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The save file is acting up again. Getting through the final hours of 1 February was difficult as the program would just sit there and not advance. So I would have to stop it and reload the save file. After a couple of tries I finally got to 2 February. Hopefully the issue is resolved.
What does our schedule look like? Seven matches in 28 days, so one every 4 days but we do have a week between the last match of the month and the first match of March, so that'll be nice. The youths should graduate then. Youth Intake Day is usually 28 February or 1 March but I saw something on the interwebs saying that in 2021 it happens on 6 March. Don't know why but maybe the leap day in 2020 has some effect on the timing?
Gary Leary...maybe I can call him Ironic because I just offered him a new contract and he pulls this stunt. At least Barnes and O'Keeffe are rocking it.
Oh nice! We made £186,854 in January. If we hadn't sold off Watkins and Taylor we would have been in the red. Well, that's just the way it is when you have only low reputation cups you're still in and they don't bring in as large of a crowd as your league matches do.
Hey! Despite losing to Birmingham and getting kicked out of the FA Cup earlier than the board wanted, I gained a percentage point and am up to 85%.
On top of that, I won the league manager of the month award. It seems a given seeing as we won all five matches by a combined score of 11 to 4.
Nothing happening here.
Alfie Barnes isn't improving in his Determination beyond 7 from his O'Shea mentoring but he is now Consistent according to the Pro column on his scouting page. I'd like to peak under the hood to see when that happened to try to link it to his performance but I'll hold off. For now.
Stephen Lemon is now 25 so his development, which was already non-existent for the most part, will now be fully non-existent. He may turn out to be my worse signing so far. But now he's eligible to mentor!
I move Ben Pope up to the Seniors given that Tommy Watkins has flown the coop and Ben is deemed Conference National ability. Right winger Chris Dryden had an amazing month of training but I can't bring him up with Pope getting the nod.
The best news is Mickey Morris is now rated at 5 stars in Potential Ability. I think this means he is Premier League quality but with the departure of Watkins, Taylor, and Coates the normalization of ratings is probably still going on.
For tutoring, I try again with David Doran. He refuses to learn from Rae, Lemon, or McGregor. I should have sold him when I had the chance. But three players do agree to starting learning: Tasos Noulas agrees to learn from Stephen McGregor, U18 DR-in-training Jordan Nickson from Stephen Lemon, and U18 AML Ian Barnett from Alex Rae. Hope this all goes well.
Here's the loan report for the four I shipped out. No complaints here!
One of the really cool things about player development is that you can customize players in a way. They are called Player Preferred Moves. Some are really great and some are really bad, but those are usually ones the player starts with coming out of the youth academy. Dean Rice, despite having a month left on his dislocated shoulder recovery, kept on practicing and can now Knock The Past Opponents. This means I get to introduce the Overlap instruction to some of my tactics. Sweet!
Sure enough, on the 1st Alan Coates signs with Cardiff. Go have a great few years in the Premier League before we buy you back home.
You know who doesn't leave? Gareth O'Keeffe doesn't despite getting not one, not two, not three, but 55 offers! I didn't keep track of the teams so I don't know how many of those were repeats. Still, that's insane! I think I'll offer a new contract after Youth Intake Day; I'm waiting to see if we get a better GK. I know, I know, not bloody likely. Boy is he gonna be costly.
For the Team of the Week, Morris gets named as the left striker. Not too bad for a debut! Dulwich Hamlet must have beat the crap out of their opponents as they had seven players named. Yep, they clobbered Corinthian-Casuals 6-0. (The week prior Welling kicked the Ham-lettes in the nards, 4-0.)
Leary signs a new contract. He'll earn £750/week now and I get to keep him until 30 June 2024. (I totally forgot to write about his request last month. D'oh!)
My AssMan reports that Jose Parker has League One Potential Ability. Good news.
Bad news? Nightingale wants a new contract. He's on £500 per week now and due to his slowness I have zero desire to resign him. I ask the other slow dude, O'Shea, to resolve the matter. He does.
Woking stroll into town ranked 8th, just outside the playoff zone. They have one of the worst-disciplined players in the league in their defensive midfielder Rody van Boekel. My scouts tell me he has a competitive streak and he has earned 9 yellows so far this season. Now how do I exploit this situation?
