The B’s of Manchester – Part 6

Posted on by
1

The B Team experiment from SupernovaDragon has seen the youth lads reach the upper echelons of Division 2. Can they make the final push to secure promotion? Catch up with part 5 here.

Welcome back to part 6 of the Man United B Team with the youngsters and now the slow feed through of players from our parent club. Let’s just get into this shall we, as we have a league run in to get into.

Our parent club have won the first trophy of the season:

1

I’ll give you this, our discipline needs sorting:

The FA Cup Semi-Final draw sees our parent club playing Tottenham:

Back to our league run in, up next is away to Gillingham and I make sure they know we HAVE to win this one. Nothing else will do.

At half-time we are 1-0. We are a shadow of how we have been playing before. I may have to convert to our old formation. Gillingham have even threw on two players and took nobody off.

At full-time we deserved to get beat. We offered nothing up top and to make matters worse, we lost McGibbon due to being sent off.

It’s good to know things are going well for our parent club:

Our next match is home to Northampton. It is very imperative we win this match.

Within the first 10 minutes we are losing again. I don’t know what has happened to us recently but the morale seems to be through the floor, we haven’t been the same for a while now.

2nd half and we are still struggling for the first 10 minutes, I then bring Nevland on, convert back to the 3-5-2 attacking formation I had before and suddenly we become better, Nevland seems to make the difference, his shot is parried and Mulryne jumps onto the loose ball to equalise and 10 minutes later, Tomlinson and Nevland combine to put us in front. The rest of the game then peters out, thankfully.

I was very unimpressed by Notman’s return.

Burnley won the Windowless Shield:

Our next match is away to Blackpool and we make a lot of changes as we convert back to the 5-3-2 attack formation.

At half-time we are 2-0 down, we got dominated from the very first minute and they scored in the 2nd. I am struggling to get our morale back up.

I feel like the team need a pick-me-up, we have been woeful again today:

I am already preparing for us to drop into the play-offs. We need to get our morale back up and I don’t know how to do it.

Our parent club is on for 4 trophies:

As the run-in begins, we are at home to Walsall. The way we have been playing, I am expecting us to get beat and to drop down to 3rd and I feel like I don’t know how to fix it. I go with a 4-4-2 formation and at half-time we are 1-0 down which is what I expected. I try to cheer the team up before sending them back out.

In the end, we lose 1-0 and I am struggling to see a way to fix this slump.

In midweek, Burnley win their game in hand and Bristol Rovers draw theirs to send us from 2nd to 4th and there must be a way to fix this.

Our next match is away to York, I’ve gone back to the 3-5-2 attack formation as, for the first time in a long time, I have a full team to choose from.

That’s the best first half we have had in a while, within a minute a Twiss put Tomlinson through to put us ahead. Later in the half, a Tomlinson shot was parried only for Appleton to net a 2nd and then a low cross from Twiss led to Tomlinson’s shot being parried, Nevland hitting the post and Casper burred the lose ball. We did still concede a goal before half-time. That’s how it finished, the only blot on the book for us was Macken coming off the bench, only to get injured a few minutes later.

It was a nice feeling to win a game comfortably again.

We have at least secured a play-off place. At least our parent club have succeeded:

I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s no surprise.

Our penultimate league game of the season is at home to MIlwall and as Clegg has, once again, got injured, in comes O’Kane as Notman is now on the bench.

10 minutes in and the worst thing that could have happened has happened. We are 3-0 down and I will admit to being all out of ideas.

At half-time I lambasted the team, told them they weren’t good enough and brought Thornley on for O’Kane who has failed to impress me all season. We then scored twice in 3 minutes at the start of the second half but still loose in the end. Play-offs it is then.

Our discipline is shocking.

Our last league game of the season is away to 23rd placed Wycombe 2 days later.

I’ve had to make a few changes to the starting line-up due to tiredness.

At half-time this very dull dour match is 0-0 which is what I was expecting to be honest.

At full-time we won 2-0 thanks to two goals from sub Andy Cole. It was a nothing match this really. We just have to prepare ourselves for the play-offs now.

Table ended like this:

Our season seemed to go downhill once Johnny boy Curtis left but you can’t blame poor form on one sale.

As you can see, he has carried his form into Leeds. How I wish I kept him.

Our play-offs game is:

I fancy our chances, we WILL win the play-offs.

Meanwhile in other news, Sporting Lisbon won the UEFA Cup.

Back to the play-offs and I name the strongest team I can, making a few changes and the team out knowing a place at Wembley is at stake.

The first half we weren’t playing as a team for the first 20 minutes, then we got our act together and got a few shots away but it was still 0-0.

We didn’t perform anywhere near to what we were capable of and lose 1-0. None of the team played well.

On to the next leg where I am determined for us to overturn this result and get us to Wembley.

Join us next time for the end of the play-offs and see if we can turn it all around and go up and see if this team can start playing like a team again.

CM9798 Academy – Part 34: City Slickers

Posted on by
Reply

Welcome back! The end of season 11 is nigh. Our regens are proving quite useful and have us in the European places in the league, whilst we’re still in the UEFA Cup. Things are looking promising as we head into the final few months of the season.

We also had the boost of signing the Peter Schmeichel regen to hopefully finally solve our goalkeeping issues. He can’t play in the UEFA Cup though, which is where we start. Sunderland away.

Continue reading →

Building Brazil – Part 13: Brazil meets Blue Peter

Posted on by
1

Rob Tait is back in Brazil but…here’s one he made earlier. A far more Brazilian all Brazil team. I’ll let Rob explain…

So, season four ended relatively positively and I got over excited and played though seasons five and six in the hope of finding some inspiration to keep this going. It didn’t happen and I’m kind of over Uniao for now. However I wanted to provide a better ending to this blog than an abrupt stop. That’s when I thought about the inspiration for the blog, a Sporting Lisbon team that I created full of actual Brazilian superstars and their illegitimate children. So I’m going to play through my final season with a “here’s one I created earlier” Brazilian team.

