Conquering Britain (British Steel 2013)

Been thinking of a challenge to undertake and since this is the first thing that came up, why not?

THE CHALLENGE:
Win every trophy from England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland in any order you want using only British and Irish players.

With no on conquering this challenge over the last two years its proved to not be as easy as some people assume and I am hoping to be the first to do it!

Rules:
Only use British and Irish players
Must start with Sunday League Reputation
You may start at a club or start unemployed, your choice
You MUST send Dan a screenshot of each trophy won for it to count
Win all of the playable England, Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Wales competitions
(Downloaded competitions and expansions are not allowed)
Promotions from being second or from playoffs are counted
European successes are not counted towards the challenge.


England
Fa Trophy, Blue Square North/South, Blue Square Premiership, Johnson's Paint trophy, nPower League Two, nPower League One, nPower Championship, League Cup, Community Shield, FA Cup, Premiership

Scotland
Challenge Cup, Division 3, Division 2, Division 1, League Cup, FA Cup, Premier League

Ireland
Munster Senior cup, Division 1, League cup, Senior Challenge Cup, Premiership, All-Ireland Cup/Setanta Cup

Northern Ireland
Mid-Ulster Cup, Steel & Son's cup, Intermediate Cup, County Antrim Shield, Second Division, First Division, League Cup, FA cup, Premiership

Wales
League Cup, FAW cup, Corbett Sports Welsh Premier

Completed: 17/36

I'll be playing as myself, starting unemployed!

Clubs Managed:
June 2012 - February 2015: Athlone Town. (Republic of Ireland)
July 2015 - May 2017: Prestatyn. (Wales)
July 2017 - October 2017: Hyde. (England)
Oct 2017 - January 2018: West Ham United. (England)
June 2018 - December 2021: Knockbreda F.C. (Northern Ireland)
December 2021- July 2022: Cork City (Republic of Ireland)
July 2023 - Present: Witton Albion (England)

League Positions:
2012 - Athlone Town - Irish First Division - 1st
2013 - Athlone Town - Irish Premier Division - 10th
2014 - Athlone Town - Irish Premier Division - 1st
2015/16 - Prestatyn - Corbett Sports Welsh Premier - 6th
2016/17 - Prestatyn - Corbett Sports Welsh Premier - 1st
2017/18 - Hyde - Blue Square Bet North - Left for West Ham
2017/18 - West Ham - nPower League 1 - Sacked at 23rd, ended 24th
2018/19 - Knockbreda F.C. - N.Ireland Second Division - 1st
2019/20 - Knockbreda F.C. - N.Ireland First Division - 2nd (Promotion)
2020/21 - Knockbreda F.C. - N.Ireland Premier Division - 2nd
2021/22 - Knockbreda F.C. - N.Ireland Premier Division - Resigned at 2nd, ended 4th
2022 - Cork City - Irish Premier Division - Resigned at 11th
2023/24 - Witton Albion - Blue Square Bet North - 17th
2024/25 - Witton Albion - Blue Square Bet North - 1st

Trophy Cabinet:
Athlone Town - Irish First Division 2012, Irish League Cup 2013, Irish Senior Challenge Cup 2013, All-Ireland Cup 2014, Irish Premier Division 2014

Prestatyn - Welsh Premier League Cup 2016-17, Corbett Sports Welsh Premier 2016-17, Welsh FA Cup 2016-17

Knockbreda F.C.- N.Irish Second Division 2018-19, Steel & Sons Cup 2019-2020, Intermediate Cup 2019-2020, N. Irish FA Cup 2019-2020, N. Irish League Cup 2020-2021, N. Irish County Antrim Shield 2020-2021

Cork City - Munster Senior Cup 2022

Witton Albion - Blue Square Bet North 2024/25

Good luck buddy! Hopefully a long term career and maybe the first to conqour the challenge! remember to message me screenshots of any trophy win!

So, as one of only 2 jobs I have gotten, the other being Brechin who are a Scottish Second Division club, I have decided to go with Athlone Town, with 85 pounds of wages per week. They are a semi professional club in the Irish First League which is currently in the middle of the season at the moment.



This is the team that I have to work with. So far so good as most of the players look decent which makes my life at the moment a lot easier. With a semi healthy finance of 37 pounds in the red, with a projected of 4.01K at the end of the season, we might have some better wages to strengthen the squad a bit.