New leftback Mark Curran gets his first start today. No pressure, lad!
vs. Woking, 6 February 2021
Formation: 4-4-2 Standard MM (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MR, MC r, MC l, MR, ST r, ST l)
Starting XI: O'Keeffe, Ferreira, Nightingale, O'Shea, Curran, Robinson, Noulas, Ferguson, McGregor, Marshall, McLeish
Subs: Barnes, Smith, Harding, Leary, Rae
Curran gets some direct words from me about how he has a bright future and that gets him happy. Woking come out in the 4-5-1 so I immediately switch O'Shea and Nightingale to Cover and Stopper roles, respectively. Well, things aren't going well. Three players are rating 6.4 and Curran is rating 6.3 and looking very nervous. Fudge. My speech at the half inspires only Robinson so I direct my attention to the strikers, telling them they can make the difference. That gets them excited! Our first goal comes from our other winger though, with Robinson getting the assist on a typical cross. With both strikers doing even worse (6.3s) I take them off at 67' and switch us to the Spade and bring on Harding and Rae. The dividends don't pay off immediately but five minutes later Robinson gets another assist from a short cross to Rae at the near post. Excellent. Despite switching to a Defensive mindset at 81' Rae gets an assist feeding Harding up the middle for his goal just after 88'.
POM: Andy Robinson 8.7 (2 assists, 3 key passes, 1 chance created)
Curran pulled himself out of the gutter, finishing with a 7.0. McLeish and Marshall get some pointed works in the locker room but only Derek gets fired up about it. The Dutch DMC? Despite my constant harrying of him, he did not earn a yellow. Bummer.
I guess our defense is kind of back as Stephen O'Shea and Gareth O'Keeffe are named to the Team of the Week. Dulwich Hamlet had two players named also but the remaining seven came from seven different teams. It's an interesting spread.
Do we rise to the occasion against a severely weaker team? Or do we pussyfoot around and meet them at their level?
vs. Berkhamsted, 10 February 2021
Formation: 4-4-2 Standard MM
Starting XI: Webb, Peers, Barnes, O'Shea, Jefcoate, Pope, Harding, Lemon, Leary, Morris, McLeish
Subs: O'Keeffe, Ferreira, Parker J, Smith, Parker K, Robinson, Noulas, Ferguson, McGregor, Marshall, Rae, Roberts
The action starts early with their right midfielder picking up a yellow and then shortly thereafter he gets a free kick. It hits our wall then Morris recovers it and starts a counter-attack. He lobs it to Pope out right who then dribbles a little bit and sends a ground-level cross to the middle where late-arriving Harding scores a simple goal. That's two goals in two matches for Noah! The second one comes easy for McLeish off a short Pope pass from the middle. It's good to see McLeish score after his previous bad match. Oddly, it's Morris rocking the 6.3 in the first half today. In the second half Leary gets a lucky ping-pong off the goalie's shins for our third. Morris is still at 6.3 and I begin to worry. He takes a long shot in the 67th but it hits the crossbar so I give him a "Demand More" Shout. Nothing doing. I switch to the Cudgel at 70'. He gets a pass from Harding in the 78th and tries a tight-angle shot but the goalie bats it outs of bounds. I Shout him again so obviously he picks up a yellow in the 93rd minute.
POM: Gary Leary 9.1 (1 goal, 4 key passes, 2 chances created)
We played to our talent level but this was obviously an FMing match. My evidence: Morris, a highly-touted striker elevated due to the simultaneous injuries of two other strikers the previous weeks, is the only player with an abysmal perforamce, 6.1, while we thoroughly dominated a match. Unregardless™ I blast him in the locker room and give him an official warning after the match. Gotta set 'em right while they're young!
Rice isn't the only one who can knock the ball past opponents! Andy Robinson has learned that PPM and I couldn't be happier.
My scouts keep finding young strikers with great potential but each one seems to have some kind of undesirableness about them. Short, low Determination, low Bravery, slow, super-expensive. I think this is some kind of FMing too but I'm not seeing the angle.
Another cup match with an opponent from the same level of the pyramid as us. Merthyr Town are 10th in the Conference North. They were a regular opponent last year and we beat them both times we faced off.
