The career of a virgin LLMer – the glory days (!) of Weston not-so-Super-Mare!

retired_jennie · 03-01-2006, 01:12 AM

Introduction.

I’ve been playing this game for a while, indeed it’s the only one I’ve started since I got FM06. I decided to try an LLM game a) because I didn’t know the game and wanted a chance to learn tactics, training, scouting etc without the worries of a transfer budget and b) because it was something I’d never done before and it sounded like it might be fun.

And it has been! Granted there’s been as many failures as there have successes, and it’s a bit different from the games I’ve played before where I’d just sign all the best players and go from League Two to the Premiership in straight seasons, but it’s no less enjoyable for it – any success you do get is a hell of a lot more satisfying!

So why Weston? I didn’t use your wonderful random team thingy, basically the only reason was an ex-girlfriend of mine came from there and ruining her home-town club would be a childish form of revenge! Only joking, of course I’d never give anything less than 100% for the Weston cause! Weston, of course, play in the English Conference South, and they’ve got a website that gives you all kinds of useless information if you’re interested/care etc.

Oh, and while I’ve (hopefully) adhered to all your rules (apologies for any mistakes and I’d be grateful if one of the mods would sort them out and let me know), just to make it that little bit more interesting I’ve added a couple of my own

:

·For the first two seasons, no players can be bought for cash. Weston haven’t got much of a transfer budget anyway, but anyone else I want has to be a free transfer.

·No players can be signed who are over the age of twenty-four. I don’t want a squad full of old farts – anyone currently at the club over that age who justifies the award of a shirt will keep his place, but all newbies must be 24 or under.

So here we go. I’ll post one update per season – I’ve written this a long way ahead to make sure I had the patience to stay with it and also that my computer could handle it as I’m playing with the maximum database and England, Italy, Spain, France, Holland, Belgium, Sweden and Scotland loaded (all divisions). Oh and sorry about the long opening update, it was just that first season was so dramatic you could easily get carried away! – I guess that if you’re relegated below the Conference South you’re automatically sacked?

As someone from Star Trek once (almost) said: “It’s football, Jim, but not as we know it!”

retired_jennie · 03-01-2006, 01:17 AM

Season One:

Final league position: 20th in Conference South: Won 9, drew 14, lost 19 – points 41

My first season in charge was a baptism of fire – after spending virtually the entire season in the relegation zone (and being bottom of the league at Christmas!) 12 points from a possible 15 at the climax of the campaign saw us clinch our survival with a win at promotion-changing Cambridge City in a most dramatic fashion.

As you can guess from the low number of points we ended up with, our only saviour was that there were six clubs cut adrift from the rest. It might be an old excuse but we really did have a nightmare season on the injury front. On the basis of my scout reports I brought in seven players over the course of the season on a permanent basis plus another four on loan – several of the seven were youngsters of 17 or 18 who weren’t really up to the rigours of a relegation battle. And it showed. The two who were key, though, were a 18-year old Scottish centre-half and a 21-year old English holding midfielder who’d both been released by League One clubs and somehow agreed to join us.

In a town that’s famed for its donkeys it was perhaps fitting that I possessed several fine examples masquerading as strikers in my squad, it’d be fair to say that none of my forwards could have hit an elephant’s arse with a whole orchestra of banjos so a new striker (or two) was a priority. Here I struck lucky – a Championship side were prepared to let me have their 20-year old reserve player on a season’s loan and I also managed to pick up another loanee from a League One club – he was 24, on the very fringe of my age limit, and he was really a midfielder but from what I’d seen of him he was a calm finisher too.

And to the injuries. In September I lost my first-choice left back, he broke his leg and was out for the season, and a week later by reserve left back tore a ligament and was out for four months. That left me without a left-footed defender in the side so I was forced to play the entire season with a right-footed centre half in the role. A bigger problem was that in the end of October my 21-year old midfield anchorman broke a bone in his foot, he was meant to be out for three months but he picked up a catalogue of niggling injuries all season and never played another game for me before April.

So, how the hell did we survive? Well three wins on the bounce gave us renewed hope and, briefly, took us out of the drop zone coming into the second from last game of the season. That was a trip to runaway leaders Weymouth and we returned nursing our egos after a 8-0 hiding, probably the worst performance of the season by a long way. What that meant was that we had to win away at Cambridge and hope that Maidenhead, a place above us, couldn’t match that at already-relegated Carshalton.

It started, well, atrociously! Two minutes in we were behind, my makeshift left-back lunged in on Cambridge’s 31-year old star striker, never got near the ball and it was an easy decision for the ref. The striker dusted himself down, 1-0 to Cambridge. On the half hour it was 2-0 to Cambridge, the same player inflicted the damage with a free header at the far post. Just before the half time whistle my on-loan Championship kid nodded in from close range and we were back in it. Then disaster struck – in the dying seconds of the half Maidenhead took the lead against Carshalton, if it stayed like that we could have scored ten and we’d still be down.

