Around Europe Backwards - from Wales to Austria

Brilliant to see another challenger on this epic challenge mate, glad we inspired you! Be interesting to watch you come the other way as we go this way! Wales should be an easy enough start!

Hey interesting idea to start at the other end of the challenge, along with Shedender and Dan's it'll be interesting to see which side hits "The Wall" in terms of how long you have to stay in a specific country or league first.

Very quickly on your signings, i actually went to school with Jamie Price (that you signed from Newtown), he was a few years above me but i remember him because he was quite well know in our school as he was a trainee with Birmingham City

It's already tough going, but I'm hoping to avoid relegation and thus the sack ultimately in the first season. So hopefully it's a short "wall".

Jamie Price is a handy player actually and will be a first teamer for me this season, either at LB, LM or AML.

Not the best of starts in the league but I'm sure its just the players getting use to the players and tactics!

Yeah I'm sure, unfortunately FMC, is completely unplayable. The scouting is awful (my scout only found 13 players, the customary pre-knowledge and then didn't find ANY at all when I assigned him). Also I can't tell my feckless idiots to do what I want.

I really don't know how you do it Dan.

I'm going to start this challenge again, and I am doing to do in on the normal FM. Sorry for wasting everyone's time so far, stay tuned and I'll start this again tonight.

The only reason I play on FMC is because I don't have enough time for the normal mode. I don't really use the scouts that much just try and find players myself but it sure is hard!

It's not just the scouting issue, (I found some decent players myself), it's more losing 1-0 at half-time, you know exactly what to do and what to say in the real FM. But there's nothing you can do in FMC. Then you lose 1-0. It's just daft.

But yes will be holidaying until a job becomes available and I will change all the updates later tonight.

good lad! look forward to you reupdating check mine over too?

Holidayed again as before and the job at Port Talbot came up on 22nd December 2012, which I duly accepted. Port Talbot Town were predicted by the media as a team that should be finishing around 5th (and in the top 6 come the league split at 22 games). So it was clear that 2 wins in 16 and 9th place was not good enough for such a team. They were willing to take a chance on me and I can only hope that it wasn't a misplaced chance.

They club are already building for next season and have told me I won't be judged on this year's performance, but I hope to get back up to around the middle of the table and maybe sneak into the top 6, although we are 10 points adrift from 6th with 6 to play and this may not be possible.

We are out of the Welsh Prem cup. but still in the 4th round of Welsh Cup.







As you can see several positions need addressing in January. Most notably at GK, MC, AML, AMR, ST.

I will be playing a 4-5-1 cum 4-3-1, with a flat 4, 3 CM's AML, AMR and ST (Target man)

Stay tuned for updates tomorrow evening.

Looks to have worked out better for you this time around mate! Best of luck

good like with this mate

Thanks guys, much better now I'm back on FM, from FMC.

I was happy with my performance, we didn't squeeze into the top 6 group (only a win every game and results going my way would have ensured that), but we are much safer and hopefully on course to finish 7th, the highest possible finish because the league splits into two after 22 games.



The win against Airbus was very satisfactory and the team rode their luck at times, the only difference being Lloyd-Williams that managed to finish two of our meager ration of chances.

The draw against Afan Lido was frustrating but I really didn't have the squad to compete with them in this game and I was probably lucky to secure the point.

The win at Bangor was probably undeserved, but a defensive mix-up allowed Harling to race into the box and slot past the keeper. The draw at Prestatyn is the worst result of them all for me, they aren't a great team. For some reason my team, which had up until now been fairly sturdy had completely capitulated for two early goals, we managed to get two goals back but I was still aggrieved.

We simply couldn't carve chances out against high-flying Aber but I was pleased with the win and the clean sheet against Newtown. The cup defeat against the team with no vowels was more annoying than upsetting, I have an injury crisis at the moment and the players that I brought in in Jan we largely cup-tied so I was left with an awful squad with many players having to play out of position.

I managed to balance the budget in this window and we are now 120 pounds under our budget, I moved out frankly useless players, none of which made many appearances or would make any more. I brought in players that will either starting, will be starting/squad players next season or youngsters; I will summarize the players below.