vs. Merthyr Town, 13 February 2021
Formation: 4-4-2 Standard MM
Starting XI: Legg, Ferreira, Parker J, Smith, Curran, Robinson, Roberts, Ferguson, McGregor, Marshall, Rae
Subs: Webb, Parker K, Nightingale, Barnes, Jefcoate, Pope, Lemon, Harding, Leary, McLeish, Morris, Davies
There are gale warnings and it's only 7° C (45° F). Perfect weather to play control, not Route One passing. Curran evidently didn't get the "no long passes" memo as in the 3rd he lobs one forward and it almost works but Marshall's shot goes a little wide. Oh ho ho ho ho ho! Merthyr's left midfielder and leftback try to slide-tackle Robinson but he skips over them and once at the endline crosses like a boss just in time for Rae to boot it in. Something similar happens for the Townies, Peers tries a slide tackle, but their cross can't be headed in, going wide. That's the only action in the first half so I tell the team to watch out for the Complacency Monster. Robinson and Rae understood my message. Just 150 seconds after the restart Andy crosses to Alex, who doesn't let the ball hit the ground, volleying it about 3 feet off the floor into the goal at about 100 miles per hour. What a beauty! In less than 10 minutes Rae gets his hat trick but this time it's Mark Marshall with the alley-oop. We are rocking the suburbs! The hits just keep coming with Curran's first assist of the season and Mark Marshall's second goal.
Of course I decide to go to the Cudgel at 66' and do Ye Olde Outfield Swap and pray we don't give up a goal. Quite the opposite, actually! Noah Harding scores for the third match in a row with a 20-yard shot. We do give up a goal but this time it's all Jefcoates' fault. It was similar to that age-old leftback over-running a ball but he was just standing there when a long ball came to him. Fucking Sports Interactive again… (On replay I see it hit off his heel right to an opponent.)
POM: Alex Rae 9.6 (3 goals, 2 key passes, 1 chance created)
Now for something completely different. An agent showing up at my office demanding a new contract but this time it's after a player had a phenomenal match. Too bad for Rae that he's not in my future plans so no new contract for him. But then I realize something and look closer. His contract is up at the end of this season but he had a clause saying he'd get an extra year if he got into 10 matches. So I'm stuck with him until 30 June 2022 anyways and his new demand only goes to the same day. I'll just have to double his pay. Fair enough! (He's rated at 2 stars yet he has 29 goals for the season. He definitely is one of those players who's punching above his weight. And his Finishing is only 9!!!)
We are into the next round of two cups so we need to learn who we'll face. For the Conference League Cup Semi Final we host Boston United of the Conference National league. For the FA Vase Quarter Final draw we travel to Sheffield. Not Sheffield United. Not Sheffield Wednesday. Sheffield, a team from a league below.
Oh damn… The Shepshed scouting report comes in. Their strikers are pathetic and they will likely field one with a 9 Pace. Sucks for them! Also, the full name of the club is Shepshed Dynamo. I think a lot of teams with Dynamo in their name come from former Warsaw Pact countries/Soviet states. Like Kiev Dynamo. Weird. But wait! They have some really good players. A 3-star AMR, a 3-star DMC, and 3.5-star MC. This will be interesting...
Teams are still interested in Andy Robinson. Scunthorpe, in the League One, are so interested in him that I got a news item about their manager taking a pre-match question and he flat out said he wants Andy though it's too soon to tell if a deal can be worked out. All you need it £60,000, dude!
Turns out there's a third cup draw we must attend to. For the Quarter Final round of the FA Trophy, if we get past Shepshed, we travel to Spennymoor, who are 7th in the same league as Shepshed.
Initially thinking a walkover, now I'm truly respecting them. They are second in their league, behind Congleton, that team I mentioned in November that has a bunch of outstanding foreign-born players and over £1 million in the bank. This could get interesting.
Shepshed are 105 miles away to the northwest. More north than Birmingham, 32 miles to the northeast of B-ham to be more specific.
at Shepshed, 17 February 2021
Formation: 4-4-2 Standard MM
Starting XI: O'Keeffe, Parker, Nightingale, O'Shea, Jefcoate, Pope, Noulas, Davies, Leary, McLeish, Morris
Subs: Webb, Peers, Ferreira, Barnes, Curran, Robinson, Lemon, Harding, McGregor, Marshall, Rae, Roberts
They are indeed starting their 9 Pace striker today. Oh boy, I may have broken Morris. With two early one-on-ones he's sent the balls wide and high. When Pope makes a great low cross Mickey's dilly-dallying allows a defender to slide tackle him. Fortunately for us the ball goes straight into goal. And then my faith is restored. McLeish sends in a high-speed cross to Mickey who pirouettes right in front of the penalty spot and knocks the ball mid-flight right into the goal. Oh hallelujah! Our third comes from an unusual combo, the rightback crosses early to the left winger and Leary belts it right in. I am pleased.
That is until O'Shea shoves a player unnecessarily and Gareth can't stop the shot. I wrote too soon! What a beast!!!
With that scare fresh in my mind, I go to the Cudgel immediately and aside from a corner for us there was no other action. A good win but we were on target on just 5 of our 14 shots.
