham. Bummer I didn’t catch that at the time. Okay! Back to league matches. We’re getting very close to sealing a promotion to the Conference South and I want it as soon as possible. Southern League Premier Division at Oxford City, 22 February 2020  Formation: Shovel Starting XI: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Pilcher, Nightingale, Rice, Coates, Smith, Hibbert, Taylor, Pugh, Thirlwell Subs: Legg, Parker, Collopy, O’Shea, Watkins, Harding, McLeish Pugh and Hibbert are beautiful architects, getting us one early. But then things head south, first with Pugh injuring himself just before intermission. Secondly, Taylor and Thirlwell are phoning it in today so they get replaced along with Pugh around the two-thirds mark. Thirdly, we were accurate on 3 of 15 shots. Lackluster doesn’t even begin to describe things. POM: Alan Coates 7.3 (2 key passes, 1 chance created)  Not even Coates getting POM can make me happy. At least Pugh’s injury is very minor, out 2 days at most. |
The Days Between
We’re getting close to Youth Intake Day and I’m already dreaming of what possibilities there might be. I’m really hoping for a good striker who won’t be so good as to leave in a year or two because he’s outgrown us. And with Pilcher getting so good I’ll probably want a good DC who’s left-footed so Nightingale can be our right DC. A DL would be good but not vital. Probably a good AML too as Pugh is getting too good for us. For our next trick we get to face the only team in the league who denied us a victory: Royston. They are 20th now and we better beat them. I hope there’s a “seek revenge” option in the dressing room speech. Southern League Premier Division vs. Royston, 26 February 2020  Formation: Shovel Starting XI: O’Keeffe, Parker, Pilcher, Nightingale, Jefcoate, Coates, Roberts, Thirlwell, Taylor, Hibbert, Rae Subs: Legg, Johnstone, Collopy, O’Shea, Ferguson, Harding, Macey This is the third game in a row where five players have been inspired by my words. For some reason this does not make me feel at ease as our consistency has been lacking so I can’t help but fret. It takes 81 seconds for Thirlwell, playing the role of AMR today, to cross right to Rae for another easy header from the six-yard line. Thriller gets his just-dues when Taylor feeds him a simple pass also on the six-yard line and our lead doubles. Turnabout is fair play so next Thriller feeds Taylor, but his goal was harder as it came from seven yards out. At 65’ I move us to the Club, sending Rae and Hibbert to the bench. I bring Collopy and Macey on. It takes 7 minutes for Jefcoate to get a pass through traffic to Macey’s noggin, who sends it in as if he never had a problem with heading. POM: Marcus “Thriller” Thirlwell 9.2 (1 goal, 2 assists, 3 key passes, 2 chances created)  That was more like it! And we made around £11,000 for the day. The Days Between One word: Youth Intake Day. Okay, that was three words. You’ll have to wait for the next update as YID was on 28 February and we have a match on 29 February. Now on to that match! Dartford beat us on 20 September 2017 in the FA Cup Second Qualifying Round. I sure as hell hope that we get our revenge today. Southern League Cup Quarter Final vs. Dartford, 29 February 2020  Formation: Shovel Starting XI: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Nightingale, O’Shea, Rice, Ferguson, Smith, Watkins, Harding, Pugh, McLeish Subs: Legg, Parker, Collopy, Coates, Leary, Taylor, Thirlwell The match starts in a very unconvincing fashion and the first 45 sees no less than six hits off the woodworks, four from McSlump. Then in the final microseconds of the half McSlump’s new nickname is retired when he sinks one, even while being one-on-one. Then on the restart we quickly get the ball back, sending it to McLeish but he doesn’t want it so Harding gets the score! I hastily begin re-writing my speech. The last 45 go as expected except that it’s Ferguson who scores first and McLeish second. POM: Derek McLeish 9.5 (2 goals, 1 assist, 2 key passes, 1 chance created)  That was a lovely match. It was good to see McLeish rock it again. He wasn’t really in a slump, having scored in the Folkestone match, but he did have four matches without a goal before that. Summary Free kicks and penalties, that was the theme of the month. Luckily we came out on top and maintained our winning streaks. We didn’t have any player exhaustion despite 9 matches in 29 days. We did have some injuries from January that bled over into February, with Harding and Watkins missing 10 matches between them. Also, we beat two teams that have caused us problems in the past. Great month!  That Was Then, This is Now Remember back in the beginning how I talked about part of my Brixton motif was having players from Caribbean nations? Well, we currently have six players from that region. Specifically, we have 2 from Jamaica, 2 from Trinidad and Tobago, 1 from Barbados, and 1 from Grenada. Not too bad considering they’ve all come from youth intakes. I hope the trend continues and I’d really like to know why the game engine is giving me these youths. I suppose it’s just being based in England, that this would happen even if I was managing Chelsea or Liverpool. |
YOUTH INTAKE DAY 2020
Reasons to be cheerful, part 3 Fullbacks with crossing and keepers with big hands, tall strikers leaping, and players from far lands, one out of India who can play wings, these are a few of my favorite things. Last year I had to edit our youth intake set-up so we didn’t keep getting phenomes and this year it appears to have worked. It’s not the greatest intake and there are some serious questions about whether any of them will contribute before we out grow their potential.  Reasons to Be Cheerful, Part 3 1. Mickey Morris: Finally a striker who appears to be good and might supplant Rae, McLeish, and/or Macey. He’s not the tallest and can’t jump so he’ll never be a Target Man and he’s kind of slow so he probably won’t be a Poacher. 2. Kris Newton: This is the first time ever that I’ve had a player who was a Model Citizen. He’s not the greatest skill-wise but he’ll never leave Brixton as in 9 years he’ll be a wonderful mentor. 3. Defense: We have three youths who might eventually contribute if we take more than three years to make it up to League Two. 4. Pat Lawford: This right fullback isn’t the fastest but he is the bravest and most aggressive one we have. He also has very good Leadership and Work Rate, and finally we have someone who excels at long throws. 5. Jason Cosgrove: A tall right-footed central defender with high Bravery and Teamwork. He can be Nightingale’s backup, assuming we actually do lose Pilcher. 6. Colin Cockbill: He is currently a speedy left fullback but is tall enough to be a centreback. It doesn’t hurt that he’s already Accomplished there. He’ll get tutored by O’Shea to get his Determination up and his Balanced personality improved. 7. We maintain our streak players from the Caribbean. Mario Headley is a right winger from Barbados. 8. Only two players with single-digit Natural Fitness and a lot of players have high Work Rate. 9. Only four players have bad Personalities. 10. Not an over-abundance of central midfielders. We have oodles already so it’s a relief to only get two. Though I’m glad we didn’t get too many MCs I do think I’ll try to find one or two more just because all our current ones, less Debellotte, are aging out of the U18s. One player, Sam Khinda, doesn’t have much potential but he comes to us already Natural at AMR, AMC, AND AML. As we move into the Conference South we’ll only be able to have 5 players on the bench and a player like Sam would be a key substitute. Last year we had two players whose Favoured Club were not Brixton. This year with nearly everyone born in London they all favor Brixton or nothing. I’ll be signing everybody but Terry Buckle as he’s too short for DC, too slow for DR, has no Determination, and is Unambitious. |
Player Cards
Pat Lawford, D/WB R This lad with the awkward smile has an interesting spread of Attributes. Great at Tackling, middling at Marking, disaster at Positioning. He’s slow but can run all match. I’ll get his DL up to at least Accomplished so he can be one of our subs when we are finally restricted to five on the bench. Eventually I’ll get him to unlearn that Trait.  |
Mickey Morris, ST C
I think he’ll ultimately be the best of this litter. His Physicals aren’t the greatest but so many attacking Technicals are damn good. A 13 Finishing already? Are you serious?! I can see his Leadership going up and after some Macey tutoring his Determination and Personality improving, meaning I hope he’s our future Captain. Just not 100% sure he’s Premiership-worthy.  |
Jason Cosgrove, D RC, DM
There’s a lot to like about this kid, just not his Marking and Tackling. I’ll definitely be focusing on his quickness and unlearning that trait. Even if he gets speedy that Crossing means he’ll probably never get used as a right wingback. I’m really excited about his Bravery, Teamwork, and Work Rate.  |
Colin Cockbill, D LC, WB L
Here’s a lad I’m very excited about. I’ll immediately work him to get his DC up to Natural because that height and Jumping Reach tells me he can excel there. I mean, he’ll probably excel at DL too but I don’t see him supplanting Rice there while I’m sure he’ll displace O’Shea, who will be mentoring him. And again with that horrible Trait!!!  |
Kris Newton, GK
This sleepy-eyed ginger is going to have a long career at Brixton. A Model Citizen. Wow. I won’t have Legg mentor him to get that Determination up though because I don’t want his personality to change. I’ll probably have to throw him a bone every so often to keep his playing time happiness up. Or just pay him loads.  |
Youth Candidate Match
The match between the Intake and established U18 youths starts in favor of the old hats when Flynn recovers a rebound of Hollet’s shot and makes it in from a tight angle. The new kids on the block tie it up a quarter hour later when M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-R-I-S gathers a corner kick and boots it in from 12 yards out. The other new striker, Carolan, gets an even easier one just after 30’ courtesy of a low cross from right midfielder Walker, Texas Ranger. From there the game devolves into both sets of forwards trying long shots with no success. Walker gets POM and the entire defense, less the player who won’t be signed (Buckle), stunk up the joint. Weird. Brixton U18s 1:2 Brixton Youth Candidates I try not to second-guess myself but dare I sign Buckle? Maybe make him a DMC? Scouting As mentioned earlier, I would like an extra AMC and maybe an extra DMC. I search for all the newbies that fit that bill, have a reasonably good Natural Fitness, and have a good or neutral personality. I don’t have any mentors for midfield so I gotta avoid the bad kids. 892 kids fit the bill. That’s a lot. I don’t scout the ones from major teams (like, League One and above) because I know there is no way they’ll come to Brixton so I end up scouting only 85. I send out the scouts and they return the first night with 33 reports. Thirty-three! That’s amazing! Of those only one is interested and worthy. He is very interesting though. He plays for AFC Liverpool but hails from Wrexham. He’s Natural at AMC, Competent at MC, and Unconvincing at ST. His Physicals are damn fine for his age and his Mentals are pretty good with only Concentration and Positioning being crap. My scouts aren’t impressed but I’ll probably ask my AssMan for his assessment because I can’t believe he’s only rated 2.5 in Potential Ability. I’ll show you Dave Doran’s card if he signs with us. Sundry Items I’m having fun with Midjourney AI still and I think I’m getting better at it. One option I was considering before the realization of AI hit me was just screen-shooting FM14 players, then cropping the images, then simulating FM14 for a year to get age progressions. That may have been hella time consuming so I’m glad I found MJ. |
March 2020
Bang out of order Every month seems to have a theme. This month is no different. Can you make a wild guess on what it is? Training Matters I have handed all Senior training matters over to my AssMan. I don’t seem to be screwing up the youngsters so I’ll keep managing them. If this doesn’t work then I guess I’ll just have to live with the fact that I suck at FM18 training. (I’ll loan out or ship off all our really good players next season.)  Financial Matters We’re in the red again for the season. We lost £91,210 in February, all those away games, bringing our season loss to £51,273. Board Confidence Up one percent to 91% and still “Untouchable.” Dynamics On 18 February James Jefcoate, our Vice Captain, moved up to the Team Leader level of the team hierarchy. He sits there with Eddie Macey, our Captain, which only makes sense. On 26 February O’Shea moves back up to Influential Players due to his relationship with me. The game engine didn’t ask me how I feel about it. Player Development On the first of the month I assign some tutoring. I’d been holding off until the new youths came in and so now’s the time. Legg gets to mentor Adrian Lee, as Kris Newton doesn’t need it. O’Shea gets to mentor Colin Cockbill because in the one day of training he’s already unhappy, telling me his Professionalism is below 12. Macey then gets Mickey Morris but not right now as he’s learning the Knock Ball Past Opponent Trait. I ended up signing Terry Buckle after all, just so he can be a DMC body for the U18s. When I was adding his data into my spreadsheet I noticed that for his Favoured Personnel list he has eight members of the Backroom Staff listed. I wonder if this means he won’t be a thorn in anybody’s side? I also noticed on his Scouting Report that my AssMan believes he can successfully be retrained as a DMC, so that’s a relief. One thing I noticed when looking at my Roster Management spreadsheet is that I won’t have many central defenders in the U23s next year. Matter of fact, only Collopy is planned to be there. I also won’t have any left fullbacks there. Ergo, I’ve offered Padraig Murphy a contract to take him through the end of 2021 so he can provide cover at both positions. Remember how I was worried about bringing in too many players with bad personalities into the U18s? Ronnie Hollett being one of them? Well, he spontaneously went from Unambitious to Balanced due to “the squad’s general character” having “a positive effect on [him] lately.” Pretty darned cool. One last note: Mickey Morris’ appraisal improved after he signed, he’s now a 4-star recruit. Other players who have 4 stars are expected to be League One quality so I’m guessing with the built-in fog-of-war he’ll eventually be Championship-worthy. Fingers crossed! The Days Between Cup draw time! For the Semi Final round of the Southern League Cup, we get to face Bath at home on 11 April. We faced them in the same round for the cup last year, beating them six-nil, in Bath. So you’re saying there’s a chance?! The loan report comes in and I’m mostly pleased. I find it odd that our goalies aren’t doing better than average. To balance that out, I’m glad that the others are rating higher than 7.0.  And then I get news that my U18 Coach Maximilian Suppan heads out to manage Nuneaton, a club in the Conference North. Jerk. I hope we get them in a cup next year so I can refuse to shake his hand. Time to find a replacement now! I find this guy immediately, Andrew Brennan. I can’t believe he was just out there unemployed. He’s a recently retired player with an 18 Defending Coaching and 17 Working With Youngsters. Amazeballs.  |
Merthyr Town are currently 3rd in the league table and on a five-game winning streak so this presents somewhat of a challenge. Three out of four sideline players today are second choice so I hope that doesn’t come back to haunt us.
