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The month again starts with issues of the game progressing when I hit "Continue". Does this portend evilness?
The Youth Intake happened on 6 March so this update is sort of out of order, but not really.
The schedule isn't daunting so we should make it through the month without a loss. And surprise of surprises, a match on 20 March will be televised! Who could the opponent be? It is a mystery!
Why do I even bother? I mean, I'm ecstatic on Curran's awesomeness but Ferguson? He's been the primary left midfielder the last month! Ingrate.
We lost almost £53,000 in February but for the season we are still ahead over £13.3 million with almost £25.4 million in the bank.
With us on the verge of winning the league my Untouchable-ness is up to 90%. I'm great. :-)
I also won the manager of the month award. Whoopie!
On 16 February Noah Harding moved up from Others to Influential Player. I guess three goals in three matches will do that for you.
I'm instituting a new section to focus on youth player development, my primary interest in Football Manager. It'll be just like the Player Development section but just focusing on the kids in the U18s. I've yet to decide if I'll include young players in the Seniors in this section or the next one.
On the 2nd, my AssMan confirms Colin Cockbill's League One potential as a centreback. Less exciting but probably just as important, Jason Cosgrove will be a League Two central defender eventually.
Some more players move up to 5 stars in Potential Ability but then I remind myself the scores are resetting with so many star players gone. U18 GK Adrian Lee is one of those. But at least he's Championship-level? Not convinced he's Premier League.
My AssMan also confirms that Mark Flitcroft is at least of League Two potential as an AMC.
It's another good month for the guys out on loan though Hammond is starting to slip.
Time to offer Gareth O'Keeffe a new contract. What will it cost us? Nothing! He refuses to extend. Poop.
Huh. Team of the week only includes Robert Webb. Oh well.
West Ham travel to Manchester United in Fifth Round of the FA Cup. How did Kemar do? He scored West Ham's only goal but Manchester too only scored once so there will be a second leg in East London.
Oh yeah. A press conference for the Corinthian-Casuals match. Usual questions, usual answers. Not about us securing the league title though, which I'm 99% sure will happen if we win.
Okay, the league preview for Saturday's matches does confirm that if we win, we promote. We beat them 4-1 on their turf so I hope that spells good things for us.
vs. Corinthian-Casuals, 6 March 2021
Formation: Diamond Attack (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, DMC (DLP-S), MR, ML, AMC (AM), ST r (DLF-A), ST l (AF))
Starting XI: O'Keeffe, Peers, Ferreira, Barnes, Jefcoate, Roberts, Robinson, McGregor, Lemon, McLeish, Morris
Subs: Parker K, Parker J, Harding, Leary, Macey
My team selection is spot on with Morris slotting one in under the Casual GK in the 12th minute. But they don't prove casual for long, striking from distance after 30'. Two minutes is all it takes for Lemon to get back the lead after a free kick. Morris and Jefcoate didn't like my halftime speech about complacency but Mickey must not have been too upset as he screams one in from 17 yards out just before 60'. A switch to the Cudgel at 68' doesn't prevent Morris from getting his third, with this assist coming from Macey.
POM: Mickey Morris (3 goals, 1 key passes, 1 chance created)
That was very pleasing, especially Morris' hat trick. I really like using Ferreira at centreback and from there he got two assists today. I was surprised that we didn't get a confetti parade at midfield after the match seeing as we won the league and all.
Right after the match I switch up the Diamond Attack formation to tailor to Morris and Marshall's strengths. The left striker is now the Advanced Forward (for Morris) and the right striker is now a Deep Lying Forward with Attack duty (for Marshall). Marshall really isn't adept at DLF but he's not really adept at anything, Role-wise.
Early the next morning after we get our promotion O'Shea again complains about playing time. Ugh...
Speaking of playing time... I'm in a pickle. I want to keep Chick Legg as insurance against O'Keeffe forcing his way out but he doesn't want to renegotiate a new contract and it expires this season. He has a contract clause that extends him a year if he gets into 15 league matches. He's been in 6 so far and we have 9 matches left. Ergo, he'll start the remainder of the league matches, O'Keeffe will get the remaining cup matches, and Webb goes back down to the U23s. I should take bets if all three are pissed by the end of the season.