Here they are then, some familiar names and a few young regens. Luis Carlos Jacare is Jorginho, Glaucio Vinicius is Aldair, Ze Maria is Branco, M Franco is Julio Caesar, Renaldo is Bebeto and Roddy Jetson is Romario. This team took two or three years to create and I had to win the Champions League to attract people like Ronaldo.

I’m starting the season like this I’m sure we will change it up as some of the youngsters develop and injuries appear.

First up is the Supertaca against Porto. Denilson started the season with a MOM performance and I’m hoping for good things from him as he hasn’t really been firing on all cylinders since I signed him a year and a bit ago.

League game one and the season is off to a good start.

Our reward for the winning start is an alright Champions League group but Madrid will no doubt give us a little challenge.

Having identified a need for some more defensive experience I rescue Marcio from the Midlands.

Felgueiras are no real match for us, Ronaldo’s scoring five of the six goals.

Juninho is out for a month so I go shopping again and sign left winger Djalminha, he’s got good stats and been playing well for Valencia over the years.

At home to Alverca and Djalmin makes an immediate impact, Denilson switches to the right inside winger role and he is loving it there too.

The Portuguese league starts so late that it’s already mid September and we face a real test against Real in our first Champions League group game. It’s fair to say it doesn’t go well, but the score does seem a tad unfair and we lose Leonardo and Gralak to injury. Here are the player ratings just to show that we basically the Brazilian national side playing in Europe.

We put the bad result behind us and travel to Madeira to face Maritimo, Juninho back from injury and on the score sheet.

I’d forgotten we had the second leg of the Supertaca to play. In an odd decision Dida (who seems to be conceding a lot) gets MOM but we win on the away goals rule. Ronaldo is scoring for fun, he is a little too good for this level.

It’s Estrela up next and it’s Ronaldo again, bagging a hat trick in the final four minutes.

It’s international call up time and we have a few in the squad.

Away to LASK in the Champions League and we get the three points to try and keep pace with Real, we might need to sneak through as one of the two best second placers so the more goals the better.

Another game and another win, more goals for Ronny.

He’s on the score sheet again against Leca but the injury to Flavio is a concern, I don’t have a great replacement for him.

I decide to put mini Aldair and captain Vinicius into the DMC role for a tie against Sparta and it’s still all going well.

Ex Chelsea legend Hiario is on fine form for Porto and Dida keeps conceding. It was a funny five minutes where we went from certain victory to bad draw.

A week later and we play the other powerhouse of Portuguese football and local rivals Benfica. A better performance from Dida gives us a deserved victory.

We take all this momentum to the Bernabeu but CM great Miki Landreau plays out of his skin. I look at the stats and I can’t believe we have lost both games against them.

We come back strong against Chaves who don’t hit the target in 90 minutes.

More goals follow against LASK, which we will need if we are to qualify to the quarters.

The first day of advent and we travel to Boavista for the final game of the update. We win again, Ronny scores again and life is good.

Unsurprisingly we are top of the league with ten wins and a draw out of the eleven played. Quite surprisingly Vit. G are only three points behind and seem to be flying.

It’s a strong start to the first update. I do miss the struggles I had in Madeira a little bit but watching the Real Ronaldo do his thing is rather enjoying. Come back for part two to see if we can continue our European adventure

You can follow Rob on Twitter @Taitanator

Run Forest, Run – Part 5: All The Leaves Are Brown

Posted on by
1

Matt is back to the future again as he starts his second season at Nottingham Forest in 2006. Can they go one better than last season? Catch up with part 4 here.

Hi, welcome back to Futures Past with my Nottingham Forest experiment, simming 8 seasons into the future and trying to make Forest great again. Last season we came close but finished second to a star-studded Watford team. We faded badly in the home run and so I need to add some quality to the squad. This won’t be easy as we’re not that fashionable, yet, and I’m not really sure whose who.

Goalkeeper was also a problem position last season, so this guy might help there…

This Klinsmann clone would be a good addition too.

But he doesn’t want to sign for us, and in truth it’s a fairly frustrating summer transfer season.

This guy might want to take up snooker though. Don’t you just love the names the AI generates sometimes?

Our second place finish last season earns us a place in the Champions League qualifying round. I’m feeling hopeful.

The Charity Shield kicks off the domestic season, and Watford are looking for dominance again

For our campaign, here’s how we’ll be lining up. I’ve decided to give Coughlin another chance and I have high hope for Dutchman Twan Inge

We start at home to Dinamo Minsk in our qualifier and our deadly front two give us a good advantage for the second leg.

Ageing midfield maestro Guerrero gets us off to a flyer in the league campaign and Rubi-Gol adds the icing to the cake. (Probably a Black Forest Gateau)

For 13 minutes I was a fairly happy man at Goodison Park

Its back to basics against Ipswich and I have the regen of Luis Enrique on loan from Las Palmas at right wingback.

For the away leg of our Champions League qualifier in Minsk, I rest our front two, and he back up s both score. Thompson is the regen of Liverpool manager Alan Shearer by the way.

That result puts us into the hat for the group draw….

We’re in with reigning Champions AC Milan. I’ll be aiming for second in the group and hope luck is on my side!

Despite the pummelling at Goodison Park, I nab the first manager of the Month award. Lovely.

Then, just one day later, Las Palmas want Little Luis Enrique back, balls.

But at least some of my homegrown talent is winning acclaim. Well done Lloyd.

Chad International Nelo gives us the perfect start at home to Man City, but if you concede a goal to Robbie Blake you probably don’t deserve all 3 points

And when you have your centre half sent off against Spurs, you’re not even going to get 1 pt. Zizi Debbah tries his best to get us back in it but it’s too little too late

We recover against Sheffield United, but our form is decidedly patchy. Not the sort of thing you want as you head into your first European campaign since Ian Woan played in midfield.

I think my side could have done with an Ian Woan on this particular Wednesday.