POM: Kevin Parker 8.2 (1 assist, 2 key passes, 1 chance created)
I truly was expecting a harder match and if we hadn't been so inaccurate today it may have been even a greater slaughter.
Immediately after the match Rae signs his new contract. Thank you, you costly bastard.
The scouting report indicates that our next opponent, Dover, is slightly worse than us on the quality of players but they do have a few players with promising futures.
The next day we have a press conference for the Dover match. How will I get FMed? I don't. The press make the main point about Scunthorpe's interest in Andy Robinson. -_-
Dover...I'm sick of seeing you. This is the first time I have Morris with Marshall upfront and Roberts and Ferguson in the middle. I also changed the mentality from Standard to Control.
vs. Dover, 20 February 2021
Formation: 4-4-2 Control MM
Starting XI: O'Keeffe, Peers, Ferreira, Barnes, Curran, Robinson, Roberts, Ferguson, McGregor, Marshall, Morris
Subs: Parker, Smith, Lemon, Leary, McLeish
I finally figured out what the presser was about and how I'm going to get FMed. In the locker room gathering I have several options that center around securing a playoff spot with a win. I Passionately implore them to go out and secure that victory. Only Gareth gets excited. I decide to also praise M&M and they only continue to listen keenly. Fudge. Oh boy, a tunnel interview. They want to know how the downpour will affect things. And about complacency. Lovely.
Morris begins things with a soft shot on goal but it gets blocked out of bounds. In the resulting corner the ball takes on a mind of its own jumping randomly from foot to foot. Eventually it decides to head out of town through some scrum only to get kicked in the face by McGregor and into the goal. Some weird shit there. For the second match in a row we get an own goal from a cross destined for Morris. Wow! Just before the first 45 are up Robinson gets in a cross from the end line and Morris is able to head it backwards and up so that it hits the crossbar and down into goal. Reminds me of the Robinson one from the Braintree match last month. Robinson really wanted a goal and is able to redirect a Roberts pass just past the GK.
After the restart everything was going smooth with no action sequences and I was thinking of maybe making it through the match with no substitutions or tinkering with the tactics but then Ferguson picks up a yellow in the 72nd so a couple minutes later I take him off for Lemon. That does the trick! We end up accurate on 8 of 9 shots and they are 0 of 4. Nice.
POM: Andy Robinson 9.4 (1 goal, 1 assist, 3 key passes, 3 chances created)
I do believe that moves O'Keeffe into first for league clean sheets and secures us the playoffs, at least.
Monday, 22 February Macey and Flitcroft resume training. Identical injuries and recoveries. Flitcroft has a 15 Natural Fitness and is 19 years-old while Macey has a 16 Natural Fitness but is 27 years-old. I think the maths there would tell us something if I decided to go down the rabbit hole. Oh, and Flitty returns with 75% Match Sharpness and Eddie's is 81%. Makes sense.
We had pretty good showing in the Team of the Week: O'Keeffe (GK), Ferreira (DC r), Barnes (DC l), Robinson (MR), and McGregor (ML). These lads bring a smile to my face.
Hungerford are 60.5 miles almost due west of Brockwell Park. It looks like a nice little town surrounded by farmlands. Oh how I want to plow them under the soil. Macey and Flitcroft will be subs in the late minutes to start working on their Match Sharpness.
at Hungerford, 23 February 2021
Formation: 4-4-2 Control MM
Starting XI: O'Keeffe, Parker K, Nightingale, O'Shea, Jefcoate, Pope, Harding, Davies, Leary, Rae, McLeish
Subs: Barnes, Parker J, Lemon, Flitcroft, Macey
That's some bullshit! Nightingale pushes an attacker while O'Keeffe is leaping high to catch a super-long shot. I spring the 4-4-2 Diamond Attack on them and it doesn't take long for McLeish and Rae to show their magic, tying things up. For the second straight match we get a goal in first half injury time. Rae crosses from the right side of the box, a defender heads it away but Pope finds it at the penalty spot and pops a low cross all of 10 feet where McLeish leans down to head it off the floor and into goal. Despite the late awakening putting us in the lead I feel it's prudent to guard against Complacency. I thought we had a third goal when we got a free kick deep in Hungerford territory; Harding sends it to the far post and O'Shea boots it with all his might but their goalkeep is able to punch it away. What reflexes! We do get our third from a counter-attack with two long launches getting McLeish a one-on-one and he just dribbles around the splayed-out goalie and casually sends it in.
