The Career of Dion Dublin

Hi Everybody!

I've decided to give FM13 another chance after becoming rather disenfranchised with it recently, as I enjoy the heightened sense of realism obtained by controlling an ex-pro, ala my David Beckham story which was quite popular I've decided to allow another of my favourite former player to lend himself to this story.



Honours

Division Four Play-Off Winner 1989/90 (Cambridge)
Division Three Champion 1990/91 (Cambridge)
Premier League Winner 1992/93 (Manchester United)
Joint Premier League Golden Boot Winner 1997/98 (Coventry City) *Tied with Michael Owen & Chris Sutton
FA Cup Runner-Up 1999/00 (Aston Villa)
UEFA Inter-Toto Cup Winner 2001/02 (Aston Villa)
Scottish Premier League Champion 2005/06 (Celtic)
Scottish League Cup Winner 2005/06 (Celtic)

I'm going to try and stick to some principles throughout my career with Dion;

Realism
I want to keep my story as realistic as possible, that will mean starting somewhere lower down the football league or in the Conference as no Premiership or Championship side would be likely to take a chance on someone like Dion with no managerial experience despite his successful playing career.

Devote time to tactics
I admit this is something I have not done a lot of in previous saves, I pick and formation and generally stick to it rigidly. I want to put an end to that in this game and use a more strategic approach based around my opponents and what specific threats and weaknesses they carry, whilst also taking into account the weather conditions and the referees disciplinary track record.

No player is indispensable
I won't be held to ransom by my star player's wage demands, if he wants to leave then I won't try to stop him. I intend to be very much Fergie-esc with my man management style. No one is bigger than the club.

Great British
To start off with I won't get much of a choice in this matter as there aren't that many foreigners willing to play in the lower leagues, However as I progress through my career I always want to maintain a good quota of British and Irish players, at the very least 50% of my squad should hail from the UK.

Well then, on to day one, Wish me luck!

It didn't take long for me to find a job, Tamworth was available from the outset after the recent sacking of Marcus Law by the Staffordshire club. The Lambs seemed like an ideal starting place for Dion as they have strong connections with several of his former clubs due to the town's proximity to other major cities in the Midlands with Birmingham, Coventry, Derby and Leicester all within 20 miles of Tamworth.

The club itself has been on a steady rise over the last two decades, they have climbed from the West Midlands league at step five of the non-league system to their current position at the head table of non-league football, collecting the FA Vase along the way in 1989.

The aim now has to be to emulate fierce local rivals Burton Albion's 2009 achievement in going a step further and reaching the promised land of the Football League for the first time.

My Targets:
I harbour no pipe dreams of bringing the Champions League to the Lamb Ground, I fully intend to move on to bigger and better things eventually, but that's not to say I don't have any ambitions with the club.

-Help club stay up this season, they are forecast to struggle by the media but as an eternal optimist I believe we will survive.
-Equal the club's best ever performance in the FA Cup and reach the third round within three seasons.
-Win the FA Trophy within three seasons.
-Promotion to League Two within four seasons
-Keep club up in League Two and try to set them up financially in order to continue their progress before I move on.

Speaking of finances, the Lambs are in a solid position, not extravagant by any means but with no major debts outstanding and a six figure bank balance they are not in a bad position for a Conference team;


The training and youth facilities will need upgrading if the club intends on making serious progress, as I stated earlier I want to build up the bank balance in order to leave the club in a better condition than I found it in when I decide to leave and enable them to facilitate these upgrades.

Good start to this Rick, I will be following this story

So after giving you a brief overview of the club itself it is now time to turn our focus to the most important aspect of a football club, the players.

Tamworth Squad


Team Report


Goalkeepers
We only have one keeper is already at conference level, Tony Breedon has rejoined the squad this summer after eight years away playing for multiple local non-league sides. James Wren looks like he will be a good player in the future but I would have reservations about playing him in big games just yet, I will likely send him out on loan and try to get someone with a bit more experience in for the season.
45 year old Dale Belford provides back up in addition to his duties as a coach.


Defenders
We have a reasonable selection of defenders who form the strongest area of the team, Richard Tait and Tom Marshall will probably be my initial centre back pairing but Duane Courtney could well earn himself a place in my line up as he isn't too far behind the aforementioned pair in terms of ability. 18 year old Connor Roberts-Nurse looks a great prospect who could well go onto better things, I've not decided if I should send him on loan somewhere or keep him for occasional first team football



Midfielders
We possess one of very few players with an international cap to their name at this level, Dion's former Villa team mate Lee Hendrie is on the books at the Lamb although he will miss the start of the season with a calf injury, he will no doubt be an influential player when he returns. Marcus Kelly looks like a strong partner for Hendrie in the centre. Peter Till and Danny Lloyd are both new arrivals who offer plenty of pace out on the flanks.
Elliot Tuner looks like the brightest prospect in this department, the 18 year old is a new signing from Shrewsbury.



Forwards
We only have three strikers on the books, none of whom are of any great quality, Former Dagenham and Redbridge manAdam Cunnington is the best of the trio and should be able to bag a few goals this season, I remain unconvinced that Adam Wright will be able to do the same. the transfer list awaits for Jake Healy who simply isn't good enough. A couple of loan signings are required to boost the squads goalscoring potential.

