The British Tour: Just the 83 Dates

[forameus]

The British Tour
Just the 83 Dates

As you may have seen in the editor thread, I've been working on implementing some kind of State Championship in Scotland.  Because I hate myself more than I hate the editor, I decided I'd up the ante and extend the project to cover the whole of Britain.  It...works, I guess, at least on the surface, and this save will be as much about seeing just how many mistakes are made, and how entertaining/shite they make the ultimate save.

So what am I aiming to do?  Well, win every single State Championship in one save.  Aye.  That means there will be at least 83 seasons, and that's assuming I win one every single season.  Which I won't.  Because I'm shite.  So something more achievable will be going country by country.  I'll start out with Scotland, then likely move to Northern Ireland and Wales, before turning to England.  The vast majority of cups exist in England obviously, so should be achievable to get through the first three countries.

As an extra wrinkle, I've done something I've wanted to do for a while and gone in and deleted every player from the database that has a PA of at least 100.  Then on setting up the save I've set the game to use fake players.  This means that the game has had to "fill in the gaps" in clubs with random players, with the jobbers still existing but with changed names.  Won't be for everyone, and it's made some interesting situations (which I'll cover in the next post) but it makes things a little different.  I'll also be starting a few years down the line to let things balance out a bit, but again, I'll cover that in the next post.

[forameus]

The British Tour
Just the 83 Dates

 

The State of Play - Scotland

We've got 11 competitions running  in Scotland, and after a few years, they're all looking predictably...well, predictable.

Ayrshire

A predictable last few years, but  what a 2022/23 season for Winton Rovers. They took advantage of Auchinleck Talbot having a bit of a nightmare in their group to win it, and then beat Glenafton in the quarters, then, amazingly, Killie in the semi finals on penalties.  From there they beat Cumnock in the final to pick up an extremely unlikely trophy.  Since then Killie have gotten their act together, and it's been pretty predictable since.   However, as we'll see a few times, the completely random draws you get in these competitions mean that smaller sides can end up with a decent chance.

Borders

The first of our complete diddy competitions with a complete lack of any big boys in this one.  As it is, Gala Fairydean Rovers are big favourites each year.  Wouldn't be surprised to see them pick up the trophy every year from now on.

Central Scotland

Imagine you're a club from Stirling.  Hardly the biggest clubs, but now you've been handed a competition with only a handful of clubs better than you, and then loads that are, for want of a better phrase, fucking pish.  Then imagine that you f**k it all up and let a University win it all instead.

Falkirk and East Stirlingshire went through from Group A, but in Group B the likes of Stenhousemuir struggled to put any kind of form together.  Stirling Uni won the group, with Alloa in 2nd.  And the former went on to win it all.

Since then though, Falkirk fans finally have something to smile about, sharing out the other five trophies with Alloa.  Should at least be a battle between those two going forward.

Dumfries & Galloway

Another one which looks like it's going to be one club's to lose.  Queen of the South are far and away the best  club here, and five out of the six trophies points to that too.

Fife

The Kingdom of Fife, where Raith Rovers reign supreme.  Looking at the groups though, the likes of Kelty Hearts, East Fife, Cowdenbeath and Dunfermline are all up there, so hopefully some healthy rivalry develops.

Glasgow City

Now we get on to the first of the big boys, and probably more the fiercest rivalries will take place.

Yes.  The Maryhill Derby.

But away from that it's all looking depressingly familiar, with the Old Firm sharing the six trophies.  That doesn't tell the whole story though as, like I mentioned earlier, the random draws mean that the Old Firm can meet outside of the final and open the field out for others.   They've met in the final three times, with Partick Thistle of all teams being soundly beaten in each of the three others.    Still a big ask for anyone other than Rangers and Celtic to win it though, as you're almost certain to have to beat one of them, maybe even both.  Not impossible though.

Grampian

Even when you're got a competition where there's one dominant side, we've yet to see one winning it all.  We have now though.  Aberdeen smashed through and won six on the bounce, in a very well populated competition.   However, it's not exactly populated with quality, and the Dons have been largely imperious, barely even conceding double figures over the six year spell.  Cove and Elgin are probably your best bets for an upset.

Highlands & Islands

Now this is more like it.  Ross County and Inverness have been going at it and trading trophies for six years.  Again though, there's a big step down in quality after those two.  Nice to see Orkney and Shetland doing not bad, with the former reaching a few knockout stages.

Lanarkshire

Although there might be some predictable winners, the knockout stages are looking pretty competitive with narrow victories and penalty shootouts all the rage.  Airdrie, Albion Rovers, Clyde, Motherwell, Hamilton, East Kilbride...there's a number who could make that push.

