Thornhill F.C. - The First Win
Today is an historic day. Saturday the 8th September 2007 saw Thornhill F.C. win their first game ever in the Blue Square South division. Star man Evo was suspended following a rash sending off in the previosu game, he also received a two week fine for his actions. Facing the prospects of a game without the star player I kept with the same radical formation as in previous games and let the AssMan choose the team.
This was a great game which saw Thornhill record a 3-1 triumph over St. Albans. While following this result the team reamains bottom of the division this may just be the sign of some improvements. Let us hope that players like Jordan Ashley and Jamie Bell can continue in this new found form. This is where I want the post-match Press Conferences that we will get in FM09, they will provide me with a platform to hail my team as future superstars, which they will be.
Interestingly enough Evo wasn’t playing in that game, though he was playing in my next game, a 6-2 hammering of Havant and Waterlooville. This was a big win which went a fair way to improving my Goal Difference which was shocking.
With a gate of 464, a big win and players such as Evo and Jamie Bell getting on the score sheet it looked like things were on the up for Thornhill F.C. I thought this was the case and took the team down the local for a few drinks to celebrate our famous victory and to encourage them to greater things in the next few games. However this was not to be, two 2-1 defeats followed the Havant match, things weren’t looking at all good for the club.
I decide to try and get some good players into the club, I ask the board to find me a parent club. I hoped that I would get a Premiership club who would send me some promising youth players to improve my fortunes. Even better than that I got my local neighbours Cardiff City.
I throw in my signing from City, left back Matt Smith into the fray against Bromley, we earn a credible 1-1 draw putting the team on 7 points in the league, still stuck rock bottom but now level with Dorchester. They are only above me due to their better goal difference, -2 compared to my -17. Obviously the defence is a worry for the club, but since adopting the crazy formation I talked about last time I have been conceeding less.
My next big test is against Boreham Wood in the FA Cup 2nd Qualifying Round. I have never played with a team at this early stage of the FA Cup, the team perform well but after a 0-0 draw we lose 1-0 in the replay. With the board expecting me to reach the Fourth Qualifying Round this obviously puts me in dangerous territory. Looking at the Job Security listing I see that I am ‘Insecure’ in my position as manager of Thornhill F.C.
My first match after learning that my position is not secure is against Weston-super-mare a small seaside town somewhere in Southern England. The pre-match media comments on low team confidence following a poor run of form. The AssMan tells the boys some bull-crap to try and psyche them up. We play the game and get a goal on the 50th minute, however ten minutes later a very possible off-side goal is allowed by the referee.
Despite this I am pleased enough with the performance, while we may remain bottom of the table at this point there are signs that the players are getting a bit better with some solid 7 and 8s appearing in the player ratings.
Disaster strikes post-match as I learn that Lee Woodward, one of my strikers and left-wingers has a hip injury. I send him to a specialist and will miss him for a couple of months. I tell the press that while I will certainly miss his skills, players such as Brian Foster will be able to cover for him.
It seems however that Woodward and Foster aren’t needed, on a wet October Saturday at Thornhill Park my young star Evo scores a hat-trick against Newport County leading us to a 4-2 victory and a climb to one from bottom in the league.
Things are looking up..I hope!
Thornhill F.C. - The Season Starts
After a frankly crap pre-season the team arrive at Hayes and Yeading for the first game of the Blue Square South league of losers. As I expected we start off with a bang, the banging of the drum from the supporters who should already be calling for my head. We lost 3-0 and there were very few positives to take out of the match. Well that we didn’t lose by more is one, oh and nobody got injured. Surely a bonus eh?
After a seven nil loss to Dorchester I get asked by some journos about why we are leaking so many goals. I was looking for a ‘Feck off and leave us alone!’ option but sadly it was lacking, I made up some cock and bull about how they are making a mountain out of a mole hill. Somehow that got translated to me blaming bad luck for our recent form. Odd that one….
Come half-time in my third game of the season, home against Eastleigh I start to realise my issues with the Football Manager games. When my players are all performing at the very least ‘average’ (rating of 6) none of them are getting ready to collapse on the floor then I have little idea of what I cna do to try to improve the fortunes of my team. We ended up losing 3-0 to Eastleigh (attendance of 468!) and I wonder if there was anything I could’ve done at half-time to change things up and give the boys a chance at victory.