Craig Frater - 22- ST - I needed a striker and he was the first person I turned to, cracking in my Haverfordwest aborted save. Will be rotating with Lloyd-Williams.
Sam Heenan - 21 -MC/AMR - I also bought same in my other game, instead of being a first team player like he was at HWest, he will be a squad/backup player. On a pay as you play deal.
Jonathon Hood - 21- DC - 4th Choice CB this season but with 5 stars for potential, you can see why I jumped at the chance to get him in now.
Chris O'Sullivan - 30 - AMR/WBR - a 4 star winger in this league, Chris has ability and has come in and done a job from the off.
David Maguire - 22 - GK - Comfortably first choice keeper, not great in himself but has 4 star potential and was a damn-site better than what we had.
Colin Rossiter - 17 - DL/WBL - A youngster who won't feature this season or next but might turn into a decent player. He's only on a 5er a week.)
Tyrrell Webbe - 21 - ST - 4th Choice striker but has the potential to be a leading player in this division, he is only on a pay as you play deal.

Sorry this took so long, my laptop broke, but I've got a new one now! Need to get a new bit of software for screenshots, this PC doesn't have paint?!

Carmarthen (H): (L) 0-1 - Disappointed with the lack of chances we created in this game.
Newtown (A): (W) 2-1 - Harling's strong header gave us a good start after 8 minutes. Williams equalised for Newtown on 40 minutes. I was worried that this might be a stalemate until James Bloom smashed the ball in from another corner from 2 yards.
Connah's Quay (H): (W) 2-0 - We dominated this from start to finish, but it took us until the second half to break the deadlock. CQ only had three shots all game, with none on target. Jenkins (46 mins) finished neatly after being played into the area and Frater (66) later finished a superb Green lofted cross with a close-range header.
Bala (A): (L) 0-2 - A sickening loss.
Carmarthen (A): (W) 1-0 - A tight game with little chances, both teams only having one shot on target. We finished ours courtesy of O'Sullivan from AMR (8)

Only 5 more games to go, I'll play these tomorrow and get the end of the season table uploaded! Already agreed some transfers for the next season, for great players that will be out of contract in the summer. Stay tuned.

Not too bad buddy, its all about finishing this season off and improving for the next one now!

The end of the last season was tawdry and injury crises left us completely unable to compete, we ended the season 8th (the highest finish being 7th).

Tried to get some big clubs to play us at home to raise some much needed revenue but I didn't want to play too many so it didn't completely kill morale.







Many of these transfers were agreed before the end of the season, the transfer budget offered to us was the same as last year, 2.6k a week on the proviso that we challenge for the title. A ridiculously low amount to challenge for the title in this year so we'll see how we go. I was still unable to bolster the CM as without the English lower leagues to feed from, the players simply aren't there. Enough pessimism! On to the signings.

Outs: I let people I felt were overpaid leave, this included 40 year old striker Lloyd-Williams, in hindsight I would have liked to have retain Lee John but I was mistaken about how much money the board would give me, and I cannot get the CM's I wanted in.


Ryan Astles (19 - CB) - A good player in this division now, will be a leading player in a couple of years
Lee McArdle (21 - CB) - Not quite as good as Astles, but still a good prospect
Josh Evans (20 - DL) - Back-up LB but has good potential.
Josh Bellamy (16 - AMC) A great prospect had to fight for him, will get the odd game this year. Being retrained to CM to help in this weak area.
Anthony Finselbach (21 - CM) - A decent CM, young enough but no word beater.
Josh Knight (22 - ST) - A good striker, will rotate with Thomas and Frater, is a great striker now and will only get better.
Kye Edwards (21 - CB) - A first team CB, will be a starter and will also improve.
Casey Thomas (22 - ST) - My marquee signing, Thomas should bang them in this year and I was very glad to get him. I perhaps misused CM money to get him in, but he always scored against me last year.
Jamie McDaid (19 - AMR/MR) - A backup winger that can do well at AMR/AML and will provide cover for Roberts and O'Sullivan. Will develop into a quality winger in this league.
Ryan Griffiths (24 - GK) - First choice keeper, still not great in terms of current ability (who can be on this meager wage budget?!), but will become even better.
Kyle Cockings (18 - DL/MC) A back up player with good potential
Sean Eardley (24 - DR/L) A utility and back up player

Reasonably happy with the team. Still concerned about the midfield, sorted the weak defence out but I'll be looking out for bargains throughout the season to strengthen this area.

I am looking forward to the start of the season. In FM12 I did win a few titles with Bow Street (after promotion from second division)

So the first 6 games went well and the seem to be finally gelling after frustrating performances against Bangor and TNS, who are bigger teams but the fight wasn't there, and nerves certainly were. Things were scrappy against Airbus and we were perhaps lucky to get the 3 points. The Bala loss was the real killer, they are a mediocre side but two mistakes from the keeper gave them the points. We dominated the Carmarthen game from start to finish, but i was getting edgy until Frater finished from point blank range on 84 minutes.

