Big Fifer Posted April 25, 2016 Share Posted April 25, 2016 At the 3/4 mark of the season and I've just surpassed last season's points total. Leslie was injured at the turn of the year and goals have been few and far between since then, he's out until the end of March. However, changing to the 4-1-2-2-1 with two wingers and retraining players has clearly worked for me. I'm finding a lot of success in just playing the most in form players instead of the best ones. I have no idea how I'm 4th, but the bottom half is pretty tight, fingers crossed we don't collapse, god knows we could do with the gate receipts from a play off. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Fifer Posted April 25, 2016 Share Posted April 25, 2016 Delighted with that. Centre of the park is covered well and I currently have the wingers needed for my current formation. Will be looking to get the AMC involved next season with a 4-2-3-1. Two of those players are good enough to go straight into my team though, magic! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Fifer Posted April 27, 2016 Share Posted April 27, 2016 (edited) That's how the league ended up finishing. 6th place was good, although we should've had 5th wrapped up. Given how skint were at the extra few thousand in prize money is quite important. In the late stages of the season and over the summer I let go 6 senior players so this was going to be a bit of a test this season, the youngsters weren't as good as those I let go but they would hopefully be as good as if not better by the end of the season. I'm halfway through this season and we're 3 points better off than last year and we're miles clear of safety. Brora came up but they still had the old school boys in their ranks and they've been absolutely dreadful. I'm hoping I can nick the play offs this year! ETA: Leslie has been a bit shite again this season but I've signed him up for another year (£50 pw off his wages again, kerching). Also for anyone else planning on having a stab at this it's mental how quick it goes when you have no other leagues selected and a small database. Edited April 27, 2016 by Big Fifer 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Fifer Posted April 28, 2016 Share Posted April 28, 2016 That season finished poorly as you can see. A 14 game spell without a win had me ready to resign but given I'm under no pressure from the board what's the point. Scary I thought I could nick the playoffs! I keep forgetting that 3 star players in my team wasn't actually good, that was still "Decent for Highland league". Since my youth intake was mainly central players I tried a 5-3-1-1 formation counter attacking. I'm sitting 9th and I give away a penalty every game so will have to look at something different. For anyone tempted to start this, do it when you're in a good place emotionally otherwise this could push you over the edge. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bully Wee Villa Posted April 28, 2016 Share Posted April 28, 2016 Did Brora actually win a game in the playoffs? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Fifer Posted April 28, 2016 Share Posted April 28, 2016 Did Brora actually win a game in the playoffs? Sadly not. Peterhead made it back up, which is a bit shit. It's a lot less stressful when there's a team sitting at the bottom miles away from the rest of the pack. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Fifer Posted April 28, 2016 Share Posted April 28, 2016 I thought I had seen the worst of this challenge but just finished the 18/19 season there and my god what a struggle. 1 win in the last 17 games caused this to happen: But as you can see no red R is next to us. We beat Turriff 3-2 in the relegation playoff. My current squad has just 4 of the senior players that were originally in the team. I can't tell if we've improved or not. I only signed 5 players from my youth intake this season, because it was the same shite. A decent couple of prospects in central defence and central midfield but not a whiff of a winger or striker which is what I need. This challenge is mighty tough but I'm not yet willing to give in. This is the rabble of nonsense I'm currently dealing with: Baring in mind 4 stars from this lot is only just a "decent League 2 player". There's about 10-15 others in my U20 side but nobody above one star unfortunately. We go again. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Fifer Posted April 29, 2016 Share Posted April 29, 2016 (edited) Nairn County Revolution - End of Year 5 It's been 5 seasons since I took over at Nairn attempting this challenge. At the end of season 5 we've reached our highest points total of 45 points in the league, just 8 points away from the promised land of the playoffs. The season comprised of a decent cup run to the 4th round of the Scottish, but more importantly drawing Rangers in the first round of the League cup which netted us a £300k pay day. Naturally I was straight to the board requesting upgrades to the training and youth facilities and they obliged, but it wouldn't start till the end of the season. Thankfully we remained in the black so this looks set to go ahead as planned. This years youth intake was the same AGAIN. A couple of decent centre backs and central midfielders. I've gotten to the point now where my squad is big enough that I just released the bottom few players as they don't look close to reaching where we need them to be. In terms of my current squad, we have three goalkeepers at the moment and I have no idea who's going to develop to be my number 1. Stephen Neil has been so far, he's now 18 though and his potential didn't rise above 2 stars all season. In my latest youth intake Neil Mackenzie came through and he's already 1 star as a 16 year old, next season I might have to throw him in at the deep end. Defense is where we're secure long term. David Verlaque and Euan Murray have been with us since the start and have developed well. From the intakes Parrat, Currie and Finnis have solidified themselves as starters. Scott Smith, Scott Brindle and Billy Morrison however look set to over take them next season however, so in terms of defence I'm happy. Midfield we have Bradley Halsman who again has been with us since the start, with Jamie Macadie and Kevin Mackay complimenting him. These three form my central midfield trio of the 4-2-3-1. The rest of the central players are young and shite at the moment, so we won't mention any names. Similarly, my wingers are young and shite too, but some have potential, you can have a look below. Up front is where it all goes wrong. Stuart Leslie, who I was ready to release after season 2, is our main man. But there's nobody even close to him, and I haven't had a single half decent striker come through the intakes. David Aitken is as close as we have, but he's garbage and more often than not gets played out wide because even HE is better than my wingers. There's a few players below that are now 18/19 and aren't moving potential so they'll likely be moved on in the summer. Edited April 29, 2016 by Big Fifer 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Fifer Posted April 29, 2016 Share Posted April 29, 2016 Current squad (apologies had to do 2 screenies, I'm still learning eh): This season my aim is to break the 50 point barrier. If we're able to keep our key players injury free (Leslie) and maintain a semi serious goal threat (Leslie) I think that's achievable. Otherwise, this season should hopefully be about getting a solid grounding for a play off challenge the following season. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Fifer Posted April 29, 2016 Share Posted April 29, 2016 I've made some decisions that could prove brilliant or disastrous. I've sold 2 star GK Stephen Neil to Livi (2 leagues higher) and Verlaque to Annan (1 league higher) for just % of next transfers. Both players were good players for my squad but in their respective positions we have young players who were almost as good, and have potential far higher. Them leaving will give the others a chance of more first team action. In other news, season tickets have SOARED since last season from 83 up to 85, and I've been able to improve our youth recruitment to a "basic" level. Exciting stuff all round. I've also made goal machine Steven Leslie the captain for the season. He's 30 now, so if in the next two youth intakes we don't get a striker, I'll be going full out Levein. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Fifer Posted April 29, 2016 Share Posted April 29, 2016 A decent start to the season, extinguished by the news Leslie will be out for 8 months with knee tendonitis. Things looking grim. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Fifer Posted April 29, 2016 Share Posted April 29, 2016 You might be able to tell by my rapid updates but given I have nothing to do other than avoid studying right now, this is keeping me occupied. We're more than halfway through the season and we're sitting 5th, somewhat on our own little island miles safe from relegation but a bit away from the play offs. Given Leslie was done for at the start of the season and we're playing with utter numpties up front this is quite impressive. As expected my back 4 have developed a lot and are all almost League 2 level. However, we're still shipping tonnes of goals and it has to be down to the keepers. They don't seem to be progressing as much as the rest do with similar game time, so if anyone has any tips for this please fire away! Not to be too obsessive, but with regards Leslie, I fear his time is coming to an end. His injury has him out for the rest of the season and he's dropped 2 stars since then. He'll be 31 when next season swings around. My previous hope of a striker in one of the next two youth intakes has changed. I'm praying 3 times a week (FM weeks) to all the gods we get a decent player up top come February. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Fifer Posted April 29, 2016 Share Posted April 29, 2016 Look at the fucking nick of that lot. Where are they getting these boys from? Are they plucking 20 folk from the crowd? That would at least explain why I can only get 150 folk through the gate. I've signed the keeper and the attacking midfielder. The rest are getting chucked. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Fifer Posted April 29, 2016 Share Posted April 29, 2016 A disappointing end to a once promising season. Yet AGAIN we went on a horrible run to end the season (1 win in 14). I don't know how I can get my side to recover from these dreadful patches of form. Is there something in the FM engine that is making my players more fatigued without actually telling me or something? Any who, I stuck with the 4-2-3-1 all season and used 4 wide players rotationally to give them all game time. They were all 18 and 1 star. By the end of the season, they were all 19 and 1 star. So I sacked the lot of them. The balance is looking a bit precarious at the moment but thankfully the board stuck £70k into the coffers recently. I'll be going into next season with a relatively threadbare squad in comparison to previous years. Given we've regressed on our points tally I think my aim of the play offs is a few seasons ahead yet. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Fifer Posted April 30, 2016 Share Posted April 30, 2016 Just realised these screenshots are uploading twice per post on the mobile app. Weird. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bully Wee Villa Posted April 30, 2016 Share Posted April 30, 2016 That's been happening with all screenshots for ages. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Fifer Posted May 2, 2016 Share Posted May 2, 2016 Will attempt to keep this going in the coming couple of weeks but exams are a week today so there's only so much hiding I can do from them. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Fifer Posted May 3, 2016 Share Posted May 3, 2016 Only kidding, I can keep hiding. So as you'll see above I threw my toys out the pram with regards to the youth intake and released all my wingers as they were shit. My current squad is: Aaron Duke is the final player but not worth screenshotting again just for him. He's 16, shite, and out for 5 months. So I realistically have a squad of 19 (3 goalkeepers) to try secure a mid table position with according to my boards minimum expectations. A bit of a tall ask, but with some of my players coming good it's not unachievable. Everyone's signed on a long term deal apart from my centre half Maxwell who is FAR too good for us and his contract is expiring next year. He's refusing to sign a new one, but I'm not selling him for £10k when we've got this little players. We've had a good start to the season though. The 5-3-1-1 I tried a couple of seasons back is working a lot better, probably because I'm using the exact same players in defence but they're no longer untried 15 year olds but 18/19 year old veterans of the game. League table looks like this, and we're in the 4th of the Scottish after beating Queens Park. You'll see they're above us in the table. They boast players such as Paul McGowan, Lee Wallace, Andy Considine and Jordan Kirkpatrick amongst their ranks. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Fifer Posted May 3, 2016 Share Posted May 3, 2016 I forgot to take screenies at the halfway/three quarters mark so here we are 28 games in. We're a decent chunk clear in the play off places and we've not had our usual 2nd half slump despite being plagued with injuries/suspensions. We've the best defence in the league by far but we're not scoring enough to compete at the top, which is representative of my squad as a 31 year old Leslie is still my best striker and he's shite now. Other squad issues include left back Currie being annoyed at being fined a weeks wages for his third red card of the season, and Maxwell is no closer to signing a new contract (but if by some miracle we go up that might change). I'm under no illusions and I fully expect us to drop to 5th. Youth intake coming up, not seen them yet so I'm still mildly optimistic 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Fifer Posted May 3, 2016 Share Posted May 3, 2016 (edited) Meh. It's OK. I don't know what I have to do to get a striker though. Paul Hendry however has decent potential as a shadow striker, so my plan is to retrain him as a striker. Now for the run in. Wish me luck. ETA: It wasn't till I checked this screenie that I saw my keeper was already class. Result! Edited May 3, 2016 by Big Fifer 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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