Southern League Premier Division vs. Merthyr Town, 4 March 2020  Formation: Shovel (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, DM r, DM l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c) Starting XI: Legg, Parker, Pilcher, Nightingale, Jefcoate, Coates, Roberts, Robinson, Taylor, Pugh, Macey Subs: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Smith, Harding, Watkins, Leary, Rae Disaster almost comes 20 minutes in when we get carved up in the defense but the crossbar saves us some embarrassment, like the kind Macey had when he botched a 1v1 just 3 minutes in. Pugh then gets cursed by the crossbar minutes later. Just before a third of the match goes by Macey, he of 3 Heading, once again uses his forehead to get us on the board, thanks to a Parker endline cross. (Robinson had cut inside for some reason so he couldn’t receive Taylor’s pass to the right side.) And then the FMing kicks in when our entire back line tries to do an offside trap, which is not in the team instructions, and stand their ground while an enemy striker continues ahead. The initial strike hit the right post but he immediately got the rebound and sent it in. They quickly strike again with their other striker pressing ahead while our defense settles in for a spot of tea. We tie the game in an incredibly similar situation back in our match against Brantham back in January when Coates sends in a screamer from 25 yards out. It came from a direct pass by Pugh from the right corner. Naturally, the ball had to go off the underside of the crossbar. The theme for the game or the month? In an attempt to seize momentum I switch us to the Diamond and go Attacking; I bring Rae on and Roberts off to get that Target Man on the field. This almost immediately pays dividends but Macey’s shot is just wide. With 48 seconds remaining in extra time, Robinson’s errant cross, after a bunch of other errant passes, passes Rae and in his pursuit of the ball he is tripped. Taylor steps up for the penalty shot and . . . and we escape a home disaster. No call to Jake, from State Farm, for us. I switch to the Club, go all defensivey, and bring on Smith at central centreback and Harding for the left Mezala, sending off Pugh and Robinson. Coates almost gets a second free kick goal but it heads wide only to be intercepted by an offsides Harding. Then the final whistle. Damn, that was close. POM: Alan Coates 8.7 (1 goal, 5 key passes)  So did I praise them for a great comeback? Or did I chastise them for sloppy play? I calmly told them, “You were poor out there. We need to be much better.” Everyone but the late subs were fired up. I wanted to praise Coates for his POM award but sometimes saying too much is not for the best. (Again, we make almost £11,000 from the match.) While we were busy raising my blood pressure, Kemar was raising Man City’s in the Fifth Round of the FA Cup, scoring in the 80th to get Huddersfield within one score. He rated a 7.8 in the match with all three of his shots on target. I give him a call to let him know I think he’s awesome; he agrees and thanks me. :-D I noticed that he’s a bid jaded, which is concerning, but I cannot figure out how to speak to the manager of Huddersfield to get him rest. The Days Between Padraig Murphy signs his new contract right after the match. It’s nice to have that bit of business done. I sent my scouts out looking for left wingers on 1 March as I think Pugh is going to leave in the summer either by transfer or loan but there’s nobody in the wings who will be better than League Two. (See what I did there?) They aren’t finding anyone so I search for youths who are left-footed but only play on the right. I find some promising ones but will have to wait for the scout reports to know if I’ve found someone. If we strike out again, I’ll start looking for older players. On 5 March O’Shea finally realizes I’m phasing him out and wants to discuss the matter. I could stiff arm him but I’ll try my hand at Man Management. I manage to mollify him by promising he’ll be getting more time. Later that evening our new U18 Coach Brennan agrees then 5 hours later AMC David Doran signs. He’s a pretty decent looking AMC who should stick around for 3 or 4 years.  O’Shea isn’t the only one who bugs me this week. Bill Taylor wants a new contract. He’s got two more years on his current contract but, damn, he’s a beast and I want to keep him. I promise I’ll offer him a new one come the end of the season. Enough administrative stuff now, time for some footy. Farnborough scored on us twice when they were 16th in the league. They are now 10th so we’ll probably end the match tied at four apiece. In that match we also gave up a goal while we were up one man. I don’t believe we had done that before or since. Southern League Premier Division vs. Farnborough, 7 March 2020  Formation: Diamond (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, DMC, MR, ML, AMC, ST r, ST l) Starting XI: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Smith, O’Shea, Rice, Ferguson, Hibbert, Leary, Harding, Rae, McLeish Subs: Legg, Collopy, Parker, Roberts, Watkins, Pugh, Thirlwell So of course our first attempt results in the ball hitting a post. As does our second. Their first attempt sees two of our players sliding in for tackles that are easily dodged, resulting with a perfect low cross and we’re down again; O’Shea could have intercepted the ball but didn’t even try. Five minutes into the second half with us pretty much on full-on attacking, Rae has a perfect chance for a header but of course he hits the crossbar. After 60’ I yank Rae and McSlump for Thirlwell and Watkins. Of course it takes 15 minutes for us to even get a shot but luckily it’s Watkins nodding in a Rice cross. I don’t let my foot off the gas. Doesn’t matter, we get only one more chance and I swear Spiderman was in goal, snatching a Watkins shot when an actual human would not have been close. POM: By some freakin’ miracle Gary Leary 7.5 (2 key passes, 2 chances created)  I was half-right, we ended in a tie but I was six goals too generous. Odd thing is, there were several players late into the game that were rating 6.3 and 6.4 but nobody finished lower than 6.6 so I can’t fine anybody or have a reasonable excuse for a chat. |
The Days Between
I should keep track to see how many times we hit the woodworks over the month. This is already annoying. I think if we fail to demolish our next opponent I’ll institute an actual Attacking formation. Kemar gets another goal for Huddersfield on Sunday but he’s still jaded. I swear to Cthulhu if he gets injured by their pin-head manager I will burn their stadium to the ground. I figured out how to talk to their manager and he totally isn’t listening to me. If after his next game he’s still Jaded I’m going to recall him. And then I actually look at their schedule and notice that they are out of all cups and thus will have 6 to 8 days between matches now. On 10 March I get one of those highly desired emails from my Head of Youth Development. This time it’s to let me know that Glyn Davies is now a League Two talent. He’s still Unambitious but his Determination has gone from 7 to 10 since late July 2019 and this email says the squad’s general character still is having a positive effect. Maybe by August he’ll no longer be Unambitious. Later that morning, I get even better news. Tommy Watkins has Premier League talent according to my AssMan. Hell yeah! Yes, I’ll be selling Hibbert off to the highest bidder this summer. Tommy’s mentoring by Macey from July to December 2019 didn’t go great so maybe we’ll try it again next year. The same email says that GK Adrian Lee will be almost as good as O’Keeffe. I expect him to become our primary backup in 2023/2024, assuming we have gotten rid of Chick Legg and Robert Webb by then. This will be my 200th game in charge of Brixton. I hope that Brixton will be in the Premier League by the time I get to 1,000. I mean, 800 would be better but we gotta be realistic. Hitchin, let me keep my win percentage at or above 96% please. Also, due to that favorable report on Glyn Davies, I’m giving him some bench time and I hope to bring him on at some point. If he acquits himself well then I’ll permanently move him to the Seniors. Southern League Premier Division at Hitchin, 11 March 2020  Formation: Diamond Starting XI: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Pilcher, Nightingale, Rice, Coates, Hibbert, Pugh, Taylor, Thirlwell, McLeish Subs: Legg, Parker, Collopy, Davies, Watkins, Leary, Macey I choose to be Assertive in a pre-match speech for the first time because of how poorly we’ve played so far this month. Only Rice, today’s Captain, is inspired. Poop. But wait! The opening scene doesn’t end immediately. It goes on for 1:25, that’s when our slow build up ends with a Hibbert cross to McLeish in the middle, who sends in soft effort from 7 yards out. Hot damn! At 2:40 McLeish receives Rice’s long ball forward toward the left corner, he runs with it a bit then sends a pretty pass to Thriller’s head and I begin relax. I then must begin tallying hits on the wood works. Thriller got one and only one because around the 40th minute he managed to pull his groin and I had to bring him off at the half. I tell the lads to not be complacent as after that first 3 minutes we’ve been meh with only 3 of 10 shots on target. It takes 71 minutes for a third goal but it was a Brixton Classic: Right Midfielder low cross to the Advance Forward around the six-yard line and he one-shots it in. Said forward was Tommy Watkins, he of the Premier League potential, who was Thriller’s replacement. I throttle back at 80’ and go Defensive. That does the trick and I am exactly at a 96% win rate. POM: Ashley Hibbert 9.0 (2 assists, 3 key passes, 2 chances created)  Oh dread. Thriller will be out with that pulled groin for 5 to 8 days. Jesus and Mary Chain! Alan Coates completed 135 passes in that match!!! Davies wasn’t phenomenal but I think I’ll move him up anyway. What’s a solid victory without a new contract demand? This time it’s Tom Johnstone. He is The Answer at right fullback, 5-star potential meaning Premier League, so I’ll have to bite the bullet on this one. He wants £450 per week with a £140 appearance fee. Effing agent wants £3,900 for himself, greedy prick. The Days Between In the Pre-Match Tactical Advice Summary email from my AssMan I get notice that we are one win away from promotion. Excellent, Smithers… (This sentiment is later dampened by the fact that we have to win AND some other teams have to lose.) This is further evidenced by the fact that we have a league pre-match press conference. As expected it’s full of traps set by the “Experienced and deceitful” journalist Simon Hillier. He even brings up how awesome Kemar is. There must have been 15 to 20 questions. I’m sure an FMing is coming. Redditch are currently 22nd in the league, just one point above the relegation zone. I hope we add to their misery. Southern League Premier Division vs. Redditch, 14 March 2020  Formation: Diamond Starting XI: O’Keeffe, Parker, Pilcher, O’Shea, Jefcoate, Roberts, Watkins, Leary, Harding, Macey, Rae Subs: Legg, Johnstone, Smith, Ferguson, Robinson, Davies, McLeish Another quick start for us today when Harding bazookas a Watkins pass in through traffic after only 52 seconds. Pilcher adds to Redditch’s (in blue in white today) misery with a direct header from Harding’s corner kick. I begin to worry our strikers won’t contribute today but I only have to wait until the 19th for Macey to do a short cross for Rae to head it in. At the half I get a rare 100% positive reaction from my Calm telling of them to carry on being awesome. Rae’s brace at 50’ adds to my pleasure of our strikers scoring, as does newly-on McLeish’s just before 76’. POM: Alex Rae 9.5 (2 goals, 1 assist, 2 key passes, 2 chances created)  Today’s greedy agent hanging around my office entrance is Liam Roberts’. No. Go away. |
The Days Between