The match stats tell the real story. They had 3 shots on target and scored with all of them. And one of our goals too. I don’t even have Coughlin in goal anymore, Lizarralde is back in the sticks. It seems to make no difference.

Back in league action and our European hangover isn’t shaken off until the 90th minute when Debbah steals a point. With these players and this formation we really should be scoring more goals and getting results, but we’re not and I’m not sure at the moment what the answer is.

The answer definitely isn’t playing champions Watford away.

We’re behind from the 1st minute and never really in it. Rubi-gol scores in his rumoured favourite position but when your Pluck’s out it seems like nothing is going right for you.
Still, we have nothing to Fear when we visit Tyneside and Juanmi (Luis Enrique) is back on loan from Las Palmas and scores to set up a 3-1 win and 3 points on the board.

Back into the Champions League and a chance to get our European campaign up and running after a disastrous first result against FC Croatia. Rosenborg don’t agree though and we rely on a late Thompson equaliser to rescue a point.

It leaves the table like this…and we visit AC Milan next….

If we lose that fixture, we may as well burn our passports and give up this season on Europe which will really put my challenge in jeopardy.

In the domestic league, we are wallowing in 8th. Ok, we are only 2 pts off 2nd place and the league is tightly packed, but we can’t seem to put a run together to take advantage.

Maybe this is the problem, a wantaway striker.

Maybe I sold sell last seasons top scorer. He’s worth over £8m and is 28 but the trouble is, who would I replace him with? I have £40m in the bank, but have real trouble attracting the players I want. It seems nobody wants to come to mid-table inconsistent Forest, and who can blame them. I guess I could give Thompson or Twinge a chance upfront with Rubi-Gol and say bye bye to Zizi Debbah.

As you can tell by my tone, the hangover from last seasons title-miss seems to have infected me and my team and I’m hoping we can salvage something from our European campaign in the next part and I hope I haven’t put you off from joining me again next week.

Before we go, our customary round up of the teams you guys turned down…

Liverpool – They missed out on promotion back to the Premiership last season, but after 12 games they are sitting 4th in Division 1, Alan Shearer aiming for managerial recognition now that he has hung up his boots.

Lazio – Last seasons promotion from Serie B has been a bit of a step up for them and they are hovering just above the drop zone and are out of the Copa Italia already, losing 1-0 to Parma.

Espanyol – 5th in the league and top of their Champions League group with two wins from two, but they’ve sold William Gallas to Juventus who are below Lazio in Serie A!

You can follow Matt on Twitter @Matt_C_Wills

Starting from Scratch – Part 9

Posted on by
1

Matthew Cooper is back for a second season with Altrincham. After strolling to Third Division success, can they build on that with a summer of wheeling and dealing? Catch up with part 8 here.

Hi and welcome back. We start this update fresh from our title-winning triumph in Division 3, so we’re looking to prepare for life in Division 2 and hopefully keep the momentum going. It seems we’re going to need yet another left wingback however, as Lou Kidd appears to be on the move

He chooses Leicester and we lose him for £325k. I immediately move for a replacement and spot this potential bargain for the princely sum of £8k

Somewhat inevitably I win the MotM for May, to make it 5 out of the last 6.

We get Lee Hughes in, but he insists on a big club release clause so we’ll probably end up moving for yet another wingback before long

I was going to say that I didn’t really foresee any further moves in the Summer, however Williamson’s value has shot up without me noticing and he’s attracted a bit of interest. I’ll probably have to get a replacement for him in that case.

Well, that was quick

As he’s probably going to go anyway, I decide to take advantage of contract situations to sweeten the deal

The official end to the season rolls along, and I think it was in the first update that I said that I doubted I would see my name in there. This turns out to be an incorrect prediction as I win Division 3 manager of the year, hurray! Ian Wright is the Football Writer’s player of the year and the top scorer in the premiership at the ripe age of 35. If he retires I’m all over his regen.

I start the new season by offloading squad player Paul Hart to Swindon for £210k. One of the three clubs in for Williamson suddenly pull out of the running

Why would you bid for a player you can’t afford? Anyway he agrees terms with Bolton and we get our free player so all in all it’s a pretty good deal

I check Arsenal’s squad page and Wrighty has decided to give it another year, unfortunately for us. I do however notice Le Sulk, who wants away for more minutes on the pitch:

We can easily afford the fee from the Williamson sale so I make a bid. I have a few other targets in case he says non but I’ll see how this pans out first.

Ah, balls. That’s probably scuppered any chance that the deal will go ahead then. Rather amazingly though he agrees to talk to us, however he’s asking for 6 grand a week and big club, relegation and non-promotion clauses. I offer him the bare minimum as I’m not too excited for the deal any more. He predictably chooses the Owls and I move for my second target, the Nevster

In the meantime I offload another no-hoper as Dean West moves to Bournemouth for £160k. Erik says no, or whatever the Norwegian equivalent is, so I’m back to square one. I re-think my strategy – Tokely and Allardyce are a much better front two than most we’re going to come up against this year, so I decide to give youth another chance and make a move for a schoolboy, the mysteriously named Bobby Raven

There’s more squad trimming as Innes and McCarthy move on for £250k and £170k respectively. That’s going to be it as far as recruitment goes, as I’d rather kick on with what we have and move to solve any problems we run into as they occur. Well ok, two more personnel changes. A-lister Cooper moves on to the bright lights of…Southend. I also sign up a kid as cover for Hughes on the left.

We start the campaign away at Watford. It’s a pretty low-key affair, on another day we might have sneaked a goal but it peters out to a pretty fair 0-0 draw. N’Diaye serves his one match ban so will be available for the next game.