The Afan Lido game was fantastic and our new tactic (self-made) worked brilliantly in this game, with 5 separate scorers chipping in from all over the pitch. My personal highlight was Port Talbot born Thomas notching, he was having a bit of a dry spell and hopefully this will encourage him.

We have some easier games coming up and hopefully we will be able to stay in the top 3-4.

Not a bad opening six games buddy, only four points from the top, a strong season this year and you could well be leaving Wales very shortly! I hope you do

I hope so, if you don't have England/Scotland/NI/Ireland loaded it is very hard to get decent players in.

Bellamy has been class at the age of 16. Hopefully we can get a CM in in January and we can get out of this league!!!

not the worst of starts, can improve though

Great start, you'd just have to get around that TNS barrier, which is pretty tough in its own right.

There were a whole lot of good Welsh regens around when I was playing in Wales, but what was definitive was just buying a not-TNS-Welsh-All-stars team from the rest of the clubs .

But the Welsh league remains one of my least favourite of my save so far

Oh it is awful, I mean TNS have players on 1000-1500 pounds. My top earner is Casey Thomas on 350. Escaping from this league might even need me to take the TNS job if they have a bad season. Hopefully I don't have to resort to that.

Had chance to play October in the two hours I had to play tonight. Have work at stupid O'Clock tomorrow morning. So will do some more games tomorrow.

An almost perfect month for us.

We dominated our games against Haverfordwest, Llanelli and Aberystwyth. Our defence has been holding firm. Switched to a 5-3-2 with wingbacks after the Bala game, and it's going well.

The Ton Pentre one was disappointing, I put out a first team and went 2-1 up. They had three shots and scored all three, we had 19 and only converted three, we were all over them all game. Then the penalty shoot out defeat was just sickening. Will have to be next season for this cup .

A tough month but we somehow cling on to our third place (to be honest I don't see a hope for us in beating Bangor or TNS in the league but I will continue to plug away to be one of the best teams in the pack.

A frustrating defeat to Prestatyn (due to 2 defensive mistakes) was followed by two scrappy/unconvincing wins. The defense is being ripped apart and most goals are coming from set pieces, the games where we have drawn have frankly been lucky.

Not actually enjoying this league and the Ukraine seems quite far away. If we can get some CM's in we might have a hope, but I sadly don't see it. Perhaps if we do get into Europe then we might have some money.

Just one game to post but it's an important and exciting one. I play 5-3-2, either with an attacking or counterattacking mentality, I switched to "contain" for the game against TNS, I got the following result!



We actually dominated, considering changing to "contain" for other games.

The top of the league looks like this after 14 games, with 8 remaining of the first stage:

BANGOR 30pts
TNS 27pts
PORT TALBOT 26pts
RHYL 25pts

Brilliant win against TNS my friend! Maybe it could be your season this year! Its very close!

Thanks Dan, the TNS game coincided with the return of Frater and Bellamy to the team, they were both out for a month, as you can see they certainly made a difference in this game.

Hi guys, sorry I've not updated this much, I've been incredibly busy in the last few days. hopefully this update will please you.




A great few games for us, despite being above TNS towards the end of our run, the disappointing draw against Prestatyn meant we slipped marginally behind them at the 22 game league split. We are overachieving really and we still aren't doing better than the unstoppable TNS and Bangor, the final ten games sees the top six play each other twice so with 4 games against TNS and Bangor we might be able to do some. I remain unconvinced.

We have started to play with more fluidity and the football and level of control was certainly much improved in the last few games. I am pleased at our run and overall performance to date, Josh Bellamy and Crowell have really taken to the central midfield with aplomb and the January acquisition of Airbus CM Kyle Armstrong has really helped us in the middle of the park. The injury to Bloom at WBL has really enabled Keddle to come out of his shell in his place and he has excelled, I will have difficult decisions when he returns from injury.

We are out of the Welsh Premier Cup, but we are in the quarter final of the Welsh Cup, and we have drawn non-league Rhayader (A), we have a real chance to win this cup there are only three decent teams in the final 8, ourselves, Bangor and Bala.

Just one defeat would usually be enough to see you go closer to the top sides, but the title race is definitely still alive!