Oh dread. Macclesfield’s scouting report shows a lot of 2-star Current Ability players with a good number of 3.5 and 4-star Potential Ability players. This could be a challenge. So after striking out finding a left winger to bank against Pugh’s departure I scouted all the youth intakes in Scotland. Nobody, no matter how much they suck, wants to move to Brixton. Time to beat the bushes in Wales and Northern Ireland now! It’s been a while since we’ve had any international duty news. We’ll be without Alan Coates from 22 March to 1 April to join England’s U19 squad; he will miss two matches. Huddersfield will be without Kemar from 26 March to 1 April to join England seniors. Now onto what could possibly be our first loss since Chelsea kicked us out of the FA Cup. FA Trophy Quarter Final at Macclesfield, 17 March 2020  Formation: Shovel (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, DM r, DM l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c) Starting XI: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Pilcher, Nightingale, Rice, Coates, Ferguson, Hibbert, Taylor, Pugh, Macey Subs: Legg, Parker, Collopy, Smith, Watkins, Thirlwell, Rae I love seeing the Shadow Striker role work well. I love it more when it’s Bill Taylor providing the magic. I love it even more when he scores not even five minutes in. Also, there was an obligatory hit off the post by him. Pugh also hit the left post but the rebound went to Hibbert who was able to do some crazy side kick thingy that gives us some more breathing room just after 48’. By 60’ we have four yellows and Macey is underperforming. I decide to wait five more minutes to switch to the Club. Almost immediately Rice picks up our fifth yellow so I immediately switch things. You know what this means, though, right? Yep, spot on 79’ Rice nudges an opponent at the endline while a long, desperate pass was already headed to the stands. O’Keeffe seems to be cursed having faced so many penalties. Also of course, I forgot this month’s theme is the woodworks so we maintain our two-goal lead. The next 14 minutes are stressful but we enjoy the bus ride home, singing a victory song. POM: Alan Coates 8.0 (2 key passes, 2 chances created)  Wowza, that was a squeaky-bum match. We managed to close out the game with no further monkey business, i.e. more yellow cards. The Days Between Now that we’re on to the FA Trophy Semi Final we need to find out who we play. Wrexham is still in the mix so I’m hoping we face them. Oh sweet! Not only do we face them but we host them! You’re going down, Red Dragons! (That means something completely different if you’re an AD&D fan.) More international call-ups! Simon McAdam for Northern Ireland U19s, Gareth O’Keeffe for Ireland U21s, and Meilir Pugh for Wales U19s. I’m glad my players are being recognized. I’m sad that I’ll have to field two weakened squads at the end of the month. Congleton are no slouches it turns out. The scouting report shows they are slightly weaker than Macclesfield. Despite that, I’m not fielding our best mostly due to tiredness and up-coming internationals. FA Vase Quarter Final vs. Congleton, 20 March 2020  Formation: Shovel Starting XI: O’Keeffe, Parker, Collopy, O’Shea, Jefcoate, Roberts, Ferguson, Robinson, Davies, Leary, Thirlwell Subs: Legg, Johnstone, Pilcher, Harding, Watkins, Macey, McLeish We open the scoring with a Leary goal through the forest after the pinball pinged around the big box for a bit after a corner. Four minutes later he gets a brace when he was left all alone on the left side of the box whilst half of Congleton were trying to mug Robinson, only to have a sliding tackle by their defender Glenister sends it right to Gary. It only takes another 240 seconds for Thriller to appear, beating a one-on-one and shooting from a tight angle. His brace was another one-on-one but this time it was up the gut and went under the goalie’s crotch. Sadly, not long after the restart Gary Leary suffers a foot injury bad enough to cause his immediate replacement. The woodwork tally was 1 for Congleton, 0 for us. There of course were several free kicks. One of ours by Roberts went straight to Collopy’s head to O’Shea’s foot to the back of the net. Good play, boys! Other news on the themes front: Congleton commited six slide tackles today. The first one bit them in the arse but all the others were successful. They manage to not hurt any of my players, thankfully. POM: Marcus Thirlwell 9.4 (2 goals, 2 key passes, 1 chance created)  The doctor’s report, not Hibbert’s, comes in and we’ll be losing Leary for 4 to 5 weeks. Ouch, that hurts. I’ll probably start using Hibbert as my second AML so Watkins can be my primary AMR. Maybe one of the youths will step in some. |
The Days Between
Our next match, going on over to Basingstoke, could see us seizing a promotion meaning we have another pre-match press conference. No trap questions, which worries me. Yeah, I know, paranoia will destroy ya. If younz all remember, I like Basingstoke in real life. In the game I edited their finances so they have an Underwriting Sugar Daddy. Cheeky! Also in the game, I hope they lose so we can finally seal that promotion. With Coates already away, and Liam Roberts and Ferguson a bit knackered, I bring up Noulas and McAdam from the U23s to start. Hope I’ve made no mistakes! Southern League Premier Division at Basingstoke, 24 March 2020  Formation: Shovel Starting XI: Legg, Johnstone, Pilcher, Smith, Rice, Noulas, McAdam, Watkins, Taylor, Hibbert, McLeish Subs: Webb, Parker, Nightingale, Harding, Robinson, Thirlwell, Rae The tunnel talk isn’t too long but I take time to give a nod to Connor Smith who gets today’s captaincy. Again, our opponents start in with the slide tackles and again the first one bites them in the kiester. It takes a little longer but ultimately Taylor spots an unmarked Dr. Hibbert on the left and he slots it in to the far lower corner. A few minutes later Hibbs returns the favor and Taylor blasts one in. Hibbs also smacks the left post once today. Our third goal is a fluke as Johnstone tries to cross but it appears to be heading in so the goalkeep kneels to receive it. Watkins runs in front of the goalie and whiffs on kicking the ball in but its own spin sends it in. At least that’s the way it looked from afar. McAdam gets a goal in his first action of the season pretty simply as nobody challenged him standing near the arc after a Watkins free kick from the right. Simon gets a brace a few minutes later on a nearly identical play except this time the ball initially goes to Noulas. The only action for them in the second part of the match involves…a ding off the crossbar! That is, until I let hubris in the front door and never switch us to Defensive; they intercept a long pass and we can’t stop a good cross but the header should have been easily stopped by Chicken Fucker, but as we all know, he’s just not the same anymore. POM: Simon McAdam 9.4 (2 goals)  The game actually faulted Nightingale for a failed interception on that goal. He rated a 6.2. He got a scolding in the locker room. Rice and Smith had no reaction to my Passionate speech about how amazing they are to have won promotion so I individually address them. They get happy after that. Sometimes if you praise too much, people with switch off. I pressed my luck and got no Whammies. The Days Between Worcester still has yet to draw a match. They have 24 wins and 12 losses. So strange. Not so strange? Kemar Kirkpatrick getting his first cap for England and scoring as a sub on his debut. I want to call him up and congratulate him but the email only has a button that reads “Speak to Kirkpatrick about Form”. Maybe I’ll get a different email about the international? Speaking of his form, he’s still currently second in goals for the Premier League. Then something dawns on me. I watch the match. They play with one striker in a Poacher role. Kemar came on at the beginning of the second half in a friendly against Wales. A 17 year-old is England’s second best striker and he comes from our academy?! It was only a friendly, but... That’s simply amazing! Okay, we’ve secured promotion now it’s time to lock up winning the league. With that in mind I’m putting all available players on the bench so they can get in on the fun too. I might even put Webb in if we’re way ahead at 60 minutes. Southern League Premier Division vs. Shortwood, 28 March 2020  Formation: Shovel Starting XI: Legg, Johnstone, Pilcher, O’Shea, Rice, Roberts, Ferguson, Watkins, Taylor, Hibbert, Rae Subs: Webb, Parker, Collopy, Nightingale, Jefcoate, Smith, Harding, Robinson, Davies, Macey, Thirlwell, McLeish Rae almost scores just 13 seconds in but the GK knocks it aside. Gladly, we only have to wait four minutes for Liam Roberts to finish what Rae started. Problem is though, the ref is card happy and we pick up three of four issued over the next 13 minutes. After I cancel the “Get Stuck In” instruction Taylor steals the ball in our end and we march up field where Johnstone sends a cross to Rae at the far post and he heads it in from a tight angle. Rae gets his brace right before the first whistle and from then on it’s smooth sailing. Until I’ve made all the subs and Thirlwell gets disposed and we are proven frauds when it comes to defending crosses from the right 18-yard box line when there’s a late-arriving opponent. That’s three in the last two months. And then…Collopy refuses to play possession and sends a long ball, which of course is intercepted and when Jefcoate wins the ball back just in front of our box he passes it to Nightingale whose First Touch plummeted to negative one or something so the ball is stolen and Webb is caught flat-footed. We do end up winning the match and the league but this kind of reminds me of last year’s final game where we underperformed during a big match. I’m not as dissatisfied, but…close to it. POM: Alex Rae 8.8 (2 goals)  I know I’m to blame for easing off the gas. We did hit the crossbar today. Again. Of course. |
The Days Between
It’s really a week before our next match but the end of the month is coming up so it seemed more natural to say, “Days”. On the 31st I’m starting to get some scouting reports on Scottish kids who want to move to the big city. An amateur team in Glasgow with a 51,866 all-seater stadium has several players that aren’t 100% against joining Brixton. I want one AMC and one DL, and there are two AMCs and one DL to choose from. One AMC is significantly better than the other so I’ll offer him first but he has 16 Scottish teams vying for his service. I open up negotiations with him, Ally Sinclair, but he wants to be a Backup immediately and requires a £750/week salary. SKIP! The second-best one has the same requirements. On to the DL! He totally stiff-arms me. My scouts were extremely wrong on these kids. What the deuce?! The Fourteen My main love of Football Manager is player development, especially following improvements over the years. I keep detailed records of it and spend a lot of time on it. I realize that I’m not doing myself justice in writing about that and find myself writing more about the matches. I’m going to try to do a better job of that. (With apologies to Y-O-D-A, Yoda.) So I’ve decide I’ll spend some time at the end of the month to address the key players I’m following. As it would be overly cumbersome to write about all the player, I’m going to focus just on the key fourteen players. Why fourteen? You have to have your starting eleven, of course. Your Starting XI, if you will. I like using different formations that sometimes require three players in the same area. For example, the Spade really requires three midfielders and the Club requires three centrebacks. And you have to have more than two good strikers in case one of them goes into a slump. Ergo, it looks something like this:  Really, in the future you’ll just be seeing the left half of the image with some notes to the right on maybe their improvements. For now I highlight what players I’m sure have outgrown us and will either be on loans next year or sold on. Realistically, after another year I’m sure Watkins will too have become too big for us. Johnstone too as he is rated 5.0. Yes, Cockbill is our best left-footed DC. Yes, Morris is our third best striker based on potential. Yes, I think Davies will overcome his low Determination (up to 10 now, started at 6) and his Unambitious personality. Heck, I’ve been able to mold Thirlwell so I feel confident I can with Davies. Summary This month’s theme was the woodworks. How many times did the ball bang off the crossbar and posts? Despite all that we first gained promotion and then won the league. A fully successful month. And I went the whole season not making any penile jokes at Shortwood’s expense.  That Was Then, This is Now Remember Chris Day and Joe Clark? Two central defenders that I brought on in the 2017 pre-season. Chris Day was our initial Vice Captain but only lasted two season; I didn’t renew his contract before it expired on 30 June 2019. He signed on with the Metropolitan Police but has only 12 appearances for them. He has no injuries so he’s just a spot player for them. Joe Clark only lasted a year at Brixton but was able to sign on with Harrow, a team in a league at our level, but stayed only one year there. He is now with Spalding, in a league below us, and has scored 5 goals for them this season. Not bad for a centreback! |
April 2020