This next development isn’t really a surprise at all. He was pretty poor in the few games I tried him for so he got hardly any game time. I let him go on a free as no-one is ever going to buy him and I can’t stand the ugly red name spoiling my squad screen

The League Cup draw isn’t kind and we’re at St Andrews to face first division Birmingham. I swap N’Diaye for Zerrouki but keep the rest of the team the same. It’s a very even game and we’re unlucky to finish up on the losing side. Then again, it’s the League Cup so the sooner we’re out of it the better. We just need to not better their result in the return leg and it’s out of our hair for another season

A home game against Burnley is next, and a week-long injury for Bound draws my attention to the fact that I only have 4 central defenders for 3 places – I’ll have to at least sign a promising youngster after the match. Taggart starts for Bound and Zerrouki makes the bench as I need to play him fairly regularly to prevent him going the way of Luis and losing his work permit. It’s a very assured performance as Tokely and Allardyce open their accounts for the season and help us to an easy 2-0 victory

I check in on this year’s non-league promoted club Colwyn Bay and as usual their squad is rather loanee heavy. I bet picking the team sheet for the cup game was a bit of a puzzler with all those ineligible players

They better get a move on with permanent signings or they’re going to be in all kinds of trouble when the loanees are recalled at random and they’re left with greyed-out autogens for players.

I rest N’Diaye for the second leg tie against Birmingham, as he’s a bit tired and besides, I don’t actually want to win the game. Bound makes the bench after recovering from his dead leg. The lads do me proud and we go down 1-0 to exit the competition as quickly as we can. Taggart gets the MotM and is proving to be a decent acquisition for a freebie

Well get used to it, you knobs. Also how can you be very disappointed? they’re pushing for promotion to the sodding Premiership! I know we’ve made a name as giant killers but you can’t EXPECT it to happen every time, that’s just unfair. I hate the board sometimes.

We’re away to Portsmouth next, and it’s just one of those games. We really should win it handily but the strikers have a shockingly poor day and spurn a raft of chances. They get 2 scrappy goals against the run of play for a travesty of a win, though credit to them for taking their chances. Perhaps spending some of the £6 million in the bank on a striker wouldn’t be the worst idea in the world

After the game I take a look and settle on Orient’s Jason Harris. He has never been given a fair chance at his current club but his stats suggest he could become something special. If we can turn his form around I could see him being a 1 in 2 kind of goalscorer. He’s available for merely £150k so I make the bid.

We’re back at home next and I’m hoping for a swift reaction against Wycombe. Bound has been hit and miss so far this season so I give Taggart another shot at staking a regular place. I also put Zerrouki into the midfield as Gatusso is going through an indifferent patch of form. The lads respond brilliantly and put them thoroughly to the sword.

They give us a helping hand early on with a sending off for deliberate handball but we’re already on top and ahead via Tokely by that point anyway. They level things up from a corner and then get a penalty awarded. They are determined to piss the game away though and McCarthy puts the spot kick wide, then a mere two minutes later we’re back in front through new wingback Hughes. Allardyce puts us further in front and then Tokely hits a 30 yard screamer to cap off an excellent day. We really needed that after such a deflating loss last game so I’m very pleased with the team after that.

That’s a good place to leave it for now. Come back next time to see how we get on in our new Division after a fairly decent start. We’ll also be keeping an eye on Colwyn Bay as well. Bye for now!

The B’s of Manchester – Part 5

Posted on by
2

Happy Monday. SupernovaDragon is back with the B team and this week he has to contend with an injury crisis. Can he tempt some players to drop down from the illustrious A squad? Catch up with part 4 here.

Welcome back to this Man Utd B Team, where we’re taking a team of Man Utd youngsters and anybody the first team, our parent club, deems surplus to requirements and seeing just how far we can go.

Our first match of this update sees us at home to 22nd placed Chesterfield. This is how we line-up:

As you can see, there is no place for our new signing David May as I keep faith with the youngsters.

At half-time we are 3-0 up thanks to Mulryne pouncing on a loose ball after Nevland’s shot hit the post. Notman got the second after Mulryne’s corner and Nevland’s header was parried by the keeper and Cooke played Nevland through to score the 1-on-1. All in all, a good first half.

At full-time we win 6-1 after, of all players, McGibbon scored a 1-on-1 after being through from a long ball from Appleton. Chesterfield pulled 1 back but Nevland lobbed the keeper to get his hat-trick.

Looks like Alan Sugar has had enough and sacked the manager:

Right on cue for our next match:

I’ve not really got much in the way of a replacement. Davis will be starting.

Our next match is away to London to play Fulham. At half-time we are 2-0 down thanks to 2 goals within a minute, both of which come from passes in the middle of the park. We are missing Appleton in there I think.

At full-time we managed to get 1 back in the last 5 minutes but we just wasn’t with it today and I can only imagine it’s missing Appleton:

Yes, David May did get his debut but he didn’t really have time to do much, good or bad.

Our parent club have had the “shock defeat” graphic:

Strange bit of prediction here from CM:

I know he wasn’t a starter currently but this is a big blow to me:

Our next game is home to Plymouth. I am so hoping we can we get back to winning ways as now Bristol Rovers are above us.

At half-time we are 1-0 up thanks to a goal after 10 minutes thanks to Nevland. It’s been a very dull first half with not a lot of happening.

Second half and the first thing that happened was Cooke getting injured, more on that pretty soon. Nevland got a 2nd thanks to a through ball from Mulyrne and within a minute, Plymouth got 1 back but we hung on to put us back into 2nd in the table.

Cooke’s injury is going to cause me problems I think.

Looks like the parent club made up for that shock defeat:

Off to Wigan we go, of course with Cooke being injured I have had to bring Tomlinson in for him. It was a little eventful this first half I’m sure you’ll agree:

Notman got put through by Nevland to put us ahead only for Rogers to equalise. We then dominated the rest of the half until Appleton put Notman through with a long range pass to put us back in front and then Nevland had 2 1-on-1’s and both were saved, only to have a 3rd 1-on-1 after being put through by Mulryne and finally scored. 2 minutes later and O’Connell went in 2 footed on Casper and the referee had no hesitation in handing out the red card.

