NIcely done. As for the Reserve team, I simply pick the players and leave the AM in control - it makes them play. I also arrange lots of friendly's against the under 18 when there are huge gaps in the reserve team's schedule, allowing my players coming back from injury to regain fitness quickly... So far, managed to take Man City to 1 premier league title (Shawn Wright Phillipps, 8.87 rating- golden god!), and trying to stop the Red Devils from taking it this year..
Btw, you might want to look at the free transfers in late july- in FM, very often, really good players remain unsigned and you can pick em up on the cheap. Its a bug I think, but one you can take advantage of.