Take these broken wings The end is nigh! Of the season, that is. We got some matches in April that will determine how many cups we remain in. All the league matches are solely about pride and developing youngsters, I don’t care too much about winning. Training Matters Well, my AssMan wasn’t any better so I’m taking things back over.  Financial Matters Lost just a smidge over £100k, bringing us to £156,447 in losses for the year. Board Confidence Still “Untouchable” but somehow slipped down to 90% despite winning the league. Dynamics No changes since last month, unsurprisingly. Player Development How many months in a row is this that Angelino Ferreira has been an absolute star? I think I’ll def be using him as DR2 and DC5 next year. Hibbert is Championship-level and his potential if five stars now so that means he’ll be a Premier League player. Delicious. Too bad I’ll have to sell him this summer. The Days Between Another good time of the year is when that email comes in highlighting youth players at Premier League clubs that are set to be released. I of course send my scouts a-looking. They are usually Championship potential with some being on the lower tier of Premier quality if they are at a huge club, like Chelsea, Liverpool, or one of the Manchesters. On to the first match of the month! Some players came back from international duty a little tired, bordering on jaded. Also, a number of players are getting into the low 90s in Match Sharpness so they’ll be getting starts today. With Leary injured and Pugh gassed Hibbert gets the start at ML even though he has no ability there. Macey is starting to grouse about lack of starts so I’m appeasing him. Southern League Premier Division at Dorchester, 4 April 2020  Formation: Diamond (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, DMC, MR, ML, AMC, ST r, ST l) Starting XI: Legg, Parker, Collopy, O’Shea, Jefcoate, Roberts, Robinson, Hibbert, Harding, Macey, McLeish Subs: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Pilcher, Smith, Davies, Watkins, Thirlwell Well, when your left central defender gets a card within the first three minutes you begin to worry. Well, I shouldn’t when I have great crossers and tall strikers who can play the Target Man role perfectly. Unfortunately Macey, who is “Very Consistent” keeps up with the Jekyll and Hyde routine, stealing the ball from the goalie only to send it into the side netting. POM: Derek McLeish 8.8 (2 goals, 2 key passes, 1 chance created)  I fine Macey a week for his 6.0 rating and Jefcoate an official warning for his 6.3. You can’t have your Captain and Vice Captain both playing like Poop Doggy Dogg on the same day. Macey accepts his fine while Jefcoate feels I was harsh. Suck it up, gentlemen! |
The Days Between
No news really. Scouting reports come in but it’s the same old story: Only crappy players are interested in us. We won our last match against Chippenham in uninspired fashion, after the game crashed mid-match. I surely hope this time around we or the computer don’t crash and burn. Southern League Premier Division vs. Chippenham, 8 April 2020  Formation: Diamond Starting XI: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Pilcher, O’Shea, Rice, Coates, Watkins, Pugh, Taylor, Macey, Rae Subs: Legg, Parker, Nightingale, Ferguson, Robinson, Davies, Thirlwell The embarrassment of O’Shea continues, he misses easy chances early on. He redeems himself after twenty, evidently all it took was for Taylor with a free kick, not Coates. Another Bill Taylor free kick gets headed in by Alex Rae for his 100th goal for Brixton. When a Chippendale gets sent off at 72’ I know we have won. POM: Bill Taylor 9.0 (1 assist, 6 key passes, 3 chances created)  Macey hasn’t scored in six matches. Time to have a talk. He agrees that he’s not done well of late and he’s confident he can turn it around. The Days Between Things have really tapered off. Just some more scouting of players with no future with us. Come on, players, now, smile at your brother, everybody get together, try to play for one another right now! Southern League Cup Semi Final vs. Bath, 11 April 2020  Formation: Diamond Starting XI: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Pilcher, Nightingale, Jefcoate, Coates, Hibbert, Pugh, Taylor, Macey, Thriller Subs: Legg, Parker, Smith, Roberts, Harding, Robinson, McLeish Oh yeah! At 2:22 Macey returns to form scoring on a one-on-one! Thriller gets in on the action too with a brace at 36’ and a triple right after the restart; it was a thing of beauty, a quick pivot-shoot from 25 yards out. His fourth is an easy tap in, all thanks to Macey. One downside: Last month’s theme returns in force as Thriller hit the post twice while on breakaways. POM: Marcus "Thriller" Thirlwell 9.8 (4 goals, 1 key pass)  Gotta love that Thriller is still thrilling! |
The Days Between
Good news, everyone! My Head of Youth Development now assesses Tom Johnstone as a “good player for most League One sides.” Love it! Another match against a team that is doing well in the league and still in contention for promotion. I believe St. Neots will try to make our life hell today. Southern League Premier Division vs. St. Neots, 15 April 2020  Formation: Diamond Starting XI: Legg, Parker, Smith, O’Shea, Jefcoate, Roberts, Robinson, Pugh, Harding, Rae, McLeish Subs: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Collopy, Ferguson, Watkins, Davies, Thirlwell The first action results in…a ping off the left post for the Saints. Nothing else happens for the first 46, which is when they beat us on the slow break; their striker and our central defenders were moving glacially, it was odd. After 65 minutes of nothing for us I have to pull the front three and put in Davies, Watkins, and Thirlwell. Immediate dividends happen courtesy of the strikers with Thriller feeding Watkins. Five minutes later Robinson feeds Thriller who puts it in to the upper left corner from a good distance. Robinson doesn’t wait long to feed Watkins for a near-post goal. Their goal at 85’ comes from a deflection off the wall so Chicken Legg wasn’t actually to blame. Unregardless™ it was a lacking display. POM: Andy Robinson 9.0 (2 assists, 4 key passes, 2 chances created)  Somehow we made around £22,000 from this match which is nearly double what we normally make. I have no idea why though. Le mystère! The Days Between I figured out the mystery of the extra money. It just happened to be when the £10,000 monthly fee from Huddersfield for Kemar’s loan came in. Yeah! Leary returns! He’ll get about 30 minutes. Rice was out with a gashed head and missed the last two games so he too will come in late. Truth to tell, I won’t be all busted up if we lose this match because I worry that the final will be in June and I really want the season to be over in May. Southern League Cup Semi Final vs. Nuneaton, 18 April 2020  Formation: Diamond Starting XI: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Pilcher, Collopy, Jefcoate, Coates, Hibbert, Pugh, Taylor, Macey, Thirlwell Subs: Legg, Parker, Nightingale, Rice, Ferguson, Leary, Watkins I switched up our Diamond formation from Standard mentality to Attacking. Let’s see if it works! It takes a while for our crossing to work but once Pugh figures out to aim low to Macey we go up one. Thriller injures himself almost immediately but then gets a fast break only to hit the woodworks. Uh-oh. Then he completely misses a header. He may have to come off at 45. He stays in but Leary and Rice get their return at 55’ and within two minutes Pilcher heads a corner in with the back of his head while looking at our bench. Very Harlem Globetrotters-esque. That’s enough to secure the victory and I’m satisfied, despite Thriller’s 6.0 that didn’t improve despite my halftime haranguing. POM: Eddie Macey 8.7 (1 goal, 4 key passes, 3 chances created)  Because I fined Macey for a 6.0 at the beginning of the month I too fine Thirlwell. I know sometimes when you fine a player or call them to the principal’s office you can shock them into increasing their Determination and I admit that’s what I’m going for. His is still at 9 and I want it up to double-digits. |
The Days Between
Bummer, Thirlwell accepted his fine and his Determination remained the same. Holy smokes! Huddersfield beat Manchester City even with Kemar making no impact; he rated 6.7 and was accurate on only 1 of 4 shots. The Terriers are up the 8th while the Citizens fall to 6th. Speaking of the Premier League, I notice that Crystal Palace are bottom of the table. I can’t wait for them to become our major rival and if they drop it might happen sooner than expected. Hibbert wants a new contract. I definitely have to sell him on this summer now. I ask Macey to handle the matter as I don’t need any distractions for the last six weeks of the season. Wrexham’s scouting report indicates they are a pretty good team but I still believe we can win. I think Bill Taylor and Alan Coates will be too tired to play so I’m really hoping that Noah Harding and Liam Roberts can fill their shoes adequately. Hot damn! Ferreira gets a call up for the Angolan U20s. I’m not 100% sure but this might be his first international duty. I think I learned a valuable lesson: Don’t schedule a U18 friendly for the same time as a U23 league match when you only have four players in the U23s. I did that and my U23 manager ignored which subs were available to him and he had the strangest of substitutions. He brought off the right DC at 18’ and the left DC at 26; they weren’t injured as far as I can tell. Then the guy who was brought in at 18’, who was in the AMC spot, was taken off at 32’ and replaced by a right winger with no knowledge of the AMC position. Ain’t that some shit. Yes! News come that Chick Legg is now a Team Leader! This will make it easier to move on from Jefcoate come the off-season. Now on to another cup semi-final. Wrexham is in the news a lot these days in real life but to me their significance is being the subject of Scott Brown's Let's Play of Football Manager 2014, where he took Wrexham to EPL and Champion’s League dominators. Again, I won’t mind if we lose this match. Due to tiredness in all three squads I’m naming eight subs today. FA Trophy Semi Final vs. Wrexham, 21 April 2020  Formation: Shovel (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, DM r, DM l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c) Starting XI: O’Keeffe, Parker, Pilcher, O’Shea, Jefcoate, Coates, Ferguson, Hibbert, Taylor, Pugh, McLeish Subs: Legg, Johnstone, Nightingale, Smith, Harding, Robinson, Macey, Rae Good crowd today with 3,330 butts in the seats. And this is when I notice that Wrexham’s form is Woeful, with three losses in a row, preceded by two ties. The fans may have been perplexed at first when they saw that McLeish got the start but he ended up with a brace. They didn’t have to wait long for his first goal, at 6:48, while his second came at almost exactly 57 minutes later. We still have problems with crosses, giving up a goal just before the first whistle. The other downer was a Parker injury with 15 minutes to go. POM: Derek McLeish 8.8 (2 goals)  Holy mother of gods. Parker is phuqqed. Out 7 to 8 months with damaged cruciate ligaments. I’ve never had an injury that bad before. Poor dude. His contract goes until 2021 plus he has an option. If he’s not fully recovered in a year I’ll activate his option so he can continue to rehab with us. He’s Conference National talent so he has a chance to contribute after his return. I have a chance to talk to him so I tell him we support him and encourage him to come back fighting. His morale increased. Pretty cool! Silver lining? Now I can bring up Angelino Ferreira. The Days Between On the good news front, even with us in three cup finals, our last game is still 30 May. We face Worcester in the FA Vase Final and the next Saturday we face them in the final league match of the season. We barely beat them, 1-0, back just before Xmas but that was at their stadium. I was hoping to give Ferreira his first start but he’s on international duty. So the start goes to U18 new youth Pat Lawford. Essentially, all of today’s starters are in the low 90s of Match Sharpness except Legg and Rae. Southern League Premier Division at Tiverton, 25 April 2020  Formation: Shovel Starting XI: Legg, Lawford, Nightingale, Collopy, Rice, Harding, Ferguson, Robinson, Davies, Leary, Rae Subs: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Smith, Roberts, Watkins, Hibbert, Thirlwell This was a boring match. Robinson crossed to Leary in the 14th minute and that was our sole goal. Rae and Thirlwell hit the bars three times between them; that theme wasn’t prevalent this month like last month but it was still hella annoying. Lawford did well, rating at 7.2. POM: Andy Robinson 8.3 (1 assists, 3 key passes, 2 chances created)  Despite our poor showing I told the lads they did well and everyone reacted positively. Including Rae, he of a 6.3 rating. I was hoping to admonish him in the dressing room but I’ll save that for my office. He acknowledges he sucked and his morale remains Perfect. |