By full-time we only score 1 more goal thanks to Mulryne after being through by Nevland. Then we picked up an injury to McGibbon.

I hope the injury isn’t too bad.

It is bad enough. As if 1 injury isn’t bad enough:

At least it’s just 1 week and he isn’t a starter.

Leeds have turned to Brian Little to be their new manager. The plus news for me:

Do I bring him back into the team straight away though?

I’m very suspicious of this injury, I have no proof of this but I think Cookie had something to do with this:

Davis and Tomlinson then both return before the next match and the board are still very happy with my work and I am still making a loss. What have I got to do to get a manager of the month.

Our next match is at home to Burnley. Now, I don’t know if you remember but all the way back in September Burnley absolutely hammered us 5-0. So I WILL be going out for revenge. I decide the name the same line-up.

At half-time and the revenge is not happening, we have been woeful and we are losing 2-0. It appears that Burnley are my bogey team then.

Yep, they are my bogey team and this was our chance to go back top. We just didn’t create much.

I blast the team in the dressing room afterwards. We had our chance. I am not very happy.

Leave my team alone:

It’s only now that I realised I have not offered anyone a new contract and I have offered nearly everyone a contract.

He has just literally signed a new and straight away:

Nope, definitely not.

He has still not played but still:

Our next match is the trip to Wales to play Wrexham. Hopefully we will get back to winning ways.

At half-time we are 2-1 up, a Nevland penalty and Cooke pouncing on a loose ball after Notman’s shot was parried by the keeper putting us ahead at half-time.

At full-time we won 4-2 thanks to Nevland getting his hat-trick.

Meanwhile the FA Cup Sem-Final draw has been made:

We get to our next match knowing that Walsall lost again. We know, if we win we go top. We have our chance to gain the initiative. We are at home against 3rd placed Bristol Rovers, who are just 2 points behind us and know a win can put them into 2nd. This match is important.

The match doesn’t start to well, with one of our few fit centre-backs Duncan getting stretchered off after 1 minute forcing me to bring Davis on and Appleton moving to centre-back. From then on it has been all Bristol Rovers. We have barely created anything as you can see from the stats below:

At full-time it was petering out to a dull 0-0 draw until the final minute when Cureton raced clear of our defence and slotted the ball home to send us down the 3rd and possibly into the play-offs.

Again this calls for another dressing room blasting by me. Problem is, we are running short of defenders. Luckily I know McGibbon is coming back and god knows we need him back in our defence.

Oh Alex, why are you such a dirty player?

Just to say, I went to our parent club and was surprised to see Man United randomly have signed someone I was not expecting as it never popped up:

I wasn’t expecting to see him there, especially as Andy Cole is being sold and even Paul Scholes isn’t given a new contract.

It looks like we could possibly see an all English Champions League final:

Our next match was away to Brentford. After the defeat in the last match it is imperative we get back to winning ways in this match. I make a couple of changes and send the team out with my voice ringing in their ears about the importance of the win.

Well, maybe I deafened them a little, as within a minute we are 1-0 down. 5 minutes and Cooke has drew us back level. We then proceed to have a good half hour of domination before they next come back at us. Casper gets injured and stretchered off meaning Appleton moving into defence again. Yet another defender is out. Then Trees picks up a knock but stays on the pitch, then Nevland finally makes our pressure pay by putting us in front after Cooke’s header put him through. I remind the team of the importance of the win and send them back on their way.

Just the one more goal in the second half as Mulyrne scored an absolute screamer of a free-kick which left their goalkeeper just standing there and applauding the goal himself.

This win and Bristol Rovers draw meant we went back to 2nd. The downside of the win:

This is an annoyance. We are losing defenders left, right and centre. I mean we literally are.

Hopefully, we will make it back before our next match.

Teams are still trying to nick our kids, I’m still saying no. Meanwhile, look who has dropped down to the B Team:

To be honest, I don’t know where he will fit into this team and an attacker is the last position we needed cover for but as they were selling them we had to see if we could sign him and we have brought in Andy Andy Cole. We still need a midfielder and a full back really.

Our parent club, not a good time for an injury. Let alone for this long:

It was on an international duty so I don’t think Alex will be happy.
Meanwhile the transfer merry-go-round has caused a little bit of interest for me. Burnley sold Cooke, their main scorer, to Dundee. Now Burnley have signed Cureton from promotion rivals Bristol Rovers:

Which can only be good news for me and hopefully keep us 2nd.

The biggest transfers on transfer deadline day was:

As you can see, Newcastle spent big, bringing in Rui Costa and Benarrivo (who rejected Man United) and Liverpool brought in Bierhoff. Burnley sold Glen Little which could well be good news for us also.

Our last game of the month and the update is at home to Preston who are struggling in 22nd place. At half-time it is 1-1 after Mulryne put us ahead after placing the ball under the keeper for an easy finish, only for us to be drew back level 10 minutes later. I tell the team that I am disappointed with their performance so far and we go out and concede another goal to go 2-1 down by the hour mark. In the last 6 minutes, Andy Cole comes off the bench to draw us back level and it ends 2-2.

I am very very disappointed with how we played and I can’t help but feel that the fact we had someone out of position at right back. I just cannot help but feel we should have won this match and that we needed to.

At the end of this update:

We lie in 2nd 5 points behind Walsall in 1st. Bristol Rovers are still right behind us by 1 point and Burnley are still sniffing around. We need to get a good run together as the end of the season is nigh.

As for our parent club?

I don’t think anyone will be surprised by the lead they have at the top of the table.

Until next time, cheerio and here’s to a good end of the season.

CM9798 Academy – Part 33: There’s no better bacon

Posted on by
Reply

Hello! Welcome to the winter of season 11. The CM Academy are showing real promise now that the regen of Perez Munoz Alfonso is running the show. We’re not in a relegation fight and really, that’s all I ask. We are in fact in the European places but a long way off the top two. Those luxurious Champions League spaces might have to wait.