For now here's how the table looks like:



With 12 more games to go this looks like an interesting fight. Might be in it for the title this time around even, but it is definitely unlikely but if things go our way we might be able to sneak in a promotion (and that IS considered a trophy :p).


Dan: Thanks Dan. Just checking, its the news item in the inbox that i screenshot and send yes?

Well if you could send me the screeshot of the mail box and the overview of the match screen it would be helpful good luck with athloe! Certainly look good to challenge for the title

5 Matches to go and this is where we are at the moment...



Caught up with apparently fierce local rivals Longford by 4 points and once-runaway leaders Limerick by 7. With the crunch tie with Limerick and another with Longford as the final match of the season, the run in should prove to be interesting. And if we can get a result against both these teams, promotion should be likely!



The previous manager only managed 4 consecutive losses before getting the boot.. I have no idea why he got sacked but it left me in a very good position in the League Cup, beating Shelbourne, a Premier League side, only to lose in the finals to Irish heavyweights Bohemians. It was a good effort all in all and Bohemians were lucky for us not to have dragged it on into extra time/penalties, but trophies don't come from effort so we'll just have to try again next time.

Dan: Alright thanks Dan I will probably be taking em to put it up here too, so no problem

After our Cup loss, our only hope of silverware this season was the league, and the boys knew that as well.



A great run in in the last 5 games, picking up a lucky win over Limerick when 2 penalties sealed the win, the only blemish being the draw away at Mervue Utd, before picking ourselves back up against local rivals Longford to ensure that Athlone fans had something to cheer for even if the title was not ours...



After 12 games, from being 13 points behind to 3 points in front, this team really had superb quality and its hard to see why the previous manager got sacked with this kind of quality in the team. Definitely being able to play Limerick and Longford twice in the games I was in charge of was a major factor in the win as we only lost to Longford and dropped points at SD Galway and Mervue Utd towards the end and the poor form of Limerick towards the end ensured the title was ours.







1 trophy and I'm in the Hall of Fame? Interesting.



Definitely good news as we can't afford to be going by 85 pounds a week much longer with a few of our key players were snatched quite discreetly from us in the course of my 4 month tenure here. Looking to tie some of our players down to part time contracts while bringing in some young blood to keep our run going in the Premier Division

Congrats on the first trophy

Well done with the first trophy ticked off buddy! the challenge page has been updated!

A pretty dull transfer window with a few players from lower leagues joining as well as our star players leaving due to not having a contract with us...




A mixed pre-season is followed by some decent form for fighting relegation. However, we're pretty much struggling to scrape wins. A 7-1 loss to Shelbourne was disappointing of course, but it tells the story of our defensive woes, even though we can score one or 2 a match normally. We really have to get those wins over the weaker teams or we will have problems keeping higher than Limerick our rivals from First Division.



This leaves us 9th in the league within striking distance of the relegation playoffs and 12 points away from the league leaders. The Premier Division doesn't look like its coming our way this season, but who knows?

On a different and completely unrelated note, i just noted this in my game... Who knew FM could be this unrealistic?



Maiden71: Thanks! Good to see you're doing well in yours too

Dan: Thanks! It felt a bit like cheating though, since I was already almost up there before I took over! Haha

Results against teams in the Premier League have been hard to come by, many points could've been salvaged against better teams with many draws and 1 goal losses. Paul Dunphy has proven to be a steal as he has been our only regular goalscorer along with Kelleher this season, even though the goals aren't really flowing as much as I would've preferred. Owen Humphrey has also scored here and there, showing his potential, being only 19 years old and being able to be played further back in midfield as well.

However, cup-wise we are doing fantastic! We could've gotten much harder opponents than we did, facing non-league side Belgrove as well as Finn Harps in the Senior Challenge Cup, which spurns lots of money, and the performances against the bigger teams in the League cup, 3-2 after extra time against Sligo Rovers after a 1-2 defeat 2 weeks back definitely felt good as well as a 2-0 win at Shamrock to send us into the Finals of the League Cup for the second time, whom we are beating on our good days despite them being the top of the Irish Premier League.

We are in the Quarter finals for the Senior Challenge Cup as well as the Finals for the League cup so silverware may still be coming our way this season, but the league is definitely a long shot.