A strange things happens before the U18s take on the Youth Candidates, though it's not related. The Non-League Paper put out a story that we are interested in a defensive midfielder on Everton's U23 team. I've never scouted him, don't know who he is. The article went on to say that Tasos Noulas would be sweating over this. Great. Journalists are the worst.
The Team of the Week sees Gareth O'Keeffe, Ferreira, Roberts, and Morris named. It was another wide-spread crew with the rest of the XI each coming from a different team.
Now that we are getting promoted, I need to make sure some players are moving up with us. First player up, Sean Peers. He's only on £200 per week now so I'm offering £500 plus some graduated bonuses. This prompts Ferreira to ask for a new one too. He gets 1st Team, £1,000 per week, a £4,000 bonus, and some good bonuses so we can keep him until the end of the 2022/2023 season. Peers agrees on the morning of 13 March.
Well, the first batch of English youngster scouting reports arrive and like I expected, nobody worth a darn wants to move to the bustling metropolis of London. But then the second batch comes in and there are two kids at Welsh clubs who are down for a move. One is actually from Wolverhampton but the other is from Havefordwest, Wales. The English lad, Tom Simpson, is a right-footed centreback with good height and speed. Problem is, he is only 2 in Teamwork and Work Rate. The Welsh lad, Liam Morgan, is a right fullback who's not too pacey but has incredible Teamwork, Work Rate, and Bravery.
Despite The Great Computer Crash of Fall 2025 I still plan on signing Tom Simpson. I really want to run an experiment on how high I can get his Teamwork and Work Rate. He agrees on the evening of 12 March but won't report to Brixton until he turns 18. Here he is:
The delay in getting Welsh kids over here makes my interest in Liam Morgan disappear quicker than a Hawaiian pizza off my dinner plate.
West Ham United continue in the FA Cup after beating Manchester United 3-1 with Kemar Kirkpatrick contributing one goal.
The next player who gets a new contract offer is Eddie Macey. This is purely about tutoring and it will take a £900 per week increase. Ouch. He signs the contract on the morning of 16 March.
Aldershot are one of the teams that have beaten us in the past but we have since got our revenge. They are also a rarity as they are fielding a strikerless formation today. They have an AMC in the Advanced Playmaker role but the rest of the players are at midfield or lower, with two defensive midfielders. Do they fear our attack? I would say so. They play at The Recreation Ground some 31 miles to the southwest.
at Aldershot, 13 March 2021
Formation: Diamond Attack (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, DMC (DLP-S), MR, ML, AMC (AM), ST r (DLF-A), ST l (AF))
Starting XI: Legg, Parker K, Parker J, O'Shea, Curran, Noulas, Pope, Leary, Flitcroft, Macey, Marshall
Subs: Smith, Rice, Davies, McGregor, Rae
Dangit! They actually didn't go striker-less! They went with something akin to our Spade. But the joke is on them as their single striker is slow. And then the joke is on us because it takes until the 39th minute for the first action and it ends with Marshall not being able to head in a Pope cross. But within a few minutes Eddie shows he wants that contract, tapping in a perfect Leary cross. He repeats himself almost 15 minutes into the second half but the cross is from Marshall. The match quietly ends with us controlling things but Noulas does have to leave with a minor knock.
POM: Eddie Macey 8.8 (2 goals, 2 key passes, 1 chance created)
I guess a twisted knee that keeps you out for a week falls between minor and major injury. Get well soon, Tasos!
Ferreira signs his contract on the morning of 14 March. I am happy. His Technical skills still aren't the greatest but his Physicals are great for this level of play.
Well, with only one match last week and only one scorer in it, it's no surprise that Macey was the sole player to make the Team of the Week.
Mickey and David Doran both get called up for the Wales U19s so they will be out at the end of the month for matches on the 22nd, 26th, and 30th. I hope they come back unbroken.
Also just before the match we learn who we face if we get by the Moors; we travel north to FC Halifax.