Against my better judgement, I keep Nightingale and his 6.1 on but take Jefcoate and his yellow off. I also bring off McLeish and Rae for Macey and Flitcroft. Surprise of surprises, the next 25 minutes fly by without incident. Unsurprisingly, Nightingale does not improve his rating.
POM: Derek McLeish 8.8 (2 goals, 1 key pass, 1 chance created)
I do not fine or warn Mitchell. I can't believe he's so up and down though for someone my AssMan says is "Fairly Consistent."
Dean Rice has recovered from his dislocated shoulder injury but he's nowhere near ready even for like 20 minutes at the end of a match that is in our control. Maybe on 6 March we'll see his return.
Another league match, another press conference. It's got to be about securing a promotion and the return of Macey, right? Wrong. It was about Welling's deplorable pitch and Andy Robinson being on fire.
Welling is in the southeastern outskirts of London, placing the club there almost 10 miles due east of us. We're rocking the fast back-four today as their striker has a 15 Pace. I hope to go to the Cudgel as soon as possible so I have 3 defenders on the bench.
at Welling, 27 February 2021
Formation: 4-4-2 Control MM
Starting XI: Webb, Peers, Ferreira, Barnes, Curran, Robinson, Roberts, Ferguson, McGregor, Morris, McLeish
Subs: Parker J, Parker K, Smith, Leary, Macey
Tunnel interview! We can win the league today somehow (though I doubt the accuracy of SI programming because this has proven to be inaccurate over the years) and the journalists are leading me on in hope I make bulletin board material for Welling. Only 3:53 in and Morris shows he's just adept on the right side playing the Deep Lying Forward role. McLeish sent him a pass while he was all alone and as the defenders rushed to mob him, he placed a shot in the high left corner where nobody could have stopped it. From there we are on a slow decline in quality and with all four defenders below the 6.5 line I have to do some swapping. McLeish has done nothing since that assist so Macey comes on too. Which is fortunate as he is fouled chasing a Robinson pass in the box and he extends our lead. Then they get us on the restart with that fast striker scooting between Ferreira and Smith, who's slower than Barnes who had to come off. Still we win but Morris continued his trend of kicking the ball right at the goalkeeper.
POM: Welling's Michael Farr 8.3 (1 goal)
In my post-match locker room speech I tell them they were poor and almost everyone got fired up but Macey got all stressed. Weird. I had to let Peers and Barnes know their efforts were crap and I'm thankful they get fired up by my direct remarks to them.
No match for a week but the end of the month is coming up and then it's the best day of the year, YOUTH INTAKE DAY!
Despite the questions in the pressers we did not win the league. I don't know if that’s because Dulwich Hamlet also won. Next match should be telling.
I am very pleased to see that DC Colin Cockbill is improving along with DMC Tasos Noulas. I think I might move The Greek Wonder ahead of Liam Roberts and Gary Ferguson. Andy Robinson's upgrading is no surprise and I have a feeling this will make him worth £100,000 in the summer transfer window. Wait. His contract expires this season and I've not re-signed him. D'oh! On the other wing it further seems that McGregor is the answer there. The best news of all though is Morris' continued improvement. Not sure what the deal is with Ferreira.
Well, we didn't have a loss or tie, so that's good. We also didn't concede multiple goals in any given match. We also secured our appearance in the playoff at a minimum and I think we are the cusp of winning the league. All in all, a successful month.
Though major changes in the make up of the squad started in late January, it really solidified in February. We got away from the Diamond, moving to the 4-4-2 mostly. The slow pace of Mitchell Nightingale and Stephen O'Shea finally caught up to us so now Angelino Ferreira and Alfie Barnes are preferred. I've settled on two new starters in the midfield, Liam Roberts and Gary Ferguson with Bill Taylor and Alan Coates stepping out. With Watkins gone we have Robinson as the starter on the right wing and Ben Pope as his understudy. Two hot-shot young strikers are now my preferred attackers.
Let's take a look at a bit of old news that I had written a note for. Val Waters. He was my 19th signing, back in late October 2017 as I was looking for bodies for the U18s as I had just been granted a full compliment of U18 coaches by the board. In January 2019 a good number of Irish teams were flirting with him but none offered a transfer. By 1 July 2019 his contract expired and he immediately signed with Limerick F.C. He never got in with our Seniors but in his first season with Limerick he got into 15 matches, averaging only 6.7. In the 2020 season he was down to 4 matches and managed 6.88. He's yet to appear in any matches this season but they've only played 3 matches so far. (The Irish Premier Division runs from mid-February to late October. There are only 10 clubs in the league and they play each other four times each season.) I don't think he'll be employed this time next year.