The Week Between
Angelino Ferreira had a pretty good game for Angola, rating a 7.7 and assisting on a goal. Kemar Kirkpatrick scores again in a Huddersfield loss to Southampton, which is still good enough for second place in the EPL with 25 goals. His value is now up to £15.25 million. On the morning of the 28th I get a development email from my AssMan indicating that Colin Cockbill can be slightly better than Tom Johnstone. Now, I have to assume this means Cockbill’s PA is greater than Johnstone’s current CA. So that would mean high League Two or low League One. Also, his PA is now rated up to three stars. It’s also at this time I notice his Determination went from 9 to 10, showing that O’Shea’s tutoring is starting to work. In further proof of the benefit tutoring, he’s no longer complaining about training being too hard so even though his personality is still Balanced, I’m sure his professionalism is now 12 or above. (In inconsequential news, I really don’t like Cockbill’s AI-generated face. The lighting is too dark on the right side of his face so I generated a new one.) In more inconsequential news but nonetheless makes me chuckle, Chelsea lost to QPR, who are in the Championship, in the FA Cup. Hahahahaha The Fourteen So here is my first version of The Fourteen image. Not sure if I like it or not.  On the positive side, Cockbill’s future assessment has increased. I think it will continue. On the neutral side, Nightingale and Davies saw their stars decrease but it’s not really that they’ve declined it’s just that other really good players have increased (like Coates and Kemar) but there is nothing above five stars so the stars for those two are just righting themselves, if that makes sense. Summary Another successful month under the belt. There wasn’t a theme though there was a fair sampling of previous themes: free kicks, woodworks, and slide tackles galore. We saw a significant injury to a winger and a devastating injury to our former preferred right fullback, who is also an important substitute on the left side. Well, you know, you take the good, you take the bad, you take ‘em both and there you have, the facts of life.  That Was Then, This is Now As I was looking for the next topic of TWTTIN (twat tin?) I was reminded that Kevin Parker had a previous bad injury. On 17 February 2018 he fractured his skull jumping during a match. He was projected to be out 3 to 4 months but ended up being out 3 months, missing 17 matches. Shortly after that, he gashed his head and I’m surprised he didn’t get a concussion. His scouting report doesn’t show that he’s injury prone but I’d have to say he’d have a 1 Luck score if there was such a thing.  Poor chap, he should give up on jumping. |
May 2020
High on emotion We’re in the home stretch. The season will end on 30 May after five league matches and three cup finals, all of which we must win. Training Matters Oh hallelujah! No bad training reports! I’ve done something right but have no idea what. What a relief!  Financial Matters We lost around £74,000 last month, bringing us to almost £231,000 in losses for the season. Board Confidence Climbing northward, up to 91% again. Dynamics No changes. I can expect that will remain so for a couple of months, at least. Player Development Remember that Terry Buckle kid I almost didn’t sign from the youth intake? And I said part of the reason I wasn’t going to sign him was he was too short? He’s already gone from 175cm to 178cm. At this rate he might just cut it as a slow DC! On the flip side, he’s made absolutely no progress on learning DMC. Nothing. Not even Awkward. I know I don’t know his Versatility rating but I’m seeing this trend in a lot of players. I wonder if somehow that part of the code was always broken. Time to head to the googles! I found nothing except to be patient. :-\ Kings Langley are at the bottom of the league by an 8 point margin. Sounds like a perfect time to get some bench time to Ferreira, for development purposes, and Steve Pike, a U18 DL who I promised would get to come in off the bench. Our Angolan right fullback gets the start today at DR and I believe this is the first starter for us who wasn’t from the UK or Ireland. (I’m not counting Kemar as a Jamaican as he’s an internationaler for England now.) Southern League Premier Division vs. Kings Langley, 2 May 2020  Formation: Diamond (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, DMC, MR, ML, AMC, ST r, ST l) Starting XI: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Pilcher, O’Shea, Rice, Coates, Watkins, Pugh, Taylor, Macey, Thirlwell Subs: Legg, Ferreira, Pike, Nightingale, Davies, Leary, McLeish What can you say about a match that sees your right striker score four goals, your left striker score two, and your opponent have a man sent off? Ass kicking? Of course, their only score comes from a free kick, albeit indirectly. That was countered by Coates’ free kick later that goes in directly. He’s getting good there. POM: Eddie Macey 9.8 (4 goals, 2 key passes, 1 chance created)  Looking at the match stats, we had five players have at least five key passes. Better yet, Coates and Taylor are now Natural at DMC and AMC, respectively. That means maybe we are going to change primary formations soon. I just need Watkins to get Natural at MR. |
The Week Between
About that formation change. After an afternoon of tinkering, reading articles, and watching videos, I’ve decided not much, really. I'm going to stay with the Diamond for my Attacking formation, the Shovel for my Control formation, and a modified version of the Club modified for Defensive postures I’ll call the Cudgel. I might swap out the Shovel for the Spade at times depending on how well we are defensively. We have not been that good on that front of late, giving up goals way too easily. Two of our coaches are being sent to classes to improve their Continental licenses. This is very good news as they’ll be able to unlock their maximum potential. Another creampuff we’ll probably barely beat and give up at least one goal to. Southern League Premier Division at Weston-super-Mare, 9 May 2020  Formation: Diamond Starting XI: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Pilcher, O’Shea, Rice, Coates, Watkins, Pugh, Taylor, Macey, Thirlwell Subs: Legg, Ferreira, Smith, Roberts, Leary, Harding, Rae Just before 6:00 Macey cracks the seal on not-so-super-Mare. Another six go by when our opponent score for us. That goal could have been Thriller’s had he only slid sooner. Just minutes later, Coates The Thief steals another ball, gets it to Macey, who serves a silver platter to Thriller with a goal on it. A repeat comes a little later but it’s Macey with the steal when Weston tried to do a short pass on a free kick right outside our box. Thriller’s trick comes from Olde Fashion Brixton Build Up from the back, up the right wing, and an inch-perfect Watkins cross from deep. At 70’ I use the Cudgel formation for the first time. It fails us almost immediately. -_- And again in the final minute. -_- -_- POM: Marcus “Thriller” Thirlwell 9.6 (3 goals, 2 key passes, 1 chance created)  Did I go defensive too early? Do my wingbacks suck? They kept coming in and not stopping the wingers even though they have the “Hold Position” command. The Week Between Freakin’ sweet! Watkins is now a Natural at MR. Yes! I fixed the Cudgel. The wingbacks weren’t set to “Stay Wider” but I changed that. I’ll try it in the next match to give it a test. Huddersfield battered Middlesbrough four-nil with Kemar leading the way with 3 goals and 1 assist, good enough for a 9.7 rating. Now Middlesbrough is 20th and Crystal Palace is 19th. With one match left Crystal Palace is going down. Fulham is the third team in the drop zone. If they beat Tottenham (4th) and Swansea loses to Arsenal (2nd), Fulham will be safe. Kemar’s brilliance doesn’t go unnoticed by the press so I have to take a question about his long-term development. I say we’re pleased that he is putting the building blocks in place. Speaking of Kemar, he’s getting called up by the England coach for the European Championship, starting on 13 June. The final is 12 July. We have to hope that England wash out in the group stage or he’s not going to return in time for training camp. Even when he does he’s going to be Jaded beyond belief. He’s made it to the big time. Do you see what I see? A star, a star, shining nice and bright, he shall be a starter someday. He shall be a starter someday.  His Determination is up to 11 now and his personality is no longer Unambitious, advancing up to Fairly Professional. I heart you Football Manager. Two players get a chance to possibly shine coming off the bench. Padraig Murphy is a left-footed central defender in the U23s and Ben Pope is a right winger in the U18s. This is because I want my Starting XI fully fresh for a cup match on the 20th. We also have a match on the 18th. That match will see quite a few more U23 and U18 players. Southern League Premier Division at Slough, 16 May 2020  Formation: Diamond Starting XI: Legg, Ferreira, Nightingale, Collopy, Jefcoate, Roberts, Robinson, Leary, Harding, Rae, McLeish Subs: O’Keeffe, Murphy, Smith, Ferguson, Pope, Davies, Hibbert Well, we are usually the early scorers but Slough caught us sleeping and score 21 seconds in. Rae could have leveled 80 seconds later but hit the post. McLeish is the one who gets us level 12 minutes later. It was an 80 second lead though as free kicks have become our weakness. Then McLeish gets them on the restart. This is when I start freebasing Pepto-Bismol. Not even McLeish’s hat trick can stop my drinking. Not even his fourth goal can slacken my pace. After the half we get more ping-ponging and my drinking continues. Not even McLeish’s fifth goal stops my doom spiral. A straight red when Leary was hacked down from behind does appease me. This time the Cudgel works to perfection, keeping things under control for the final 25 minutes. POM: Derek McLeish 10.0 (5 goals, 1 key pass, 2 chances created)  Ferreira (6.4), Nightingale (6.3), and Collopy (6.2) all draw my ire but after the match only the latter two get official warnings. How Legg managed a 7.0 is beyond imagination. |
The Day Between
After the match I learn that Slough were fighting to avoid relegation. Somehow they have survived, for now, but that explains their tenacity. Nightingale and Collopy accept their warnings. Good. Another call up for Ferreira! Dangit, I was hoping he would be available for our cup matches. This puts a crimp in things. This match is for the African U20 Nations Qualification First Round Leg One. That’s a mouthful! The EPL season comes to a close and Kemar ends up in second place for goals scored. There’s no rest for the wicked though as he’s off to start training for the European Championship. If he gets in their first match, it will be against Portugal two days before his 18th birthday. They grow up so quick these day... Speaking of the EPL, Fulham, Crystal Palace, and Middlesbrough are getting relegated. Bristol City, Sunderland, and Aston Villa are promoting. Everton finished third and lost in the playoff. My scouts finish scouting all the youths of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. No luck. Maybe come June when I go looking for a senior left winger I’ll reevaluate some of them. Once we officially graduate into to the Conference South then we’ll be able to attract more interest. Because we are playing so many B Team players Hereford have a chance as we are only slightly better than them except Hibbert, who will be the left striker. He’s leaps and bounds better than any Hereford player. Southern League Premier Division vs. Hereford, 18 May 2020  Formation: Diamond Starting XI: Legg, Lawford, Smith, Murphy, Pike, Ferguson, Pope, Leary, Davies, Morris, Hibbert Subs: O’Keeffe, Ferreira, Collopy, Jefcoate, Roberts, Harding, McLeish We have a larger-than-normal crowd, 1,858 spectators who witness young M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-R-I-S get his first career goal just 3:29 in, when Hibbert’s first try got kicked away, right to The Mouse. Our second goal is from Glyn Davies who got the penalty after Ferguson got clattered to the ground. And wonder of wonders, a clean sheet for Chick Legg! POM: Mickey Morris 7.6 (1 goal, 3 key passes, 1 chance created)  It’s nice to see Morris shine on his debut. Poor Ben Pope came in with a 6.4. He’ll get a chance in the future to redeem himself, I’m sure. The Day Between I set up a final friendly for our U18s and figured what the hell, an away trip to a foreign club would be a good reward. In the recommended list, when you go to the Friendly Creation screen, I found one called AFC Halte. I figured it was French and scheduled it. Upon closer examination a couple of days later, it turns out AFC Halte-Là plays on the French island of Réunion, which for those who aren’t into geography, is roughly 435 miles east of Madagascar. FM2018 treats them as being in France so travel cost should not be astronomical. Oddly, FM also says their stadium is a neutral site. I’ll roll with it. I finally get a Player Development email on Angelino Ferreira proving what I’ve long suspected: Germans love David Hasselhoff. I mean, he’s a “Potential League One Talent”. (RIP Norm. We miss you, man!) Sweet! Macey has learned the trait Knocks Ball Past Opponent. Time to get him to tutor Morris. They are both excited by the prospect. Freakin’ sweet! Greenwich’s manager says they have a few extra nerves ahead of the match. Well, I hope to make it even more nervy. I predict a solid win. Southern League Cup Final vs. Greenwich (at Wembley), 20 May 2020  Formation: Diamond Starting XI: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Pilcher, O’Shea, Rice, Coates, Watkins, Pugh, Taylor, Macey, Thirlwell Subs: Legg, Ferreira, Nightingale, Roberts, Hibbert, Harding, McLeish O’Shea starts the scoring in a surprising fashion, using his foot. Naturally, it came in the aftermath of a free kick right outside the 18-yard box. He repeats himself nearly 40 minutes later. In between we simple dominated with a Thriller brace, a goal by our Captain, and both wingers get one apiece. POM: Marcus “Thriller” Thirlwell 9.6 (2 goals, 2 assists, 3 key passes, 2 chances created)  The nerve of the Greenwich coach! “Brixton aren’t as good as they think.” Right... I take the high road and don’t talk shit; I just praise my squad whenever I get a chance. |