Woof, I just noticed the condition of their pitch, very poor. Please let the football gods smile upon us and we have no injuries. Holy moly! Spennymoor are way the hell up north, just south of Newcastle. To be exact, they are 233 miles north by northwest.
at Spennymoor, 17 March 2021
Formation: Diamond Attack (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, DMC (DLP-S), MR, ML, AMC (AM), ST r (DLF-A), ST l (AF))
Starting XI: O'Keeffe, Peers, Ferreira, Smith, Curran, Ferguson, Robinson, McGregor, Davies, Morris, Rae
Subs: Legg, Parker K, Nightingale, Barnes, Rice, Roberts, Pope, Leary, Harding, Macey, Flitcroft, Lemon
They strike first just after 13' but it's all for naught as their slow-ass striker is offsides. Just before the one-third mark we get a counter-attack and Rae is the man of the minute, crossing from left to the far post with M-I-C-K-E-Y heading the ball in past their stunned goalie. Another 30 goes by before Morris gets his second, coming from a penalty after the was tackled from behind while on a breakaway.
POM: Mickey Morris 8.6 ( 2 goals, 1 key pass)
Curran again was mediocre, with a 6.4 at the half and a 6.5 before being yanked after the second goal. Urgh.
Both my AssMan and Head of Youth Development agree that Jose Parker is now very well-suited for League One teams. Wow. He's not getting a lot of play so that is great news.
More international call-ups! Mark Curran for the Ireland U19s, Angelino Ferreira for Angola, and Henson Debellotte for Grenada. Our late March matches are going to play havoc with our line-up.
And now on to our first televised match ever! Psych! It's not the Seniors, it's the U18s. Yep, the Brixton U18 FA Youth Cup Semi Final Leg 2 hosting Liverpool's U18s will be televised. How? Why? How much money will we get? I have no idea. (Actually, I hovered over the TV icon on the schedule page and it says we'll get £7,500. Better than a slap to the face is what my Granpappy used to say.)
At the same time we'll be up in Sheffield playing the minnows up there in the FA Vase Quarter Final. I'm putting Morris on the bench today and really don't plan to bring him on as I want him fresh for his Wales U19 match. Sheffield are on the outskirts of Sheffield, 141 miles north by northwest at a place called Coach & Horses Ground. (You may have noticed that Sheffield have a real logo, not one of the game-generated ones. That's because Sheffield is landlocked but they had a sail boat as their logo and that's just wrong.)
at Sheffield, 20 March 2021
Formation: Diamond Attack (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, DMC (DLP-S), MR, ML, AMC (AM), ST r (DLF-A), ST l (AF))
Starting XI: O'Keeffe, Parker K, Nightingale, O'Shea, Jefcoate, Roberts, Pope, McGregor, Harding, Macey, Marshall
Subs: Legg, Peers, Parker J, Barnes, Rice, Noulas, Robinson, Leary, Lemon, Flitcroft, McLeish, Smith
Gareth almost gifts them a goal at 97 seconds when his goal kick goes right to their right striker, who is just as inept as O'Keeffe at the moment. Then right before 30' their goalie goofs up, mishandling a back pass. Marshall slide tackles the loose ball then springs up and pokes it in. Everyone gets fired up by my midpoint admonition but it has no tangible effect on Macey who continues a poor match with many misplaced shots and passes, including hitting the crossbar while on a one-on-one. He comes off at 60' along with Harding (6.3) and I bring on McLeish, making him a Target Man on the left and sliding Marshall to the right. Does 120 seconds equal "immediate?" Because that's how long it takes for that combo to link up for a second goal for us.
POM: Mark Marshall 9.2 (2 goals, 3 key passes, 3 chances created)
I'm starting to get annoyed with these two-nil victories. Today saw a lazy-with-new-contract Macey and only 3 of 15 shots on target. Grrrrr!
Another Sunday, another draw day. For the FA Vase Semi Final we get to host Team Northumbria. They are from a league way down in the 10th tier of the English Football Pyramid. We better smoke them and have a shut out.
Wealdstone are not having a good season and I hope to add to their misery. Without Morris and Curran, mind you.
vs. Wealdstone, 23 March 2021
Formation: Diamond Attack (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, DMC (DLP-S), MR, ML, AMC (AM), ST r (DLF-A), ST l (AF))
Starting XI: Legg, Peers, Parker J, Barnes, Rice, Ferguson, Robinson, Leary, Lemon, Rae, Flitcroft
Subs: Ferreira, Parker K, Harding, McGregor, McLeish
Leary almost scores just 18 seconds in but the Stoner keeper is able to knock it aside. But just 3 minutes later Flitcroft is in the right position to shoot a Lemon pass into the lower left corner. Can we finish with at least two more goals?! But that is the only action that favors us in the first 45 with Wealdstone dominating but all four of their shots are off target. Rice is not doing well and Rae is doing worse, and worse than that, cold stares when I try to pep them up at the half. We do get a second goal, giving Flitty a brace, but Rae continues to show nothing. And a few minutes later Flitcroft has his trick!