Continue reading →

Building Brazil – Part 12: Tao perto, porem tao longe

Posted on by
Reply

Rob Tait is back with the end of Season 4 of his Uniao Madeira adventure. The all Brazil team has taken a bit of a detour but can they finish the season with a flourish? Catch up with part 11 here.

We finished part 2 second in the league and with a real possibility of achieving champions league qualification. This however is not enough for captain Peu who picks now to drop this bomb shell.

I really though we might be over all this nonsense, apparently not, obviously my answer is no. This doesn’t go down well and Eddy P makes his feelings known against Sporting when he gives up defending. Cup run over. Don’t be fooled by his 29th minute goal he was trying to deflect Laelson’s shot wide.

We then lose loanee signing baby Bebeto when Santos buy him, he didn’t want to come to us!

Our next league game is a repeat of the Sporting cup tie. The keepers don’t turn up for this game, it felt like every shot on target went in. We also lose our left back Adriano (Branco) for six weeks. I don’t need these injuries at this stage.

It’s another tough game next, away to Braga. Laelson’s former strike partner Nene now plays for them and like Savio did in a previous update he gets a brace and we lose 1-3.

With 10 games left we are third with 46 points three points behind Porto. Benfica are runaway leaders and the league will surely be theirs soon. Up next 12th place Belenenses visit the Barreiros and we finally get a result. Bugi comes back from injury and celebrates with a sending off which won’t be helpful. I feel like this challenge is hard enough without all this internal sabotage.

To add to our woes AC goes down in training the next day. Come on.

We have another home game next against Vit. Set. They take an early lead but we aren’t phased and power through to a good victory. Josa even gets a goal, in for the injured AC. I would play Josa more but he is a centre back with a strength of 6 so I just can’t bring myself to do it.

Bugi’s two game suspension begins so baby Lukic is in. Young keepers are the worst, they play like they don’t have any hands. A ghost also gets one of our goals but it doesn’t scare Academica and we throw away 3-1 lead at half time.

To make matters worse makeshift wingback Helcinho gets suspended and Leonidas gets injured.

I feel like the game knows I’m exploiting some glitch and is trying to stop me building a champions league winning Brazilian team.

We are at home to Varzim, they are bad, we are good. It’s another ghost goal too.

Bugi is back for our visit to Chaves, it’s by no means a classic but Vieira gets the winner in the 65th minute. He hasn’t been too bad a support act for Laelson.

With 5 games left we are in 2nd place, Porto have been stumbling all season, we are level in 59 points but we have a better goal difference. Can we hold on? The next game is against Porto, a classic six pointer!

A bit of an anti-climax but we are still ahead with only four left to play and guess who finally recovers from his knee injury.

I can’t start Henry SdC but he will be on the bench for sure, especially since we have the small challenge of Benfica away. It’s not a great start as Peu goes off after 9 minutes but with 30 minutes left we take the lead only to concede 6 minutes later. It finishes level which is a good result but not what we needed. Peu is out for 2 weeks, he also asks to leave again, his timing is impeccable.

It’s the other Vit next, Vit. G, we make heavy work of weak opposition but get the win. Henry SdC shows us what we have missed.

The penultimate game of the season is away to Farense, they have someone sent off after 24 minutes, I’m really not sure why all these names are going missing. Laelson and Vieira both bag a brace and we run out easy winners.

With one game left the league looks like this.

That draw against Benfica means we just have to wait and see. The final match is our local derby. We finish the season on song and it’s now just fingers crossed.

Oh shit, well actually double shit. Shit one is that we finished third Porto also won their final game. Shit two is the fact I haven’t got any pictures of the league. I’m not sure what happened, I think in my frustration I forgot and then just played through till the start of Season 5, sorry. Anyway it is UEFA Cup football for us again and a close season of the inevitable rejections. This save has become a proper war of attrition. I will achieve my goal it might just take all 30 seasons to do it. Here are the awards for the year, Laelson pipped to the post by Leandro. If I could get him up top, Laelson and Leandro oh that would be something.

Join me for season 5 part one where I will take you through our summer transfers. We will also mount a fresh UEFA cup challenge hopefully with a keeper in goal this time around.

You can follow Rob on Twitter @Taitanator

Run Forest, Run – Part 4: Forest Stump

Posted on by
1

Matt is back in the future but still the past. Confused? Nottingham Forest are on the rise and that’s all that matters. Catch up with part 3 here

Hi, welcome back to the final part of Season 1 of my experiment to make Nottingham Forest great again by taking the managerial hotseat 8 seasons into the game. At the end of Part 3 we had been knocked out of the FA Cup, and seemingly my only remaining chance of silverware, but some good results and a tight league meant we were sitting at the top.

We re-join the action with the transfer deadline cut off looming and I still feel we need an extra bit of class and maturity to finish the season strongly so I make a cheeky bid for 32 year old Spanish maestro Julen Guerrero who is turning out for 2nd Division Sheffield Wednesday you may remember.

Before Julen can deliberate on my attractive offer, we overcome 19th placed Millwall 5-3 at The Den.

Not sure where to start with this – a turgid first half but the game explodes in the second. With Lizarralde getting injured, I throw on young Scottish keeper Jim Coughlin, but it may as well have been Jim Leighton as this guy fumbles two crosses and Millwall are right back in it until Kaye and then Debbah secure the points.

Lizarralde is out for a month, so I think I should seek out an experienced keeper for the run in too.

The problem with simming 8 seasons into the future is that you struggle to notice decent players unless they are obvious regens such as George Weah or Japhet N’Doram so knowing who to trust is a tricky thing. Luckily, I see Antti Niemi on a free and offer him a chance.

After the international friendly break, some good news!

This guy is, I think, a regenerated Dennis Bergkamp with a slightly amusing name

I’m pleased to see neither are described as ‘former international’ so must be life in them yet.

Both go into the squad for the visit of Sunderland. The Black Cats did us 4-1 earlier in the season, but they’ve slipped to 16th in the table, so we smell blood and revenge.