The Days Between
I was hoping for a chance to play mind games in the presser but there were no tricky question. Their manager didn’t hold punches though, calling my success undeserved. I punch back from a follow-up question, calling the cad jealous. We barely squeaked by Worcester earlier in the season but that was in their home. I feel more confident about this match. FA Vase Final vs. Worcester (at Wembley), 23 May 2020  Formation: Diamond Starting XI: O’Keeffe, Lawford, Nightingale, Smith, Jefcoate, Roberts, Hibbert, Pugh, Harding, Rae, McLeish Subs: Legg, Johnstone, Collopy, Pilcher, Ferguson, Leary, Macey Rae gets injured early and our first action doesn’t come until the 27th but there’s no reason to panic as McLeish latches on to a free ball and scores. A second comes minutes later after we have some crazy no-look passes in the penalty area. With Rae’s injury, another foot injury, I go to the Shovel and bring on Ferguson. Noah Harding was doing poorly in the first half but his goal at 55’ pretty much seals the deal. Another goal 10 minutes later allows us to go to the Cudgel early. A complete stifling of Worcester ensues and we gather our second cup trophy. POM: Meilir Pugh 9.2 (1 goal, 2 key passes, 2 chances created)  Phew! Rae only out 1 to 2 days with a bruised ankle. Douchebag McClure still won’t acknowledge I’m the better manager and we’re the better team. Called us lucky and they were having an off day. They are third in the league and face us again in 7 days. They have to beat us by five points and hope that Merthyr Town lose to Farnborough while scoring zilch. Can’t wait to make it personal again in a week, turd. The Days Between Sure enough, The Non-League Paper comes a-knocking. Enthusiastic journalist Callum Baker asks what I think of those nasty comments. I take the high road again. Manchester United won the FA Cup over Southampton. For the players, Eddie Macey lead all scorers with 8 goals and also had the most assists with 7. Pugh and Taylor were 1 and 3 in average rating, posting 8.24 and 7.95, respectively. As these cup finals have become more and more important, the press conferences have grown shorter and shorter. No bulletin board material from the latest one. Just one last cup final match to get through. Torquay are of the same quality as the previous two so I expect a victory. They are reeling as they are getting relegated from two leagues up. Because they are on the south coast of England, the will be in the Conference South with us next season. Let’s give them a preview of the abuse they can expect then! (Oh, and because it’s our final cup match I’m filling the whole bench.) FA Trophy Final vs. Torquay (at Wembley), 26 May 2020  Formation: Diamond Starting XI: O’Keeffe, Johnstone, Pilcher, O’Shea, Rice, Coates, Watkins, Pugh, Taylor, Macey, Thirlwell Subs: Legg, Collopy, Smith, Nightingale, Jefcoate, Ferguson, Robinson, Leary, Davies, Rae, McLeish, Hibbert Woo!!! Almost 20,000 folks in the stands today! Big money coming our way! Macey appears to be offsides when he heads in a Taylor header but a Torquay defender was way out wide near the end of the pitch. How he’s so good with his brain-box with a Heading of 3 is way beyond me. The refs for-real help us, awarding a dubious penalty just before 30’ and Thriller lives up to his name. (That was his 57th goal of the season!!!) After that it’s just more Macey and more Thriller. Torquay come out strong for the second half but... Don’t call it a comeback! Because it wasn’t. They presented some opposition but after we kept disrupting their forays into our box they lost all motivation. POM: Marcus “Thriller” Thirlwell 9.1 (1 goal, 1 assist, 5 key passes, 4 chances created)  Wow! If you had told me we’d win all three cups AND concede no goals, I would have called you high. Our defensive form has been so poor I really expected some struggles. Hot damn! |
The Days Between
Another wow moment? We made £107,698 from the match. We’re ahead for the month but still behind for the season. I may have discovered a problem. I was checking the Competition tab where I noticed that for the three cups we just won the board confidences are all pegged at 55%. I hope this rights itself by the end of the season. I wonder if it doesn’t will it affect how much money I can negotiate on my new contract. As expected the press to try a couple of trap questions but I deftly side-step them just like Pugh does when the right fullback tries a sliding tackle. It’s the last match of the season and normally I wouldn’t be too concerned with a win. But it’s Worcester again and their HMFWIC needs to learn a lesson. Despite that, I’m using some U23 and U18 players. Most notably Colin Cockbill gets a start a left centreback for his team debut. After our last match I got emails about Ferguson and Harding being Accomplished at DMC and AMC so I’m hoping that means just one more match will get them to Natural. Ergo, they will probably remain in for the whole match. Southern League Premier Division vs. Worcester, 30 May 2020  Formation: Diamond Starting XI: Legg, Ferreira, Smith, Cockbill, Jenkins, Ferguson, Robinson, Leary, Harding, Morris, Rae Subs: O’Keeffe, Lawford, Collopy, O’Shea, Pike, Nightingale, Pope, Barnett, Noulas, Macey, McLeish, Thirlwell Oh wow! We have 4,353 fans today! Excellent! This is good news for the home fans as they get to witness the likely future at right striker when Mickey Morr’s sinks one in the 21st. It came from a nicely lobbed ball by Fergie, fulfilling the spirit of the ideal Regista, seeing an opportunity before the defense can recognize it. A quarter hour later Smith gets a header goal from Robinson’s corner. Rae seals it just after I made my subs, which also seals his POM award. POM: Alex Rae 8.4 (1 goal, 1 key pass, 1 chance created)  We made almost £67,000 from the match but the club have to shell out £105,000 for the squad bonus payout for winning league. I’m fine with that. :-) The Day Between Let’s take a look at some league statistics. Macey and Thirlwell are tied for second with 30 goals; the winner had 43! Shane Pilcher had the highest average rating in the league at 7.79. Bill Taylor was third in assists at 16. Thriller also had 9 POM awards, good enough for third. Chick Legg came in second with clean sheets at 16, one behind the winner; had he not had that late season swan dive he would have won again. For the whole season in goals, assists, rating, and POMs, it was Thriller (57), Eddie (31), Coates (8.15), and unsurprisingly Thriller again (16). Season award time! Fan players of the year: 1. Macey (42%), 2. Thriller (30%), 3. Hibbert (17%). Signing of the season, Glyn Davies. Young player of the year, Alan Coates. I didn’t get credit for winning the three cup, the board rated me at 75% on the Competitions front. That’s some bullshit! Despite that, I’m still Untouchable at 97%!!! Oh sweet baby Hey Zeus! The board request a meeting to discuss club improvements! I’ve been waiting for this moment. Their first request is upgrading the youth academy setup. Yes please! (Looks like my downgrading will be undone. Not complaining.) Holy freijoles! Gobsmacked! The board is going to upgrade us to Level 1. Goody, goody, gumdrops! The upgrades will be complete at the end of next season so we’ll have one more “average” youth intake. The Fourteen I’m very pleased that Watkins and O’Keeffe have improved. They’re getting ever closer to their potential.  I don’t think I’ll post about The Fourteen in June’s update as no player will have improved over their holiday break. It will be drastically different in July as I imagine Pilcher, Coates, Pugh, Taylor, and Kemar will be sold or on loan. Summary The month started in a distressing fashion, at least defensively. When we got to the matches that mattered we became impenetrable. We also became a scoring machine again. I am very pleased to have gone out on a positive note.  That Was Then, This is Now Let’s look back at Thriller. When I first found him we really didn’t need another striker. Boy howdy am I glad I picked him up! My complaints about him at the time were his Balanced personality and low Determination (4) and Stamina (5). I also didn’t believe my scouts’ assessment 1.5 stars of potential. He is now Spirited, has a 9 Determination, and 8 Stamina; our AssMan now believes he has 4.0 stars potential, good enough to be Championship level. In 1.75 years of action with us he has accumulated 78 goals, 33 assists, and 18 Player of the Match awards.  He’s a bargain at £500 per week and I have a feeling in the coming months I’m going to have to shell out more. I just wish we could get his Determination into the double digits. (Hey, look! I took that screenshot on his 20th birthday.) |
June 2020
Taking care of business The off-season is upon us. I’ve got new players to find, new contracts to offer, and new teams to find for key players who are too big for us, either via sales or loans. First, though, the normal monthly business. Financial Matters We lost just a smidge over £54,000 in May, taking us down to –£284,828 for the season. This loss means though that we avoid a tax hit, so there’s a silver lining. However, by the end of the season we were down to –£439,183, which is a loss of over £1 million if you consider where we started on 1 July 2019. We gotta get more assess in the seats and I need some players to go for good prices. Some of this pain is taken away by a 2-year stadium sponsor deal worth £34,500 per annum. Board Confidence It appears I still didn’t get credit for those three cup wins but somehow my Board Confidence rating is 97%. Crazy. (I’m thinking that the graphics weren’t changed on the Competitions screen but I still go credit for them.) Dynamics At the end of the month Pilcher moved up to Highly Influential Player, just in time to leave us. Player Development Six players got called up for international duty in early June. Bill Taylor and Alan Coates for the England U19s, Simon McAdam for the Northern Ireland U19s, and for the Wales U19s they selected Meilir Pugh and...M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-R-I-S. I had a feeling he was better than expected! A week later O’Keeffe gets called up by Ireland U21s to face England U21s. And a week after that I get an email noting that my HOYD thinks he “would be a good player for most Championship sides.” Love it! McAdam scores against Japan and Morris scores against Portugal in only 24 minutes of action. Pugh did alright at 6.8 in the same match. The next day Angelino Ferreira rated a 7.0 in their victory over Togo. England start their European Championship in an inauspicious manner, losing to Portugal 2-1. England’s goal was by none other than Kemar, in his 23 minutes of action. Should have made him the starter. Remember, he’s still 17! Late new comes that for the European U19 Championship Bill Taylor and Alan Coates get the invite. They will be gone from at least 13 to 19 July. New Tactics I’m thinking for now that I’ll stick with the 4-4-2 Diamond (Attacking), Shovel, and Cudgel. Teams are sniffing round Marcus Thirlwell and Kemar will be out on loan again so I might have to go to Spade, Shovel, and a yet-decided single-striker defensive formation. I don’t like using a single striker so I might take some of the money to sign a highfalutin forward. Stay tuned! Contracts I have four contracts to offer, two of which are promises. First up is Bill Taylor, I have to swear that we’ll get promoted to Conference National in one year. I think that’s doable. He wants £1,800 per week initially. We tentatively have an agreement in place. He signs his new contract on 4 June. On to Mitchell Nightingale. He only asks for £325 per week. I up it to £500 in the hopes of getting an instant agreement. Next item up for bid, Liam Roberts. He asks for £250 per week but I bump it up to £300. His agent wants £1,100 for himself but I drop it to an even grand. And finally Gary Ferguson. He only wanted £210 but I made it £250. In other contract news, I activate the optional contract extensions for DC Smith, DC Collopy, DMC McAdam, AMR Robinson, and ST McLeish. Sure enough! Nightingale signs immediately after I hit the Continue button. Roberts signs on the 5th and Fergie on the 8th. |