It is an issue that troubles me in Football Manager Live as well, I just don’t understand how some teams can be so good even when they make little to no tactical changes during the match. It is something that will alway puzzle me, one day I hope to find out a way to be successful even with a team of random good for nothings.
Half-time against Braintree sees us three goals down so I take matters into my own hands and shake up the formation into what you see below. It did us no good and we ended up losing by four goals to nil. Incidentally we had a goal by Evo disallowed as someone was offside. That fucker should be shot for being offside!
After I get back to my office following that disaster I learn that fans are calling for my head, or at least a change in tactics, they are getting fed up with the 4-4-2 I have been using in recent games.
Following their scathing cricism I decide to shake things up a bit, with five defenders, one defensive midfielder and attacking midfielder and three strikers I am hoping this will shake things up enough to get us our first win of the season. Failing that I am looking for a goal.
My first opponents with the new formation are Maidenhead who are sporting a 3-5-2 thingy. We lost 2-0 and Evo missed a penalty. He is my star kid though so he will escape punishment. If that was anyone else they would be out the back getting their arses handed to them on a plate by the AssMan.
In other penalty shenanigans I am informed by defender Ricky Clark that we should’ve been awarded a penalty for a blatant foul on a player of mine. When asked by the media what I think of this I react angrily, I blame the referee for the loss and our crap season so far. The F.A gave me a warning. Feck.
I look at the league table, five games in and I am rooted to the bottom with 0 points and a goal difference of -19. Horrible to see.
Thornhill F.C. - It Gets Worse
At the end of my last update from my job as manager of Thornhill F.C. I was struggling to find a new right back to cover for my injured youngster known as Nick Jackson. Unfortunately I failed to sign anyone before my next friendly, away to Hemel Hempstead. I don’t know what a team of the majesty of Thornhill F.C. is doing visiting this slum in a pre-season friendly, but what I do know is that my team can’t play football for shit.
We lost 8-0 and what was more shocking was the fact that none of my players got a rating over 5. Bear in mind the average rating for a player is 6. My personal creation Evo got a rating of 5 as did my 15 year old centre back Ricky Clark.
My first attempt at solving the current club crisis was to alter the tactics, obviously the team aren’t good enough to play to my adventurous 4-1-2-1-2 formation that Steve McLaren should have used if he wanted England to qualify for that competition that failed to qualify for. Anway I fear that my fancy formation is a bit too much for these lads who know nothing about life in the real world what with them all being 16 or younger. Surely this is akin to being thrown down the pits, they may get better paid at my club but soon enough the fans are going to be trying kill them for their crap performances.
Anyway I decide that reverting to a plain and simple 4-4-2 may better suit the players, I am already starting to think that I will be lucky to survive the first month as manager of Thornhill F.C. With another three friendlies before the season proper starts I will have to hope that I can sign some decent enough players to give us a fighting chance of staying in this league.
Before the disaster that was Hemel Hempstead I scoured the market for any free agents. I came accross a Richard Smith, an 18 year old from Scotland I get the impression he is a relative of Agent Smith from the Matrix movies. He is earning £25 a week and probably is no better than my current crop of players. Well at least he is another player to throw to the fans before they can get to me. I also sign an ex-Liverpool trainee and someone who used to be a youth player for Mansfield. I really don’t expect any good to come from these new signings. At least they are over 16 though, and hell one of them was 18! He can join me and the coaches for a few drinks after the matches. I get the feeling he will be needing a few to keep the will to live.
My next match is against Bedford, with my flat 4-4-2 and a team selected by the AssMan I am hoping for a slightly better match than the last one. Evo is my star striker and the new signings have slotted into position.
I go 3-0 down after only 17 minutes, somehow we claw our way back to earn a 5-1 defeat. We got a goal courtesy of Lee Westwood my new signing who used to be a Liverpool player. There were some decent performances, though Evo disappointed with a rating of only 5 for the game. I am starting to think that my star man needs some other star players to have any hope of getting anywhere for my team.
Looking at the wider world Arsenal have signed Adrian Mutu while Shaun Wright-Phillips has gone back to Man City in a move which is exactly the same as what happened this summer. I am disappointed to see that neither Cardiff City nor Manchester United have made any new signings.
5000-1
The odds for the new season of the Blue Square South division have come in thanks to a bunch of random bookies. Havant and Waterloo are joint favourites with Braintree to win promotion from the division, meanwhile I have been given odds of 5000-1. What can I say, in an imaginery press conference following the revelation of the bookies prices I make a comment.
