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Hiya. I'm a newbie around here, but I have LLM pedigree, having been a member of The Dugout's Grass Roots for a
couple of years before it all exploded in the great forum-political battle some time ago now. Since then, I've
missed the banter, and the abuse, and I thought I could bring one of my games over here. This game was played in
CM01/02, about three years ago. I'm posting this here now, to give me time to get my current FM07 game far enough
into the future to be able to post about that. If any of you know Mooski who posts here sometimes, I'm a good mate of his, and he's been trying to get me to come over here for a while now. Anyway, on the with the game...
We'll be mainly in Finland for the duration of this update, studying the trials and tribulations of the wonderfully
named FC KooTeePee, complete with random capital letters in the middle of the name.
Season 2002 - Finnish First Division Southern Section
The first season is often a struggle, trying to meld the original "talents" with your managing style, and any new
recruits. We picked up a couple of players, we did well in the cup (lost in the quarter final), and had an average
display in the league. Standout moments were the game we lost 4-6, and the game we won 5-1. We won the last four
games of the season to leave us in a respectable fourth. There were just ten teams in the division, however, and
fourth was safely between the going-up zone and the going-down zone.
Season 2003 - Finnish First Division Southern Section
The second season is generally a lot easier than the first season, and so it proved in this career. We'd picked up
some more players, and despite a relatively poor start to proceedings, we put together a couple of winning streaks
(5 games, 6 games) in the league to take us to first place come the end of the season. There were a couple more 5-1
trouncings in our favour, and overall we looked to have a bit more quality about us. Things didn't go so well in the
cup, however, as we were knocked out in the 6th round. For those of you that don't know, that's the one before the
quarter finals.
Now, promotion in Finland isn't quite as easy as all that. The top two in each section of the First Division
(Northern and Southern, originally enough) come together in a big promotion fight, playing semi finals and a final.
The winner of the final goes up, while the loser gets to play against 11th place in the Premier Division (second
from bottom, kids), in a winner takes all, loser goes home crying scenario. Our semi final was a two-legged affair,
and we made things easy by winning both legs 3-2. The final was also a two-legged affair, and things were a little
tougher as we drew the home leg 1-1. We took an early lead in the second leg (4th minute) and somehow managed to
hold on, even through 5 minutes of added time.
Season 2004 - Finnish Premier Division
The first season after a promotion can prove problematic, and losing 11 of your first 13 games really doesn't help
the cause. We struggled manfully on, but finished 11th in the league. This means we get to play the loser of the
promotion final from the First Division, in a promotion/relegation battle. Our other important end-of-season match
was, bizarrely enough, the Finnish Cup Final.
The Cup Final came first, against a strong MyPa team. They proved too strong in the end, and we were shown the door
after losing 3-1. They had an ex-Man Utd player up front, which I call cheating. Anyway, that set us up nicely for
the relegation playoff. We won the away leg 2-0, and I was hopeful of staying up, but the AI shafted us with a 3-0
defeat in the second leg - the last goal coming in the 85th minute, from nowhere.
You don't need to press return every time you get to the end of the box. Carry on typing. The only time you need to press return is to make a new paragraph.
Fair enough, but the problem actually came from copying and pasting from Notepad. It works ok if I turn the word wrapping off, but I'd forgotten this simple step in my haste to post the update. Word wrap adds returns, it seems.
You live and learn. Thanks for the advice, though :thup:
Season 2005 - Finnish First Division Southern Section
Back to the Southern Section of the First Division, and I was hoping for a rebound season where we bounce straight back up. It wasn't to be, though, as our much-improved squad managed to have a season worse than the first in my career. We finished 5th in the league (again, comfortably between any going-up and going-down nonsense), and were knocked out of the cup in the 6th round, by our nemesis MyPa.
There was an interesting twist, though - our cup final appearance last year qualified us for the UEFA Cup. We didn't get very far, beating Latvian team Dinaburg before losing to a strong HSV from Germany. Still, it was an experience, and we picked up some much-needed money for our troubles.