DaveRH

From time to time I've cast my eye into the world of LLM, but never dared to cast my lot into a world without the wonders of Liverpool Fc.

With the arrival of CM4, however, I decided that this should all change.

A long, long time ago, in a country far, far away (I live in Scotland now) I used to live in North Wales. As the Welsh league was p1ss poor, I'd find the time to go visit Chester City - for the taste of League football.

Now, years later, I find Chester languishing in the Conference league - and as their newest manager it's my job to restore them (at the very least) to league football...

DaveRH

This is my first attempt at a true LLM game and thread... I would appreciate any feedback and/or suggestions to make this a more enjoyable read.

On first impression - Chester will prove to be quite a challenge for me.

The board expect me to attain a respectable league position with the aid of With a generally low quality squad plus an assistant manager, coach and a scout. Oh and £22k worth of transfer money in the kitty.

It's certainly a far cry from Liverpool FC...

Still - I busily set my scout off to look for someone worth shelling out some cash on and cast my eye over the squad and formulating some tactics.

With some ideas in mind for the squad and the sort of style of football I wanted to play, I set about a series of home friendly games.

Unfortunately... the style of football I wanted was very different from the style of football I got.

We played six matches, all against league opposition - and managed to score a single goal. Things were not off to a flying start.

To be fair, things definately improved as we went through the matches - but I had a horrible feeling that our inability to both score and defend would cost us dear.

To add insult to injury - league opposition came in and snatched my coach away from the club for a paltry £4k. I immediately set about signing a replacement.

Craig0

Exceelent Thread. You have read the rules, obviously and havn't spouted a load of rubbish, only what matters. Well Done!

Welcome to LLM!

I suggest reading the LLM FAQ, good for the newbies.

DaveRH

August 2002 Update

Well after our dismal pre-season friendly series it was time to start the process of getting Chester up out of the Conference league and into 3rd Divison football.

The bookies rated us at 25-1 to go up (remembering that two teams can get promoted - one through the Championship and the other through the playoffs). The favourites of the division were the likes of Dagenham, Doncaster, Barnet, Yeovil, Morecombe and Margate.

Despite the general consensus that our first team needed strengthening to make a serious challenge for promotion, I was heartened at what I thought were pretty reasonable odds.

I started the month by signing two coaches to replace the one nastily poached from me. It maxed out my wage budget for the season but I reckoned the risk to our finances was worth it, given that these were the guys I was trusting to turn our squad into the championship contenders I wanted them to be.

After extending the contracts of three key players I was ready for action and my footballing debut.

The bookies fancied us to take Northwich Victoria, despite the game being an away fixture. Imagine my fury when we were 3-0 down at half-time . A change of personnel, some threats involving the free tea and coffee at the club and a flying football boot later... I sent the boys back out onto the pitch. Final score, 3-2 to Northwich - with us having a disallowed goal. Sometimes you just don't get the luck you deserve.

We entertained promotion hopefuls Margate at the Deva Stadium for our next game... running out comfortable winners 2-0, both goals courtesy of the only good player that we have. I was especially pleased with excellent link up play between strikers and were unlucky not to get another from a 35 yard volley from one of my wingers - hitting the crossbar and bouncing out.

Our next match was away to Yeovil - another of the bookies favourites to go up. Once again, our star striker netted a brace - giving us a 2-0 win. This was one of those games where we really rode our luck defensively and scored from the only two chances we had. An excellent result for the Blues.

After defeating two of the favourites to go up back-to-back I was disappointed with a home 2-0 defeat to Stevenage. To say we were awful doesn't do the lacklustre performance we put in justice. It only goes to show that consistancy will be one of the problems we face.

So four games into the promotion race and we've taken 6 points. Not enough to make us title challengers - but enough to make sure that a good run will put us in a play-off place.

I was a little concerned, however, with the fact that we seemed to be a bit of a one trick pony with regard to our goal-scorers. Our star striker had netted five of the six goals that we'd scored (the other coming from a central defender) which meant any injury or heavy marking to him would effectively nullify the most important member of our team.

I set about finding some loan signings to bolster our strike-force and midfield to turn this around.

God - I love this game.

DaveRH

September 2002 Update

We opened September with a fairly boring 1-0 win against Forest Green at the Deva Stadium. Once again, our star striker netting the goal of the game.

I had also sent enquiries to a number of teams regarding their forwards and attacking midfielders - hoping to grab a good deal or loan signing.

Doncaster, another of the promotion candidates, entertained us for the most sided game I've seen yet. They threw everything but the kitchen sink at us, hitting the bar, hitting the post and having a disallowed goal. Somehow, we managed to escape the onslaught with a 0-0 result and a point.

Our conference derby followed this mauling, as Southport came to the Deva. My midfield anchorman opened the scoring with a 30 yard screamer - but their only shot of the game (from a corner) went in to deny us the win.

The anchorman, who thus far had been one of my best players unfortunately sustained a serious groin injury (maybe he enjoyed that goal too much :cool and I would have to do without his services for the next 3 months.

September finished with us in 9th place, with 11 points. The Championship was looking less and less an option as we struggled to find any sustained form.

DaveRH

October 2002 Update

If I thought September was a bad month, I was shocked by what October had in store for us.

An away loss to Telford was followed by a home draw with Burton Albion (once again the star striker netting the goal after we conceded early).

I decided to try and do something for the morale of the team by publicly praising the star striker - but instead received a public backlash from the fans who pointed out that my praise didn't cover up the poor results of recent times. I was shocked at their response to be honest, but suppose they did have a fair point.

A hattrick against Hereford for my second striker (his first goals of the season) secured the points in a 3-1 win, but this was followed by exits from the Auto Vans Trophy (0-1 Wigan, courtesy of a own goal from my captain ), FA Cup (1-2 against Whitly Bay of all people) and then a 1-0 home defeat against Leight RMI.

It was obvious that my tactics were failing the team as a whole, but I couldn't work out exactly where the shortcomings were...

Nobby_McDonald

Welcome Dave.

Good to see a newby observing the rules... though you might want to shorten your updates. This isn't CMS and most of us don't have the patience or attention span to read vast prose.

Craig0

What Nobby said. We like updates, short and sweet on how you are doing.

KUTGW all he same though.

iajafer

Aye, the majority of us give one update a season. Probably better to stick to that

Welcome and KUTGW!!

DaveRH

Cheers for the encouragement gents. I think perhaps I'll pick out key results and activity to report on

Am I going to have to write out tables by hand??