Niemi starts in goal and I decide to rest Ascencio for Guerrero.

I’m not sure where to start with this match! 4 goals inside the first 10 minutes and interesting debuts for my new/old boys. Niemi concedes 4 goals, but gets an 8 rating, whereas Guerreo gets a 7 for scoring a goal, helps in setting up 2 goals, and gives away a penalty and gets booked.

Wolves pick up the first silverware of the domestic season, Copacabana at the double to see off Gordon Milnes City.

I make one more signing on deadline day, and I’m pretty sure this guy is the regen of Non-flying Dutchman Dennis Bergkamp, welcome to Nottingham Tw-Inge.

Coincidentally, next up is Bergkamps former club, Arsenal, who lie in 4th in the table and who beat us 2-1 in the first meeting. Twinge is on the bench for this one.

It’s a poor result, and although Twinge comes on for the last 25 minutes and sets up a few chances, it’s a day in North London to forget.

It’ll be a replay of the 1970 final in the FA Cup

Next up its 5th placed Man Utd, who you’ll recall I was pleased to draw with earlier in the season, but we go one better this time out, Fisher getting a priceless winning goal and Niemi smothering a Whelan shot in the 90th minute.

Next up it’s highflying Everton at Goodison and the game is all set up in 3 crazy first half minutes. Double Bogie in the second half settles the game in our favour, we’ve bounced back. Lovely stuff.

We have 4 games left in the league, leaving the table looking like this….

It’s all about Watfords games in hand now. They’ve even added Ryan Giggs to their ranks – a snip at £2m.

On Easter Monday, 2 days later, I make wholesale changes to my knackered squad and it’s paying dividends until Cannavaro gets himself sent off and they score from the resulting free kick.

This allows Watford to jump 2 pts and 2 games in hand ahead of us, and they stretch even further ahead after the international break, beating Man Utd 2-0 at Old Trafford, leaving the table looking like this as we’re away to 13th place Hull while Watford face relegation threatened Spurs at home.

We’re without the suspended Debbah and the injured Kaye in defence and I’m struggling to remember the last time Rubini scored a goal, so shift Nelo upfront with him. A loss here and a win for Watford and it’s all over for the title for us.

The first half makes me want to go home and pull the duvet over my head for a week. We rally in the second half but O’Neill’s second sinks us and I await confirmation of Watford’s fate…

Watford win 2-1 and seal the title. It’s all about 2nd place now and the Champions League.

Over in Italy, AC Milan wrap up the Serie A title.

I try to raise the heads of my weary troops 2 days later when we face bottom club Blackburn on the May Bank Holiday as we are only 1 point ahead of Man Utd and Arsenal in 3rd and 4th respectively.

So of course we lose 2-0 and concede our first goal to Hennigan, the striker I sold on to make way for Debbah and Rubini. Luckily, Utd only draw 1-1 with Leeds, and Arsenal get hammered 4-0 by 19th placed Millwall. Everton’s 6-1 demolition job on Newcastle lifts them to 4th.

In midweek, Inter Milan beat Real Madrid 2-1 to lift the UEFA Cup and Watford beat Blackburn to seal their relegation. Going into he final round of games leaves the table looking like this…

I’m second over Man Utd by virtue of goals scored. With 2pts separating 2nd and 5th, its all to play for and I know I need to win, and match or better Utd’s result to secure 2nd place and Champions League football at the County Ground next season. Sheff Utd stand in my way.

I decide to watch the Man Utd/Millwall games as a rare treat and an Allen-Bak penalty is all they needed to secure a 1-0 win and 2nd place temporarily. So I know I just need to win to secure 2nd spot, so here goes nothing.

Faith is restored through a Debbah Treble and Robert Jarni-Jnr goal and we end the season in 2nd place, although 60 goals conceded is shameful!

The £9.75m prize money is very welcome and will go towards a new goal keeper in the summer and bolstering our defence.

Deportivo secure La Liga with 4 games to go and Liverpool finished 10h in Division 1, missing out on the playoffs by 4pts.

Man Utd suffer defeat in the Cup Winners Cup final to FC Porto, but their place in the competition will be taken by Leeds who beat Division 1 Chelsea 2-0 in the FA Cup Final, Chris Woodcock getting both goals for Leeds.

AC Milan comprehensively beat old foes Juventus in the Champions League final 3-0 to do the treble after beating inter Milan 3-2 on aggregate in the Coppa Italia.

It’s also a double blow for Chelsea as they lose the Division 1 playoff to Burnley, who join Ipswich and Bolton in the Premier League next season.

Lazio managed to return to Serie A, finishing a close 2nd behind Piacenza in Serie B whilst Espanyol finished 2nd in La Liga.

Of course it’s World Cup year, but of my team, only Rubini has been called up to represent Argentina

Man Utd have a point to prove with their latest signing

Meanwhile Watford strengthen their squad with the £350k signing of Edgar Davids from Sao Paulo whilst I battle Barcelona to sign free transfer Arno Splinter. I lose that battle as Splinter doesn’t want to talk me and I pass up the option of Jardel on a free as he’s 32 and significantly overweight.

At the World Cup, England crash out at the group stage with 1 pt and without scoring a goal. All fingers pointed at Noel Whelan. Brazil also fail in a group containing Tunisia, Nigeria and Slovenia. Rubini’s Argentina struggle through at the expense of Germany but fall to Sweden in the quarter finals.

The semi-finals are Italy/Sweden and Bolivia/France, with France trouncing Italy 5-0 in the final and no headbutts to be seen, with Sweden securing 3rd place.

I expected Lippi to be in trouble after Englands group stage catastrophe but it seems a bit harsh on Van Gaal after losing in the final!

So that’s the end of our first season at Forest and on the whole it has to be a success, but I’m feeling a little disappointed at no silverware and having led the league, our falter at the final hurdle hurts.