Lothian

Just like Glasgow, but with more heroin, salt and sauce and castles.

Just like Glasgow, it's all about who survives the longest. Hearts and Hibs have met more often than not in the semi finals, but no-one has managed to take advantage of it in the final.  It's going to take a big performance for someone to do that.

Renfrewshire

What a time to be Morton.  You would expect St Mirren to be the side to dominate this league as the only other team of substance, but Morton have beaten them convincingly on six occasions now.  A dynasty in Greenock.

Tayside

 

And looks like we've saved the best for last, with Tayside looking like it might be the most competitive.  Three different winners, a lot of derbies set up, so maybe this will be the sleeper hit.

League Season

I won't cover this in much detail as there's absolutely hunners of them, so I'll just cover  some notable stories so far.

In the top league,  titles  have been shared between Man City, Arsenal, and Liverpool.  Fucking yawn.  At time of writing, both Rangers and Celtic are still holding on in the top league.  Rangers were relegated in the second season but came straight back up as Champions the next.  Which is odd as in every single test save I did, they both got absolutely murdered and ended up getting relegated with only a handful of points.  I guess deleting players has levelled the playing field considerably.

In terms of European competition...well, it's all generally fucked.  The English sides are getting absolutely battered and have only just about recovered.  They're now 6th in the coefficients table, so have lost those magic 4 spots.  However, Scotland have fucking tanked, probably due to losing the league system.  The best ranked Scottish (and Welsh and Northern Irish) clubs still qualify, but it's definitely slim pickings.  I think it's going to take some absolutely massive performances to boost that back up for Scotland.

Dundee United, Hibs, and St Johnstone are now in the second tier, but the latter two are a bit yo-yo.  Dundee United were almost in the playoffs though, great stuff from them.

Aberdeen, Ayr, Hamilton, Hearts, Inverness, Kilmarnock and Motherwell are all in the third tier, with Dundee, Falkirk, Partick Thistle and Ross County in the fourth.   So that's 16 Scottish sides in the non-regionalised British leagues, which is really good going, almost a quarter of the sides. 

British Cup

The massive British Cup has to be one of the pinnacle competitions to win.  Maybe not in terms of reputation (although it is the most reputable cup competition in the game) but definitely in terms of the sheer length.  f**k your entering in the 3rd round, the latest you'll enter is the second preliminary, and you'll face 11 ties before you pick up the trophy.  I think it's near enough 2500 teams involved, in a completely open draw.   I could go through and try and work out all the shocks, but there's far too many ties, and I really can't be arsed.   Perhaps the biggest stories would include Raith Rovers getting put out on penalties against Leeds in the last 16, or Celtic just about getting past Aldershot at the same stage.  Unfortunately, no-one from any lower than the Regional Conferences (step 5 of the pyramid) has made it past this round yet.   That doesn't mean you can't get an unlikely winner though, as both Wolves and Norwich have lifted the trophy.  The latter beat Man City 2-0 in the semis, and then Man Utd 3-2 in the  final. Ooft.

Best Scottish performances?  St Johnstone, Raith, Falkirk, Morton and Motherwell got to the last 16, Dundee United, Aberdeen, Celtic and Hibs got to the quarters.  Rangers have only ever made it to the last 32.  Which is fucking woeful.

[forameus]

The British Tour
Just the 83 Dates

 

Holidayed on a wee bit more so a few more years of results before I got started.  Were there any shocks?

Well, Peterhead managed to win the Grampian Trophy ahead of Aberdeen, breaking their streak. But as far as State Champs are concerned, f**k all interesting happened on the face of it.

But a wee team did win the British Cup though, with Celtic going all the way to the final and beating Arsenal 2-1. 

Have to say, they had a pretty comfortable run to the final, especially considering the opposite side of the draw.  A London Derby, Man City vs Liverpool, then Rangers, Celtic, Norwich and Bristol City in the bototm half.  Shame we never got an Old Firm Quarter or Semi, but Celtic deserve the trophy for beating one of the most successful sides in this new format.

Celtic and Rangers are now both fixtures in the top league after a bit of a hairy few years, but unfortunately it's all looking depressingly predictable at the top.  We've now had 13 seasons, and Man City have won the title on 10 occasions, including a streak of 8 that's still ongoing.

But I was about to cover the European competitions, and talk about how Scotland's coefficient had completely tanked.  It didn't make sense, as Rangers and Celtic were just not qualifying when they should have.  Now I've realised they're all set to use England as their qualifying spots, not Scotland.  f**k.

So that'll be a restart before I get properly going, as I'm a tit.