New Players
With Pilcher, Coates, Pugh, Taylor, and Kemar all expected to be gone or on loan I now have to find some new players. We’re good to go at DC, DMC, and MR/AMR so I need an AMC and AML for the Senior squad and a DL for the U21s. I found around 40 players worth a closer look and send my scouts a-hunting. Let me introduce you to our new starters, The Stephens. Both were nearing the end of their contract, under a month meaning I could sign them without having to pay their current team any money. The Lemonhead signed on 7 June and will join us on 1 July. This is the first time ever I’ve signed away a player in the final month of a contract. Never did it even in FM2014.  McGregor was a bit of a problem. I didn’t notice that he had an option year so it was no surprise when Harrogate activated it and killed the deal. He has the potential to be a good League One player so I make a legitimate transfer offer. I’m able to negotiate them down from £160k to £85k but with the provision that they get 35% of any sale in the future. I think he could be with us until we get to the Championship and have no plans to sell him. Hope he’s worth it! He signed on 8 June. He’s our biggest splash of cash for me while playing FM2018.  If you notice he’s not great at corners but he is tall. Not the greatest header but I think I’ll try to put him on the near post during corner kicks. The next day we have a press conference to reveal McGregor to the fans. I wasn’t expecting so many questions because in the past I always denied the requests. Luckily he reacted positively to my answers. As things stand right now I have no attacking midfielders for the U23s and just two defensive midfielders. My scouts find this kid who was released by Tottenham. Ben O’Reilly can fill four positions for the U23s. I offer him £300 a week and a £500 signing bonus.  He signs on 30 June. I still need a DL for the U21s. I hope to find one in July. |
New Staff
Also, a Physio, our U18 Physio, and a Scout are due for extensions, or not. I find better options but I’ll wait until the last week of the month to make the offers. It looks like the poaching of my staff may resume. Our U23 Manager is drawing interest from a puny team way down the pyramid. I hope he doesn’t take the chance. The new staff sign. The Physio, Chris Turnbull, take us from a staff member with 15 to 20 in Physiotherapy. He also has a Man Management rating of 19 so he will be our next Head Physio once the current one’s contract runs out. The U18 Physio improves us from 13 to 18. The new scout isn’t better than the old guy in judging players but I signed him because he’s good there but his Determination and Adaptability are significant improvements. Player Offers So 9 June is the start of when teams come looking to poach. Derby and Bolton offer £6,000 for Pilcher, while Bradford offer the same for Thirlwell. Big fat nopes ensue and I set Pilcher’s asking price at £100,000. Derby is in the Championship and can surely afford his worth. Millwall were in the Championship and are getting relegated. In an effort to bounce back up they want Pilcher, offering £16,000. I remind them it’ll take £100,000 so they counter with £20,000. Goodbye! Swindon make the same play the next day but have the decency to walk away when I remind them of the minimum price. Finally, a team is willing to offer £100,000 for Pilcher. Sheffield United agree to the price and the 20% sell on fee I tacked on. Peterborough also accept the price. Sheff are in the Championship, albeit in the lower half while Peterborough are in the top half of League One. I hope he chooses Sheffield. The next day Portsmouth show up right at £100,000 so I add the 20% and they don’t blink an eye. (They are 19th in the Championship.) Team Rankings In England, the Top Ten Most Reputable Teams are: 1. Man United 2. Arsenal 3. Liverpool 4. Tottenham 5. Man City 6. Chelsea 7. Stoke 8. West Ham 9. Leicester 10. Southampton Meanwhile, in South London, we are now the 211th most reputable club in England. Sundry Items Wednesday, 24 June we advance to the new season and immediately the board want to meet to talk about increasing the available wage budget for coaches. (Last year it was for my AssMan.) The fixture list also comes out and I’m excited that we actually have a Boxing Day match. Should see a bumper crowd! I’m also excited to see that our final match of the season is on 1 May, a benefit of being in a league with only 22 clubs. This also means board expectations come in. They expect me to lead the club to victory in the Conference League South. Cup expectations are Conference League Cup (a new one for us), FA Trophy, FA Vase wins along with reaching the third round of the FA Cup. I could bump up expectations to the fifth round but I want to run a smaller squad and don’t need the extra tired bodies. On 30 June they ask to meet again to talk about more club improvements. Evidently that is code for offering me a new contract. Dance a little jig! That Was Then, This Is Now Back in 2017, just 17 weeks into our first campaign, our U18 squad were on an 11 match winning streak. Just how well have they done since then? That season it was strictly friendlies, going 28-2-2. For the 2018/2019 season, they were in a league, going 10-5-3, but won the playoffs and ultimately the league. This past season, they won their league, 25-2-1, and also made it to the final in a U18 league cup, losing 1-2 to Accrington Stanley U18s. Needless to cliché, our youth system is pretty good. |
July 2020
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road Financial Matters With a loss of almost £140k for June you'd think I'd be worried, but I'm not because I'll be selling players in July so I should be able to get us back in the black. I mean, if you ignore that we still have over £12 million in the bank. Board Confidence As the new season has begun my favorability drops to 88%. Don't worry, I'm still Untouchable. Also on the 1st, the board opens contracts discussions. I get two more years at £700 per week. I also get a 20% wage increase upon promotion, and my contract extends under the same condition. A really neat feature of Football Manager is that it keeps track of your career earnings. So far, my earnings are £110,000, which isn't a lot for three years but I'll get up there soon enough. Dynamics Here is what our Dynamics Pyramid looks like on 1 July. No new movement.  Noah Harding graduates to the Influential Player level on 7 July. Now we need someone to graduate up to Highly Influential. Player Matters As I update my spreadsheet on the first of the month I am greeted by some great player development news. GK Adrian Lee's Determination went from 11 to 16 over the summer. I heart tutoring. More to my joy, Mickey Morris' Determination climbed to 14 from 12 in the same time. On the personality change front, Glyn Davies is now Fairly Professional and Bill Taylor is a "Committed attacking midfielder" though I don't know if that's because he signed that new contract. Did his Loyalty increase behind the scenes? At 8:01 AM on the first of the month Hibbert has the nerve to block access to my office with a demand for a new contract. I'm in a quandary; I want to sell him on or at least loan him out. He is underpaid when compared to kids his age in our league. If memory serves me correctly I think he wants a lot of money. He'll have to live with it. I do want to extend Kemar but, no shock here, he wants nothing to do with us. I can't blame him. He'll be sold for an exorbitant price but there will be a £10 million buy-back clause so when we get to the Premier League he'll be brought back home. The next day he approaches me saying that he heard that Everton want him. I promise to accept a suitable offer. And time for the bait and switch. I offer him to all EPL teams and Everton for £15 million, with a £15 million buy-back clause. Juventus are also sniffing around but I don't offer to them. The next day word comes that nobody made an offer for him. Hmmm. His value is £15.75 million so it must be the buy-back clause. That hurts. I'll wait a week and try again. (In the Euros, Germany beat England on penalties in the Quarter Finals. Kemar scored a goal in the 2nd minute but didn't get a chance for a penalty shot as 3 of the first 5 missed their chances. He played all 120 minutes so he'll return to us extremely Jaded. Later in the month I receive word that for the tournament he was voted best young player, sending his value up to £20 million.) About the waiting a week...Both Watford and Juventus show up with footlockers full of cash. Each are offering £13.25 million and 40% of the profit from the next sale. Watford also add £2.7 million after Kemar appears in 10 international matches, which is going to happen soon. Oh my. I accept Watford's and stall Juve's. Oh how I hope a bidding war starts. Still worried he'll never come back though. On 5 July, Everton, Leicester, and Southampton offer the same value but don't include the 40% profit clause so I reject them. I totally forgot that you can't put a player who is younger than 17 on loan status. Alan Coates will remain with us until at least 5 October. Bradford try to underbid again for Thirlwell, starting at £40k but refusing to budge higher than £55k. Two days later they are willing to go up to £85k. Finally on 9 July they offer £100k and I tack on a 20% sell-on fee, which they accept. I don't want to see him go but he's outgrown us and it's realistic he wouldn't play way down in the Conference South. The deal is slightly made easier by the fact that his Determination and Stamina are still single digits. I have a feeling that we'll be switching to a single striker formation. That seems more clear when Thriller agrees with Bradford just 90 minutes after we beat them on 16 July. [Spoiler Alert] On the Pilcher front, Wolverhampton come in with a £150,000 offer. I add a 25% sell on fee and they accept. That makes nine teams that are in play with only one team (Aston Villa) in the Premier. I'm starting to wonder if I'm undervaluing him. Maybe if someone comes in at 150 again I'll bump it up to 200? On 6 July he agrees with Aston Villa for £100,000, a good choice. He came to us for free from Bristol Manor Farm, who should get a cut of the transfer, and was the first player confirmed to be Premier League quality. Shane. Shane! Come back! Bye, Shane. Also on 9 July O'Keeffe begins his campaign to get a new contract. With Picher, Thirlwell, and Kemar going or gone, we have plenty of money. O'Keeffe is probably going to be the only player I fight tooth and nail to keep. A great GK is harder to find than DC or ST. He puts pen to paper on 14 July. Later in the month teams become more interested in Johnstone, some as high as the Championship. None offer anything higher that £4,500 so I deny them. And so it is at 16:48 on 15 July that Kemar Kirkpatrick of Fairy Hill, Jamaica, of Brixton Football Club, of South London, chooses to move to East London, to be part of West Ham. He leaves his original team to the tune of £13,250,000. Brixton lose a fan favorite, a player who almost certainly will become a world-class striker. It truly is a sad day. |
New Players
Not a new player per se but I didn't want this to get lost in the long-arse Player Development run-down. McGregor came to us only Accomplished at ML but after one start and one sub appearance he's Natural there. I have no luck finding a U23 DL but the search goes on. I was real close but then I noticed the guy I wanted was prone to injuries. That and Natural Fitness are things I don't budge on. Friendlies We have 10 friendlies in July and 1 in August. Because we are flush with wingers I'm having trouble getting them all Match Fit. Because of that I won't be canceling the last friendly but I certainly want to.