I’m off to get to work on the summer transfer options, must check to see if Richard Wright has a relegation clause at demoted Blackburn, see you next week for the start of Season 2 and our European odyssey.

You can follow Matt on Twitter @Matt_C_Wills

Starting from Scratch – Part 8

Posted on by
1

Tuesday is Twitterless Matthew day, or Matthew Cooper to give him his actual name. It’s the end of his first season in charge of Altrincham but can they seal promotion after an excellent run of form has them in the running for an early exit from Division 3.

Hello again, welcome back. We’ve reached the final few games of the season and we’re in the driving seat to secure promotion to Division 2, whilst Doncaster are on the brink of dropping out of the division and giving a second team a chance to survive in the football league. Let’s see how things pan out.

Deadline day passes with no incomings or outgoings, it’s down to our existing squad to finish the job so we need to avoid major injuries from here on out.

First up, we travel to Swansea who are currently third. It’s a test that we pass with flying colours, controlling the game throughout and we should have scored more than two in the end. 2-0 is good enough for me though and we’re that much closer to going up

The next day is the final of the league cup, which goes to Villa

I suppose they deserve it after knocking out favourites Man Utd in the Semis, and I’m sure they’ll enjoy the European place this win grants them…oh wait, it gives them precisely bugger all. Still, congrats I guess. I make it 4 from 4 on MotM awards, though Bruce pips Ferguson in the Premiership contest owing to his victory yesterday

We’re at home to Peterborough next. They were top of the table when we met them last, but they’ve dropped to a disappointing 9th place since and it looks like a fairly easy three points on paper. It’s not as simple in practice, as Peterborough are actually the better side in the first half and we’re fortunate to be drawing 1-1. Williamson proves to be the difference in the second half though, grabbing a 26 minute hat trick to put us out of sight. They pull one back but the damage is done.

Donny pull off a remarkable 5-2 away win at Lincoln, they may be going down but they’re determined to go down fighting

After the match we get confirmation that we’ve secured a playoff place, but our sights have been set higher than that for some time and we’re focused on the top three spots. In the FA cup, Man Utd are through to their second final of the season but the crazy gang also prevail to prevent it being a Manchester derby

We’re at Scunthorpe a few days later, and with them being in 4th place this is a chance to pretty much rubber-stamp our automatic promotion. Allardyce goes straight back into the side after his suspension, he scores at about the same rate as Tokely but for some reason he’s the assists king

The game goes brilliantly for us, going 2-0 up by half time and maintaining the pressure after the break. Williamson misses a penalty and Allardyce has a goal chalked off so they’re lucky to escape with a two goal deficit. They have precisely 1 attempt on goal all afternoon, I can’t believe just how dominant my team have become.

The win is virtually confirmation that we’re going up as we’re now 15 points clear with 15 left to play for. Doncaster draw their match to claw a point back, but with the gap being 9 points its surely only a matter of time before they are mathematically down. Allardyce’s booking ensures he misses yet another match, if I didn’t have such a good third striker I’d be annoyed with him

Rather unfairly, our next game is 2 days later, leaving my squad decidedly knackered

I swap things around as much as I dare but there are going to be some players dead on their feet at the end of 90 minutes tonight. Four and a half thousand fans turn up to see if we can confirm our promotion with at least a point, but it’s a disappointing night. As to be expected, it’s an extremely laboured performance and it’s to some surprise that we take the lead through Tokely. They equalise soon after and then deservedly get the winner 4 minutes from time, so the promotion party will have to wait.

Wait, scratch that. Scunthorpe can only manage a draw, so promotion is confirmed anyway, hurray!

This has truly been one of the most remarkable seasons in champ man that I’ve ever been a part of. After a dozen games the team looked average at best and though I was never really worried about going down, midtable was about the best I could realistically hope for. But then something just clicked, and we seemingly couldn’t stop winning. I’m excited to see what next season brings, and if we can replicate our success in the league above.

In other news, Arsenal still fly the flag for England in the UEFA cup but they’ll have to get past Parma to lift the trophy this year

There’s no such home interest in the Champions League as it’s a Barca v PSG finale, to take place at the Olympiastadion in Berlin

In case you care about the Cup Winners Cup, Lazio will take on Lyon in a pleasingly alliterative final

It’s a sad day in Doncaster soon after as their relegation becomes unavoidable. Interestingly the next team to come up are Colwyn Bay, who I very rarely see until the “big four” (Altrincham, Kettering, Kidderminster and Runcorn) have already come up and are therefore taken out of the selection. I wish whoever takes the hotseat there luck, but I’ve got a good thing going here at Altrincham and I’m not tempted to jump ship.

Zerrouki overcomes his injury sooner than expected, and with a suspension looming for N’Diaye it’s decent timing. His longer term future is less certain however, as my new additions have made him rather obsolete, unfortunately for him.

Colwyn Bay pull off a bit of a coup and poach Lennie Lawrence from second division Luton

They haven’t had a great season but he’s kept them up – the same quality his new team will no doubt be hoping he will bring with him to establish them as a league side.

Our final four fixtures are of no consequence as promotion is secured, so I won’t bother narrating them. Here are the results though for the curious

It’s a pretty indifferent finish but as we’d already done what we needed to do I can’t really blame the lads for switching off. N’Diaye’s suspension won’t take place until next year annoyingly, I was hoping to get it out of the way in one of these meaningless games.

Arsenal go down 3-1 in the UEFA Cup final and Parma lift the trophy

Lazio win the battle of the Ls to win the Cup Winners Cup

Man Utd surprise no-one to make it a double-winning season as they win the FA Cup to go along with their comfortable title defence

And finally, Barca thump PSG to take home the biggest prize in club football

Oh, and Torquay will be joining us in Division 2 next season after triumphing in the playoff final

So that about wraps it up for this season. Here’s the final placings for our league, in case you were wondering

Join me next week to see the preseason preparations and maybe first few games in Division 2. If you’ve stuck with this story from the beginning, thank you! I’ve really enjoyed bringing you these updates.