POM: Mark Flitcroft 9.6 (3 goals, 1 key pass, 1 chance created)
So much more satisfying. Three goals, another clean sheet, and we are accurate on 13 of 19 shots while they were just 1 of 6.
Thursday, 25 March is the transfer deadline day and I've been asked to participate. If you say no then the day will pass by like any other day but with offers coming in, maybe. If you partake, which I didn't, you constantly get questions about possible trades. None of our players get offers so things pass quickly.
Mark Curran had a less-than-stellar performance for Ireland U19 versus Turkey, rating 6.5. I really thought he was gonna be good. This is lame. On the other hand, Morris and U18 MC David Doran had good games for Wales U19 versus Israel, with Mickey scoring a goal.
In much better news, Angelino Ferreira gets his first international cap for Angola!
Torquay are mediocre but stunned us late in our match in November though we pulled out of the nose dive at the last minute. They have a fast right striker and left midfielder so I put Peers and Barnes at centreback, and bring up 17 year-old Pat Lawford for right fullback. Let us hope this works well.
vs. Torquay, 27 March 2021
Formation: Diamond Attack (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, DMC (DLP-S), MR, ML, AMC (AM), ST r (DLF-A), ST l (AF))
Starting XI: Legg, Lawford, Peers, Barnes, Jefcoate, Noulas, Pope, McGregor, Harding, Marshall, McLeish
Subs: Smith, Rice, Roberts, Leary, Macey
Alfie Barnes gets his first career league goal from a Ben Pope freekick that was nodded on by Stephen McGregor. The second goal comes from my preferred way, one striker helping another. In this case it was McLeish assisting Marshall. But I sure do love a DC header from a free kick! Then Noulas gets one in from our fifth FIFTH! freekick. The easy continues when in the 84th one of the Torqs tries to murder Harding with a slide tackle from behind. Off he goes with a bright, shiny red card. But once again I speak too soon as they get one past Legg in the end. But then we strike back immediately, courtesy of McGregor.
POM: Ben Pope 9.0 (1 assist, 4 key passes, 2 chances created)
Well that was a fun one! One slight blemish but so many good things to write about. One of them being that Pat Lawford rated out at 8.1. I look forward to his future.
The Bath report shows their two strikers are slow so Nightingale and Jose Parker will get the start.
On 29 March Chick Legg drops his "lack of football" concerns. Wait until you figure out why, chump.
Oh wow! We had seven players in the Team of the Week: Lawford (DR), Barnes (DC r), Peers (DC l), Robinson (MR), Flitcroft (MC r), Noulas (MC l), Marshall (ST l).
O'Shea's mentoring of Barnes comes to an end on 30 March. I would rate it moderately successful. His Determination went from 5 to 8 and his personality improved from Low Determination to Fairly Professional. Of course I was expecting better so maybe I'll try again in a month to see what O'Shea can do over the last few months of his contract.
Bath are way out west, almost to the coast. Their home, Twenton Park, is 99 miles from Brockwell Park. Interesting fact, it's named after the Roman baths that were set up there in 60 CE or so. Hopefully their players are too relaxed to give much effort today. We've beat them thrice and tied them once, way back late in the 2017/2018 season.
at Bath, 30 March 2021
Formation: Club (DC r, DC c, DC l, WBR, WBL, MC r (Mez), MC c (BBM), MC l (Mez), ST r (P), ST l (TM-A))
Starting XI: Legg, Parker J, Nightingale, O'Shea, Parker K, Rice, Lemon, Davies, Ferguson, Macey, Rae
Subs: Ferreira, Barnes, Roberts, Leary, Marshall
Davies gets a rare start and his shot from range hits the right post but then goes right to Nightingale. I like it! Not six minutes later they hit our right post but this time the ball goes right to Ferguson who scrambles it away safely. With a 25% accuracy rate in the first 45 I try to fire up the lads and I'm met with some smiles. The smiles are short-lived as Jose Parker fouls their left striker and Legg stands his ground while their guy shots right. Urgh!
