PREV
GO TO INDEX OF UPDATES
NEXT
November starts with four cup ties. Three of these matches are at home, including the FA Cup, so I expect to make some money.
I gave up last month so I don’t know how much lower I can go.
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.
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.”
Except some minor shuffling in the “Other Players” group there are no other changes in the squad dynamics.
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.
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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
Grant Appleton has a great debut for Ascot, getting a goal, and rating a 7.9 in their victory.
On Sunday, 24 November, Shane Pilcher asks to leave for Chesterfield, a League One team. I explain that we have a slew of great youngsters and if he stays he can be part of the magnificent group who will ultimately be better than Chesterfield. That seems to mollify him. For now.
Basingstoke. This poor team in real life had a new owner who was really just after their stadium as he was a land developer. He essentially ran the team into the ground and then left, leaving them with no place to play and not even a team bus. (I paraphrase mind you. I learned that bit from Loki Doki and I may not have remembered it correctly. But I did contribute to the new bus fund!) Hopefully they’re doing better in this alternate reality.
vs. Basingstoke, 27 November 2019
Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard
Starting XI: O’Keeffe, Parker, Pilcher, O’Shea, Jefcoate, Coates, Hibbert, Pugh, Taylor, Macey, McLeish
Subs: Legg, Johnstone, Nightingale, Roberts, Robinson, Leary, Rae
Wow! Our first goal, not 150 seconds in, is from a super narrow angle by Dr. Hibbert after a corner kick goes awry. With a Finishing of 8 and Composure of 4 it was quite unexpected. Basingstoke are not dissuaded and their goalie is having an outstanding game denying Macey, Taylor, and Coates goals. Persistence wins the day though and Taylor realizes passing is his better option, getting an assist from McLeish’s goal after 38 minutes. Macey finally gets his goal 60 seconds later when we dominate after play restarts. The play was really funny: Macey was one-on-one and it looked like the goalie tried to do a flying karate kick at him. I laughed and laughed.
The second half goes smoothly. Rae’s goal is one of the FM Specials: Defender kicks ball out from deep in their end but an opponent is just a few yards away and the deflection goes right to a striker near the goal. I’m sure their coach had a Basingstroke from that. Too much of a stretch? My bad.
POM: Ashley Hibbert 9.6 (2 goals, 1 assist, 4 key passes, 3 chances created)
A quiet few days. No new scouting reports to pore over. No injuries in training.
But then a niggling memory tickled the back of my mind. Thriller’s contract is up in 7 months. He’s on £200/week so he’s quite the bargain. I imagine this is gonna be costly.
Nope! “Only” £500/week in base salary and £150 appearance fee. He has an agent now and the agent wants £3,000 for himself.
Oh excellent! A Clash of the Titans. Number 1 visiting Number 3. Ain’t skurred!
at Hereford, 30 November 2019
Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Standard
Starting XI: Legg, Johnstone, Pilcher, O’Shea, Jefcoate, Roberts, Hibbert, Pugh, Harding, Macey, Thirlwell
Subs: O’Keeffe, Parker, Smith, Ferguson, Robinson, Leary, McLeish
Pre-match I tell the crew that we are favorites for a reason and go out and prove it. Thriller does and show’s that he’s worth £500 plus per week, courtesy of a Dr. Hibbert long, low pass up the middle. His second is from a Macey pass as Thriller ran up the middle. His first shot went off the right post but the rebound came right back to him and he hit it in stride. His hat trick only takes 26:09 and Macey gets his second assist. And this is why we’re the favorites.
POM: Marcus “Thriller” Thirlwell 9.6 (3 goals, 1 key pass, 1 chance created)
You know, it dawned on me, Meilir Pugh actually hasn’t been performing as well as he could. He hasn’t scored a single league goal, only three assists in league play, and rating at only 7.48. My use of “only” is semi-ironically considering the overall quality of our runs. He does have 4 goals in 5 FA Cup matches so maybe he has a high Important Matches rating. Yes, I’m crying over spilt milk.
A pretty standard month for Brixton though with a few more challenges the usual. We added two youths to keep up with the fixture level for the U18s. It’s pretty cool to see finally how large a team I can keep whilst keeping everyone match fit. Hopefully next year the U23s will have more matches as they are generally not getting many in.
Last month I mentioned Jesse Gilroy, an Irish Youth Intake Day attempted hire back in 2017. I did sign Mark Nixon, Stephen Dunne, and Martin Duggan. Where are they now?
Back just after the team returned from vacation I accidentally approved Nixon's transfer to Barnsley, who are currently fourth in the Championship, for £3,000. He is an infrequent starter for them with two starts and one sub appearance. He has no noteworthy stats and is rating at 6.65.
Dunne signed with Shamrock Rovers, first in Irish Premier League, in February 2019 and walked at the end of his contract on 30 June 2019. He has no appearances with the Seniors but in 10 appearances with their U19s he has one goal and two assists, rating 6.73.
Duggan also signed with Shamrock and also has zero senior appearances. In thirteen U19 appearances he is rating 6.78 with one assist.
Dunne and Duggan left on free transfers so I made nothing from their departures.