Here's how the table looks like, with Limerick FC up there at the top. Their manager is definitely doing a much better job than me in the Premier League and they look consistent overall, reaching semis for the Munster Senior Cup and the League Cup as well. If their manager leaves I would want to take over because they're one of 3 playable teams that play in the Munster Cup.

Overall, decent progress, but definitely would like to be doing better in the League.

Going into the League Cup Final against Derry City, it didn't seem like we were really going to be challenging for anything and I let the boys know that we were underdogs and I was not expecting anything...

What a horrible afternoon it must have been for Derry.





Another excellent performance from Dunphy. He makes it look easy!

With another in the bag thats 3 more cups to go in Ireland. Speaking of which, we are in the Senior Challenge Cup Semi Final against Shelbourne, the League Cup winners last season, still in it for another piece of silverware this season despite the poor league performance.

The end of season proved to be much better than the beginning with some brilliant results against better teams in the league, including a convincing win in another chance for silverware with 3-0 at Shelbourne which brings us into another cup final against Derry City. It's the second time we're facing them in a cup final this season and I hope the results replicate itself! We are still leaking goals but the plus point is that we are finally edging opposition out with more goals! A disappointing 1-2 defeat to relegation confirmed Dundak though, which i was expecting to beat by a large margin. Not the kind of last match you would want to have before a major final!



We finished in 10th position, 4 points above the playoff and a 16 point gap between us and the last spot (relegation). Trying to push for a top half finish next season if its possible with the finances we have. We currently have over 300k but I haven't gotten the wage budgets for next season. Hopefully its substantial and we may be able to push for the title the next season. But for now...

As you may have noticed, the cup final is almost a month away, giving us a long break to focus on our Final against Derry (again) City, which might just put me far ahead of the other challengers!

Well done on surviving in the league buddy, sure you may of wanted to do better but survival it is! something to build on good luck in the cup final as well with your chance to tick off the third trophy of the challenge! Would be nice to add the 'competition list' to the fixtures keep it going

We headed into the fixture against Derry City, fully prepared, but prepared for the worst. The last tie between the two was the League Cup final, where a 4-0 thrashing was dished out in front of 9000+ fans.

This time it was at the Aviva Stadium, with a huge atmosphere but same number of people in the stands.

Another opportunity to tick another trophy off....



After going 2-0 down it looked like it was going to be a reversal of fortunes but Kelleher and Dunphy had other ideas, sparking off the comeback with 2 goals in 3 minutes and with Williamson adding a third in the 36th minute, but the fixture was always going to be tight with their opportunities coming in abundance, until Dunphy added his second goal of the game to seal the win and the 3rd trophy of the challenge.





There it is.



I didn't expect that at all, to be in the EURO Cup. I don't think it is going to be beneficial for Athlone Town in the later half of the season, even if I wasn't only gunning for the Premier Division. Already fixtures are concentrated in certain months and as semi-professional players, I don't think their fitness and training can handle those rigours. But the moolah might come in handy for future seasons I guess!



More money can't be bad!

Longford is coming up to the Premier Division after a blistering performance in the First League winning it on 75 points in 33 games, while Dundalk is going down from the Premier division after only 21 points from 33 games. Longford coming up will see a rise in our average attendance i presume, but we cannot afford to lose to them as they are our local derby rivals.

Definitely a productive season where we ticked off 2 trophies. However the Premier Division seems like a long shot and we would do well to go within the top 4 next season! That trophy seems to always be changing hands though so though I feel we might not be ready, there's always that possibility that we might be right up there at the end of the season.


Dan: YES! That's the 3rd trophy ticked off! I don't understand what you mean by the 'competition list' though, how would I go about doing that?

Well done buddy! three down and two to go now! Making light work of this. Europa league could destroy you as there will be noway your team are good enough. With any luck you can have an early exit and get on with the job in hand.

Don't worry about the competition list, you may not bad able to do it this year. will look when I purchase the game

Congrats on the 3rd trophy! The Euro could be a killer, I'd be tempted to play a 2nd string side and get knocked out asap to avoid fixture congestion.

Here's the transfers of the club, again shipping out more players than we bring in due to the massive amount of amateur players making noise at the club





Blizzard seems like a steal actually for a central midfielder/scout of our level. One of those players that have never played at a club before at 30 years old. I never knew these players existed in FM, now I know!
Here's his attributes.