POM: Glyn Davies 8.0 (1 assist, 1 key pass, 1 chance created)
That was annoying. It's what I get for pulling out an old formation from the closet and focusing on giving time to those who haven't been playing much.
It's that time of year when every manager gets an email notifying them of some players in Premier League and Championship teams whose contracts are coming up but they've been told they won't be offered new contracts. Lower teams like Brixton like to swarm in and sign them. There are only two promising players that draw my eyes, a right winger and a right centreback. Hopefully they are interested in coming to South London; the winger plays for Chelsea so maybe he'll be inclined to stay near.
Oh poop. Our next opponent, Boston United is from a league above and they are in first place. Their roster looks way better than ours. Time to get familiar with the Diamond again.
With having to do The Great Leap Backwards, I get a chance to reassess The Fourteen. I now know that Jose Parker and Mitchell Nightingale are just too slow. I also now have to consider a whole different Intake that doesn't include a bevy of very good midfielders. Still though, we could get two or more Premier-level players when the big teams release some unspectacular youths. Unspectacular in their eyes, mind you.
I won't address this much but I will next month.
Well, it was nice to leave the month with no defeats, as predicted, but that last match was irksome but I'm the one to blame this time. It was also pleasing to see a couple of hat tricks. We won the league, never in doubt, and are still in all the cups but the FA Cup. I do wish the Youth Intake was better but I have to be realistic considering our stature.
Two years ago we got a kid named Kevin Jenkins in the Youth Intake. I was kinda excited because he stood out with some interesting Abilities though the scouts didn't have a high opinion of him. With a 12 Marking, 14 Aggression, 15 Bravery, 13 Teamwork, and 12 Jumping Reach, I thought he might improve enough to make it to the Seniors. He really hasn't improved much, see below, and thus I don't believe he will ever get to play in the Seniors, as you can see in my DC pathway-to-playing spreadsheet.
Let me explain this image. The first row should be self-explanatory. I know we are going up to the Conference National and before my laptop shat the bed we were almost all the way through December 2021 and had yet to lose so League Two in 2022 is not unthinkable. The first two columns show the three teams in the squad: Seniors, U23s, and U18s. The colors in the third and fourth columns represent the assessments of the players. White is Conference South or lower, red is Conference National, orange is League Two, yellow is League One, green is Championship, and blue is Premier League. So Barnes is currently Conference South but my scouts believe he'll be Premier-quality eventually. The blue with yellow text in the fifth column are notes to myself to sell Jose Parker and Mitchell Nightingale in the off-season. Tom Simpson is in blue yellow because he doesn't join us until the 2022/2023 season. You can see I'm going to shoehorn Jenkins into the Seniors next season. Also, Ben Evans is one of those to-be-released players I'm drooling over. (And I signed in the first Brixton FM2018 timeline.)
Kevin Jenkins' "progress" so far.
I don't think I did him justice. I was going to train him to be a DMC in the Half-back role but I became obsessed with getting his DL Natural as at the time I didn't have a lot of options there. I would have expected to him to improve more even with his Unambitious personality. He's had 47 starts and 14 sub appearances at leftback and is still not Natural there. Conclusion: His Versatility is not high.
How does consistency work? Does it improve? I'm about 99% sure that it does as it did happen for one player when I played FM2014. I've yet to see it happen in FM2018 though. So I'm going to conduct an investigation. I'm going to peek behind the curtains using the In-Game Editor. The horror! I won't be looking at other details though. No looks at Potential Ability and Current Ability. I've chosen two players, one who is inconsistent and one who is not scouted as inconsistent or consistent. Both players will definitely be around next year so I'll have a sizeable amount of data.
The first player is Gary Ferguson. He'll be DMC2 next year so should get a good amount of play time. He is currently listed as Inconsistent by my AssMan and a quick peak under the hood on 31 March 2021 shows his Consistency score is 8 (out of 20). Noted.
The second player is newbie Lee Beirne. He'll be in the U18s for two years and then either the U23s or, if I'm lucky, in the Seniors. My AssMan has no opinions on his Consistency and looking at the Hiddens, I see his score is 11.
I'll make a quick report next month on their progress, if any.