What followed though was probably the most dramatic game I’ve ever had on FM or CM. My Championship star scored again on 59 and we grew in confidence, but Cambridge’s keeper was on fire and as the game entered stoppage time, despite having 11 shots on target, we were locked at 2-2 and Maidenhead were still 1-0 up. Then news came through that Carshalton had equalised and the door to salvation opened. Then it happened – in surely the last minute of stoppage time we were awarded a penalty!! In my mind there was only one man for the job. My 33-year old right-sided midfielder, despite having only scored once in the League all season, oozed composure and he would take the most important kick of his career – if he scored, we stayed up. Miss, and we were down and (I assume) my career would have ended before it began). He stepped up, I shut my eyes, and…he scored! We’d done it, Weston stayed up and my donkeys could ride off into the sunset!

retired_jennie · 03-01-2006, 01:28 AM

What I forgot to add there was the Cup results. They weren't a lot better - we did reach the FA Cup 1st Round but lost 5-1 at Grimsby, and we fell in the first hurdle in the FA Trophy after losing at Maidenhead.

retired_jennie · 03-01-2006, 01:46 AM

Season Two:

4th in Conference South: Won 17, drawn 14, lost 11. Points 65

Cups: FA Cup 5th Round Replay (lost 5-0 away at Liverpool), FA Trophy Winners (beat Woking 3-1)

What changed then? Well basically the addition of two pretty good coaches seemed to make sure my tactics were deployed as I wanted them, I signed three key players on frees over the summer and I made some minor tactical changes to try to cope with the physical style of play at this level – it went against everything I believed in, but we were going to have to “play uglier”

The three newbies were a 19-year old striker, a 20-year old versatile defender and a 22-year old midfielder. He was really an attacking player but, just out of interest, I tried him in the holding role in pre-season, he won man-of-the-match and he was an ever-present in my team all season. I also managed to bring back the two strikers I’d loaned in last season – the now 21-year old’s club had been promoted from the Championship last season and I noted with great interest that he was out of contract at the end of this campaign.

We also cut down on the goals conceded – only 34 compared to 61 last season – and the credit for that goes to my Scottish centre-half. Now 19 he’s already attracting interest from several clubs in League One and, after winning 14 man-of-the-match awards in the 44 games he played (all competitions) I’m going to struggle to hold onto him!

There wasn’t ever any real chance of us threatening the leaders – Cambridge City won the division by 14 points!! – but I was pleased with the progress and so were the board – they’d been expecting a relegation battle.

A quick word on our Cup campaigns. In the FA Cup we struggled at first, and needed a penalty shoot-out to beat East Thurrock in the final qualifying round, then beat Notts County 2-1, Cheltenham 1-0 and Mansfield 2-1 to reach the Third Round. We were paired with Sheffield United, newly promoted to, and bottom of the Premiership, at Bramall Lane. A late equaliser from my 21-year old loanee earned us a shock replay, but we made the headlines when we took them back to the Woodspring Stadium. We won 2-0 with a goal in each half and became the first non-league team for over a decade to knock a top-flight team out. We were drawn at home to Ipswich in Round Four and shocked everyone again by beating the Championship strugglers 1-0, then the big one – Liverpool at home! No-one gave us a prayer but all 11 of my players played out of their skins, my 19-year old keeper was immense and we held them 0-0. At Anfield though it was a different story as Liverpool’s Brazilian striker scored four to end our dream. The Trophy campaign owed a lot to luck – we were drawn against sides from the lower leagues right through to the semis and Woking were the first Conference National side we had to play.

retired_crazybonejr · 03-01-2006, 02:56 AM

Whoah guy. We don't want stories, we want updates. You could have fit three seasons (of which I only see two) in the space you used for your intro, which we don't need.

Also, I don't see the need for restricting yourself with unrealistic rules. LLM is about being as realistic as the game allows. Not about creating a more difficult scenario. The game is tough enough if you follow the LLM guidelines.

retired_jennie · 03-01-2006, 03:07 AM

OK I'll try to cut down on the post size. You see I'm not typing them "as it happens", they're all written in advance and it's a cut and paste job. As far as the two extra rules go, the age thing is something I always use in any football management game - I just prefer to have a young squad - and part of the reason for starting the game this way was to stay out of the transfer screens as much as possible until I'd learnt the basics of match-play. I didn't want to bankrupt the club in my first season :cool:

retired_duncan · 03-01-2006, 03:20 AM

Take your point re: keeping the squad young. Many people do that, but you don't need to have it as a rule. If you see a great 29 year old who will plug a gap for 3 or 4 years then why not use him? Without wanting to 'tip'; it is generally favourable to have a blend of youth and experience.

As for not spending money, again, many managers wouldn't spend anything in the first two years simply because they don't have it. There's no need to make it a rule though. It's moot point anyway, as you've passed your first two years.

...and KUTGW :thup:

God, I'm bored today. I even read your entire posts :eek:

retired_cathylynn820 · 03-01-2006, 09:36 AM

Way too long posts there. I honestly haven't read through them so I'll trust that wewak would have noticed any foul play. Since he did't mention any suffice to say welcome to LLM and KUTGW!!