“Gentlemen and your dogs, here today at the Pen Dragon (a local pub) I am a tad disappointed to reveal that the bookies have priced us at 5000-1 for promotion. Seeing as we bribed every official in the country and signed a bunch of spotty youngsters from the local area I think these are pretty good odds. At least we aren’t being priced at 10,000-1.”
I was promptly kicked out of the pub by angry supporters who clearly feel that they have thrown away a couple hundred quid on a season ticket at Thornhill Park. The pre-season games come to an end with a two goal defeat to League 2 side Macclesfield at home. Everyone played much better, for those who were old enough I treated them to a beer at the local, the youngsters made do with orange juice.
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Football Manager 2008 - Blogging
After spending an hour or so in the Editor of Football Manager 2008 I have created a new team known as Thornhill F.C. (incidentally I live in an area of Cardiff called Thornhill. Shocking.) This will be the story of Thornhill, their highs and lows through the football season of 2007/2008. (I have to use FM08 for this as there isn’t any FM09 available at the moment.)
Thornhill are starting off in the Blue Square South division which is pretty much the last division before complete football nothingness and the lowest level league in the English system I can go. The game is being started with all the English leagues playable, the Scottish Premier League and First Division and the Welsh Premier League. With a ‘large’ database and a start date of July 2007 I get ready to take control of Thornhill.
The finances of the club are pretty strong considering the league they are starting in. With over £900,000 in the balance we shouldn’t be encountering many problems there. However my board have only given me a transfer budget of £10,000, I don’t know what I will be able to do with such a small amount, buy a no-hoper from someone in the Welsh league? I think that will be it.
I have some issues though when looking at my squad, while all my players are Welsh, all but one is 16 or younger. That one exception is a man known as Evo, a player who I created in order to ensure that I have at least one good player at the club. He has pretty good stats and would be, according to my random AssMan (Assistant Manager) a great signing for any Premiership Club. Fortunately I set him up to have a very high loyalty rating so I hope to god that he doesn’t leave me once a big team starts to sniff around him.
My first goal will be to try and find some new players, while Evo is going to be key man for me, I cannot rely solely on him. To succeed and cover any injuries I am going to need to sign some players. In go bids on some defenders from other teams in my league, hopefully I will get some luck with them. Issues arise once I realise that I am only £65 per week under my wage budget, this will be tricky.
With a first friendly game of the season against the little known Ely Rangers I have my AssMan select the team for me that he thinks best suits my players. Knowing what the AssMen are like from previous FM games I am dubious about whether he has made the right choices. At least he has picked the young star in the making Evo in the attack midfield role. My formation today is my classic 4-1-2-1-2 which is just a variation of the 4-4-2 Diamond. Some extra running lines and team instructions and I set off to my first game in charge of Thornhill.
Following a harrowing 3-2 defeat I realise that this is going to be an even tougher challenge than I thought at first. My star man was, as I expected Evo. Nobody else was able to stand up and make a claim on a starting position in my first proper game of the season. I don’t know if I have the quality in my squad to compete in this league, and finding decent players at this level with such a small budget is a challenge I never usually get to experience. I am up for some interesting times.
I already fear that my dreams of marching up the leagues straight away are horribly out of synch with what I will achieve. I decide to move forward to my next match without trying to find any new players. I am up against League 2 side Shrewsbury. After heading into half-time down two goals to nil I make a few slight tactical adjustments.
My crowd of just over 300 are getting ready to head to the exits when disaster strikes on the 89th minute. My one and only right back is injured. With nobody trained in his position I throw on my young centre back Chris Champion into the fray. Fortunately he manages to survive the last few minutes without giving away any goals.
After returning to what I assume is a tiny hut by the ground (I only earn £210 a week) I learn that my one and only right back, Nick Jackson has fractured ribs. He is going to be out for anything between 3 weeks and 2 months. How the time frame for his lay off is so varied is probably down to the fact that my physio is the guy from the local pub who happens to have a First Aid Kit in the boot of his car. You are starting to see the difficulties I am posed with I hope.
Doing a quick player search I find a Stephen Rose waiting around for a club to sign him. He has experience at League 1 level so I hope he can do something for us, if he signs. Unfortunately he doesn’t sign before my next friendly, an opportune time to leave this disaster in the making before it gets even worse.