Another mixed pre-season coupled with an opening day loss made me have doubts about this season again, but the team rallied together to put up a 17 game unbeaten run. However even as all good things must come to an end, I didnt expect the team at the bottom of the table, Bray Wanderer to put a stop to our blistering run with a shock 0-2 defeat to leave us 3 points behind league leaders Sligo Rovers with a front pack of 5 starting to pull away from the rest of the league:





Morale was hit definitely after that 0-2 defeat and we slumped to the 2nd defeat in a row to our cup final nemesis Derry City. This time we couldn't repeat the 4 goal thumping and we suffered a 1-0 defeat in the League Cup, ending one of our silverware hopes this season.

Might also be because I decided to play some younger potential talents in this match.



After knocking out Shamrock Rovers from this competition due to the away goal rule (Home 1-1, Away 2-2), we go into the All-Ireland Cup (which surprisingly isn't on the British Steel list) with every possibility of being crowned the best club in all of Ireland. Athlone is up against Glentoran, Nothern Ireland's third place team in 2014.

The sad thing is that even if I win the Premier League this season I will still have to find a Limerick or a Cork to complete Ireland, so if I see a job offer from any of them I might have to jump ship prematurely


Dan: Thanks Dan! Yeah was thinking of an early exit, though because of the time frame of the season, it should only start affecting us in the later part of the season. But even I will probably take your advice to get knocked out early, premier league is the priority!

Maiden71: Thanks Maiden! Im definitely glad to get em out of the way, cups can be a pain in the ass sometimes even though they're the easier ones to achieve. Noting that there are quite few small clubs in Ireland, I was quite fortunate to get easier fixtures in the beginning and only the bigger teams when it got to the semis and finals. Hope to see you pick up something in the Blue Square South soon! And definitely I will avoid trying to win in the Europa League. The Premier League is my priority at the moment

A pretty tense match with opportunities all around but we managed to scrape it despite a man of the match performance by their goalkeeper.





No financial benefits though, so its just another piece of silverware won for Athlone Town!

The All Ireland Cup is the Setanta Cup on the Challenge I think?

Oh, the one on Northern Ireland? Seems like it is! It being in Northern Ireland was misleading!
All-Ireland Cup/Setanta Sports Cup

Brilliant buddy! looking good in the league mate just need to wrap another trophy up now nice to knock number 4 on the head already!

June-July had a 1 month break between fixtures and what better way to prepare for the next league game than a fixture against FC Midtjylland (Denmark) at home! A crazy fixture which saw us score three and concede 2, I wasn't actually hoping to win it, but my players were on form and it was a good way to up the fitness before the game against Bohemians.. which we lost anyway. But a good win against St. Pats saw us climb back up to the 2nd spot on the table 1 point away from league leaders Sligo.

I was hoping for a loss against the Danish club to send us out of the Europa but the team just went on and came back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 to set up a 3rd Qualifying round against Slask... Which was an even crazier fixture. Losing 7-1 away was something I, even though expecting a heavy defeat, couldnt fathom.. The next result though, was out of my wildest imagination. 4-3 win at a stadium that wasn't even our home, against the team that had just beat us 7-1 was really crazy, though we didnt go through (fortunately), it really was a good experience I feel.

However, the form didn't follow through to our neighbours Limerick.. As we slumped to our worst league defeat of the season. The fatigue is really catching up with us I think and we would do well to finish within the top 3 this season.



Dan: Yeah, definitely great to have that unexpected trophy! Though it seems like I've cleared 3(4)/5(6) trophies, the others in Ireland are definitely much harder to attain so it might be a while before I'm able to clear Ireland completely!

not a bad little run there in europe buddy but its good to see you out to focus on the league! The league is definitely close and in contention. Once you secur the league title are you moving on to a different country or will you be searching for a team to challenge in the munster cup?

Nice work man! Keep it up, I will also be attempting to slay this beast this year. Safe to say you're a fair way ahead, good luck

A 9-match unbeaten streak, 6 of them being wins, followed the 1-5 thrashing we suffered from Limerick the previous update. With big wins against St. Pats and Sligo Rovers who were our biggest contenders at the time, we were thrown into title contention 1 point ahead of the 2 aforementioned teams. No other competition in contention helped as we were fit for every single match we were in. Morley, purchased for 10K sterling from the neighbours Longford proved to be a revelation as he scored 7 goals and 7 assists from the wing only arriving in the middle of the season, no doubt if he has been brought in at the beginning he would've been top scorer for our team.