Holy poop! I didn't noticed this at first and I didn't get an email about it but with all that money from the player sales my allowable wage budget is now £299,705 per week. Wow. We're currently spending £22,667 per week. Absolutely bonkers. That ankle injury in the Cheltenham match on 31 July puts McLeish out for 3 to 6 weeks, meaning either we bring someone in for August or we go with the Spade and Shovel and season some youths occasionally. The Season Ahead We are even odds to win the league and 1-5 odds to gain promotion. I wonder what will happen when the game realizes that Kemar, Pilcher, Coates, Taylor, Hibbert, and Pugh are gone? I still think we'll go up but I expect a harder year than the previous three. On the win bonus front I choose the highest levels for both league play and league cups. If we win the Conference South the squads will receive £195,000 and if they win all four cups they'll split £1,000,000. Yes, the success of selling Kemar on has affected my decision making prowess. :-D That Was Then, This is Now Let us look back two years to see who was starting for us for the first match in our season in the Southern League First Division West, the 2018/2019 year. GK: Chick Legg. He's still with us, he's still mentoring, he still has the best name ever, and he is no longer the starter. Gareth O'Keeffe gets that honor. Year 1 with us, 40 starts and 22 clean sheets. Year 2, 57 and 38. Year 3 down to 42 and 24. This past year he was snake-bitten, hardly getting clean sheets reliably. DR: Peter Maguire. He started 46 matches, came on in 11 other, had 10 assists but never scored a goal somehow, even the previous year. He was sold on 10 January 2020. He'd become quite the bit of a nuisance with repeated horrible training performances. This resulted in him being sent down to the U18 on 1 November 2019. He was sold to Cheltenham for £1,500, where he still plays. He had 12 appearances and 1 goal his first year there but this past season he only appeared in 4 friendlies. DC r: Ricky Spearing. He had quite a career with us in just two years, with 87 starts, 20 sub appearances, and 8 goals. He left us 25 June 2019, moving on to Exeter, a League One side, for the lowly fee of £5,000. He appeared in 32 starts and 5 subs with just one goal for them. DC l: Robert Carroll. He had a slightly better career with us over two years because he was our only real good left centreback. His stats were 109 starts, 5 substitutions, and 8 goals. Scottish Premiership side St. Johnstone snatched him up on 16 June 2019 for £5,000. Last year he had 44 appearances for his new team but failed to score any goals. That's a pretty good indicator of his skill though as the Scottish Prem is between the English Championship and Premier League in reputation. DL: Shadi Al-Ziod. He was a great find for us, not just because of his nickname but this prowess on the field. He left on a free for Aston Villa but only had one appearance, a start for a cup match. He remains firmly fixed in their U23 squad. For us, in two years he played 60 and 12, with just 1 goal. (Easy lesson here is fullbacks don't score much.) MC r: Terry Barlow. He stayed with us until January this year, leaving on the 31st for Mansfield for £3,000. I moved him to the U23s at the beginning of the 2019/2020 season. I didn't have a problem with him, I was just trying to move on from the initial batch. (I know, I know, Smith is still with us...) Terry had 89 starts, 9 substitutions, and 16 goals. He is listed as an Icon for Brixton. MC l: Connor Smith. He's still with us and was our fourth-choice centreback last year. With Pilcher's departure he's now our third-choice but soon Ferreira will probably overtake him. I like Smith for his versatility at DMC and MC so maybe he'll be the one initial batch player I keep for as long as possible. His performances over the years includes 11 goals from 115 starts and 35 substitutions. AMR: Steve Pearson. A pretty good winger for us with 69 starts, 11 subs, 35 goals, and 38 assists. He left us on 15 January 2019 for Championship side Brentford for £20,000 but he only got 4 matches in for them. The next season he went out on loan to Oxford, where he got in 48 matches. AML: Daniel Duckett. Danny Boy is a Brixton Legend mostly because he was an assist machine, providing 64 critical feeds. Along with that he had 37 goals in 84 starts and 21 sub-ons. In the summer of 2019 he moved on to Swindon for £10,000. For them he had 53 starts, 10 subs, 10 goals, and 12 assists. ST c: Kemar Kirkpatrick. What more can I say about him. I knew we couldn't keep him but I really misjudged the whole buy-back option thing. The cool £13,250,000 will certainly guarantee many continued winning seasons but we'll probably never get him back. For posterity's sake, in his "short" stay with us, he scored 80 goals in 58 appearances, 52 of which were starts. That's 1.45 goals per match! (Trust in my maths. ;-)) I'm really going to miss him and the guarantee of him taking us to the promised land. |
August 2020
We've only just begun Training Matter I heart O'Keeffe, Roberts, and Watkins. Pugh, you're on your way out anyway and Collopy, you're almost certainly going down to the U23s.  Financial Matters We're rich! Rich, I tell you! On the first of the month, we have £25,525,172 in the bank. Is it time to edit the game to remove the Sugar Daddy status? Probably. Board Confidence No change at all from last month. Dynamics No changes in the Dynamics really but just before our last friendly I have to select my captain and vice captain. I go with Macey and Jefcoate again. No real choice here as I'm not sure the other options, O'Shea and Roberts, are gonna be around long-term. Well, neither are Macey and Jefcoate but that's a problem for tomorrow. Friendlies One last practice match before the real fun begins.
Just as I expected, with Kemar's departure, everyone's star ratings get reassessed and there are now new 5-star quality gents. To be exact, GK Gareth O'Keeffe, DMC Alan Coates, AMC Bill Taylor, and AMR Tommy Watkins. Players who are now 4.5 are probably Championship-quality; that would be GK Adrian Lee and ST Mickey Morris. For a player with no future I sure do pay a lot of attention to Terry Buckle. In July he grew another 2 cm and is now up to 180. At this pace he just might cut it as a central defender after all. Now for something completely belated: I totally missed that Liam Roberts went Natural at DMC on 16 July, after our match against Bradford City. It took him 22 starts and 19 sub appearances to get there. Mickey Morris' Determination is up to 15 now. Adrian Lee's tutoring may have come to stall as his Determination remains 16. The New XI It's now time to assess the changes to the starting lineup. I really wasn't expecting to go with the Spade but McLeish's injury dictates otherwise.  As you can see there's quite a bit of turnover with some players being essentially forced out, because they are too good for us, to make way for youth academy graduates. Liam Roberts is an interesting case: He was signed as an extra U18 body around the same time as Noah Harding, who I thought would be a starter eventually too. Johnstone is the only player from the initial batch of 16 who is a starter. On a side note, of those 16 only 6 remain with us. GK Webb is our U21 keeper and could move up this season if Chick Legg continues his inability to keep a clean sheet. DR Johnstone I've already addressed. DR Parker is down in the U23s recovering from his ligament tears but he'll be a fullback super-sub once he's healed up. (In January?) On the other side of the field is DL Jefcoate, our vice captain, our second-choice leftback. DC Connor Smith is our first backup in the middle of the defense. MC Simon McAdam is in the U23s and barring a major plague of injuries he won't be seeing Senior action this year, his last year. |
The Days Between
New season, new cups. We are now in the Conference League Cup and for our first match, which is the First Round, we get to host Weymouth, a fellow Conference South side. Now let's get on with the real matches! For our first Conference South match we travel to a team roughly 25 miles east-northeast of Brockwell Park, just north of where the River Thames turns into the Thames Estuary. They are not a good team, finishing just above regulation last year but predicted to finish last this year. Despite Hibbert, Pugh, and Taylor being available for loan and transfer, two of them get to start today. It will be a fun year trying to live with only five players on the bench. Conference South at East Thurrock, 8 August 2020  Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c) Starting XI: O'Keeffe, Johnstone, Nightingale, O'Shea, Rice, Roberts, Coates, Watkins, Taylor, Pugh, Macey Subs: Ferreira, Smith, Lemon, Leary, Rae Just like so many times before, we start scoring early from a mistake by a fullback passingly lazily to the keeper. Macey pounced on it and we start the season strong just 5:23 in. What is surprising about the match is O'Shea gets the second goal not from a corner but by a cheeky back-heel pass from Watkins in the box. Just before the half my faith in Watkins is affirmed when he gets a shot into the upper right from a tight angle. The second stanza is nearly devoid of action until O'Keeffe bobbles a header from a free kick in the 76th and an angry Taylor steals a ball then sinks a goal six minutes later. POM: Tommy Watkins 9.0 (1 goal, 1 assist, 3 key passes, 1 chance created)  Now that we're in a "real" league, I'll have to attend a lot more pre- and post-match press conferences. Today's post-match one was about O'Shea scoring and Taylor's great display generating more interest. I chuckle at the first and avoid the second. I'll probably send my AssMan to a lot of these. The Days Between Again, now that we are in a "real" league, we get an email on Tuesday morning telling us the players of the week. O'Keeffe, O'Shea, and Watkins get named to this week's team. Good on, ya! I think I finally found a U23 DL! His name is Sam Sterling and he's from Bournemouth. He's got pretty good physicals though a bit slow, and he has some pretty good Mentals for his age. He has no team currently so I offer him Hot Prospect money; £300 p/w, £500 signing bonus, 2 years, and an option. Truro are our next opponent and like East Thurrock are expected to be relegated. We'll help them along the way. Oh sweet baby Jesus! Just over 2,300 fans in the stadium today! We might actually turn profits from attendance alone! Conference South vs. Truro, 11 August 2020  Formation: Spade Starting XI: O'Keeffe, Johnstone, Nightingale, Smith, Jefcoate, Lemon, Ferguson, Watkins, Harding, McGregor, Macey Subs: Ferreira, Collopy, Roberts, Leary, Rae Again the scoring starts with Macey but this time it's from great passing and a bit of Flair from McGregor. McG picks up a bruised shin but carries on and gets his second assist from a Macey header for goal. I'm telling you, for a chap with only a 3 in Heading, he's amazing at scoring with his dome. Macey's triple before half ensures that I take McG off, move Eddie to left wing, and bring on Rae. Even being on the wings Macey scores again. And again. POM: Eddie Macey 10.0 (5 goals)  We made just around £20,000 from the match. I was expecting more. Hmmm. Conversely, I think with Eddie rocking the suburbs I can ease off on trying to find a striker for sale. I wasn't really having much luck anyway. |
The Days Between
Draw time! For the FA Trophy we get to wait until the Second Round to enter and we end up hosting a minnow of a team called Clevedon Town. It will definitely be a match in which I run out those that aren't Match Fit and kids. Well, the U23s first, then the U18s. I was poking around for a right centreback for the U23s when I found Sean Peers. He signed with us on the 12 August. There's a bit to like about him. Good physicals and key defensive skills. His Determination, Teamwork, and Work Rate are what really caught my eye. I think he'll be good enough some day to get some Senior sub appearances.  This match is a cup match against a team in our own league. Weymouth are expected to finish 5th and the have a pretty good team that could make that happen. Doesn't matter, some second stringers and a U23er get the start. I haven't completely lost my mind so the bench-riders are all quality and will come on if my chutzpah bites me in the tuchus. Marshall is in the U18s and way into the future I think he'll be our right striker, playing in a Deep Lying Forward role. (Mickey Morris will be our left striker, playing in a Advanced Forward role. Hopefully.)  Formation: Diamond (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, DMC, MR, ML, AMC, ST r, ST l) Starting XI: Legg, Ferreira, Collopy, Murphy, Rice, Ferguson, Robinson, Pugh, Davies, Hibbert, Rae Subs: O'Keeffe, Johnstone, Nightingale, O'Shea, Jefcoate, Coates, Watkins, Leary, Lemon, Macey, Marshall, Harding It takes a bit longer for us to get things going today but Robinson finally pounds in a long range one just after the 26' mark. But five minutes later our weakness from last year appears again; a long ball down our left side followed by a cross followed by a clueless Legg getting caught flat-footed. Our right side atones for the sins of our left side not 104 seconds later with Rae nudging on a pinpoint-accurate cross from Ferreira. A lot of players are mailing it in today so after some switcheroos I'm still worried. As we near the last ten minutes I'm contemplating the right time to go defesnive when newbie Marshall receives a long pass from Legg, who came a good five yards out of his box to launch it forward. Marshall receives it in open space and slots it in under the keeper as three defenders collapsed upon him. He showed great Composure there. I thought things were gonna go easy from there, especially when they have a player sent off. But with one minute in injury time, Padraig Murphy fouls a guy and Legg is unable to stop the penalty. POM: Andy Robinson 8.3 (1 goal, 1 key pass, 1 chance created)  Murphy ends the match with a 6.0 and thus gets an official warning. Rice was also less than stellar with a 6.3 but only gets harangued in the locker room. |
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