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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. |
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