A 0-3 loss at Longford scared me as we were actually only 1 or 2 points from the rest of the contenders. Especially with 2 red cards dished out to our players meaning Blizzard, our best BWM and Cawley, one of our best playmakers, were out due to suspension for the next match. However, a loss for both St Pats and Sligo Rovers kept us in control of the situation.

With a lucky come from behind win at Drogheda Utd, and a draw for Sligo Rovers and a loss for St Pats allowed us to win the title before the last game of the season, putting an end to the nerves that I was facing in front of the computer screen.



Turns out we were gonna win it anyway with a good win at Limerick to round off the end of the season, with our Paul Dunphy making it 16 goals this season.








Gonna add another section to the season updates, which are the top performers for the team.

Top Performers

Paul Definitely Dunphy - he has been our main target man for the season and with 16 goals to his name, he was the most consistent performer over the course of the whole season. Our main reason why we stayed in the upper echelons of the Premiership.

David McDaid - Came in in the middle of the season as the top paid at 875 a week, and proved his worth with almost a goal in every start. Brilliant signing.

Jacques Morley - 10K was always gonna be a big sum for us, and it definitely paid out with the 14 goals he played a part in in his 18 appearances, 4 of those appearances were in the Europa. Longford must be mourning their loss.

Mick Clarke and Stephen Last - It has been a while since I've not seen these two on the teamsheet together. We apparently played 40 matches and they are both in 41 of those matches. Talk about everpresent. They were both solid in defense and helped us keep many clean sheet despite the lacklustre goalkeeping in Patrick Jennings. Stephen Last is our team captain and definitely proved his mettle as the solid rock at the back. Mick Clarke even got up the other end with 4 goals and 3 assists to his name as well, probably why his rating is slightly higher. Stephen Last's value has been rising rapidly the past few months and I'm sure he'll be attracting some attention in England in the next season if his form continues. Hope to get a good price for him.

Worthy Mention:
Keith Ward - Our right winger proved to be a good performer after coming in on a free last season. Decent definitely, but I hope to see more in the coming seasons, if I'm around!


Dan: Its a 5th to the tally! I'm not sure if I'm gonna leave so soon? I might just wait for the vacancies in a place where I would want to go next instead of leaving the job now. I'm not so sure about my rep still so I don't know if I can get the jobs I want. I will take the Munster as a priority definitely, so when any of the openings come up I will try to take it (as long as they're not in the bottom of Division 1 at the moment when the opening comes up), but if not, if any semi-decent openings come up I will probably relocate . I recently just tried my luck at the Ireland international job but to no avail, so I guess I'm still not that high yet! haha

Keverend: Welcome to the challenge! Good to see lots more people wanting to play this challenge, makes it a lot funner! Yeah I'm a fair bit in front but I'm just rushing a bit to get a little headstart so when I refrain from playing during my exams I won't be too far behind

This is brilliant! excellent to knock the fourth trophy on its head in just three seasons! sure are flying buddy! just one more to find there now!

Most of the jobs/Insecure managers are coming from Northern Ireland and Blue Square Bet in England. If I do leave, what do you guys think will be a better move? (no luck with the Munster clubs)

I would love to see England as a final hurdle! Northern Ireland would be the most realistic move next if you don't wait around for the a job in the munster cup

Pre-stating? get it?

Nevermind.

After a poor first few games of the season at Athlone Town, due to my proud signings McDaid and Morley leaving as they insisted on having at least half of the whole Athlone wage budget.. about 2000-3000 a week, crazy greedy fellas, I'll see if they get any offers.

I resigned. and was looking for a Northern Ireland job but I couldn't find any in the Second League that I could take over. And suddenly the opening came up! Recently promoted Prestatyn was in search of a new manager! A good opportunity to get the Wales portion out of the way!





Squad looks decent in defense, but the rest of the pitch needs some substance and backup! With a healthy wage budget of 3000 to work with, I think we could do something this season!

Dan: Yeah was looking for an opening in N. Ireland, but the only viable ones were in the First Division and I wanted to start from the bottom!