Good Luck here Rick.

Thanks lads! Keep reading.

Here's a quick look at our pre-season schedule this season, it's nothing exciting just a tour around some of the local semi pro clubs, unfortunately there is no money spinners in the mix, I was hoping one of the Midlands 'Big four' would pay the Lamb a visit but alas.


We begin with Birmingham based Sutton Coldfield Town who have supplied many Tamworth alumni as well as a couple of ex-managers, it's then off to Leicestershire to visit Midland Alliance side Heather St. Johns who are an affiliate club of ours.
Southern First division club Rugby are next on our whistle-stop tour of the Midlands before another Warwickshire side Atherstone play host to us at their wonderfully named Sheepy Road ground.
Finally we head home to welcome Welsh Premiership side The New Saints (TNS) as a solid test of our preparedness for the upcoming season which opens away to Kent based Dartford FC on the 11th of August, before we entertain fellow Midlander's Hereford at the Lamb three days later.

Here's the bookies opinion of us;

and here are the boards expectations for the season;

To be honest I'm not too sure what is meant by 'enjoying the experience' does that mean it doesn't matter if we're relegated? Either way hopefully we won't be.
And here's my personal targets for the year ahead;

Pre-Season Results 2012/13

Pre-season is now complete and the mighty Lambs are raring to go (I hope) we had a reasonable run in the friendly's, succumbing to just the one defeat to Welsh Champions League representatives TNS in the final game.

Before I go into detail on the results, first let me introduce you to the brand spanking new signings at the Lamb;

Benjamin is a current international player for the tiny principality of Lichtenstein who joins us from AFC Bournemouth on free transfer after clearly being deemed surplus to requirement at the League one club, I'm confident he will be a magnificent coup for us though.
Unfortunately his wages have pushed us a bit over budget which is something I shall need to address to avoid a slide into the red, still I think he will be worth it.

On loan from Fleetwood until January, at 6'2" Alex is a big lad who I will be employing to make a nuisance of himself in the opposition boxes at set pieces.

Whilst Lloyd Kerry will probably act as my primary ball winning midfielder, Barnet loanee Freddie provides a solid option should Kerry be unavailable.

A good prospect on loan from fellow West Midlanders Walsall, Reece is a good prospect for the future who will benefit from gaining some first team experience with us as well as giving me extra cover in case of injury's and suspension.

A decent forward for this level, more importantly he possesses a left foot unlike my other forwards.

I've decided to hang onto all of my players in this transfer window to give myself extra time to judge who is useful and could fit into my systems and who I should be letting go, having said that I have allowed a few of my younger lads go out on loan in order to give them some experience;

Thus far I have been utilising a box standard 4-4-2 with the following tactical tweaks;

I have also experimented with 4-5-1 and 4-3-3 but neither were particularly effective, perhaps after more tactical training and familiarity they will be more useful.

So here's a closer look at our results;

Not a brilliant performance but with quite a few new faces in the team a bit of disjointedness was to be expected. We were on top throughout and rarely looked in any danger despite only netting the one goal.

That's more like it! our child club Heather provided little resistance we eased to a simple victory with two goals wither side of half time.

Slipping behind within the first minute wasn't a great start, we didn't play too badly and controlled much of the play, however it took until the 80th minute to finally draw us level with the Evo-Stik division one side despite having had Sam Oji dismissed nine minutes earlier.

A good win over the Midland Alliance club to complete our mini tour of the Midlands, we could easily have scored five or six but for some good goalkeeping from Atherstone Joshua Heywood.

Not an ideal result to go into the season with but TNS are the reigning Welsh champions so we certainly shouldn't be too disappointed by keeping TNS within touching distance despite their dominance over us.

Well that's it, we are all set for our visit to Dartford on Saturday and confident of a good result, wish us luck!

looking good so far, hope u can stick to this one mate

A good pre-season with only the one loss there.

love lower league careers and thus i will be following! good start so far

It's fair to say my first month has not exactly gone the way I had hoped, three draws at two defeats have left us floundering in the relegation zone, we haven't been playing that badly to be fair but just haven't been clinical enough in front of goal which has cost us dearly.

We started off well in the opener against Dartford, Adam Cunnington fired us into an early lead, however the home side slowly chipped away at our defence, eventually unravelling us and coming from behind.
Hereford threatened to do the same after Cunnington again opened the scoring, the Bulls came from behind to lead 2-1, however this time we had the mental fortitude to prevent the defeat, loanee Alex Titchener rescuing a point for us with a little over 15 minutes to play.
We were unfortunate not to record our first win of the season during the visit of Stockport, we were much the better side but continually squandered good opportunities in front of goal.
As is the reoccurring theme of the season at this early stage, we struck first against Southport through midfielder Freddie Harris but capitulated in the second half, allowing the Merseyside outfit a way back into the game, which they grasped with both hands, running out 2-1 winners thanks to some complacent defending.
Finally came the visit of Wrexham to the Lamb, the Welsh side had also started badly and found themselves bottom of the Conference table having lost all of their opening four fixtures, I had hoped we could use that to our advantage and collect our first three points of the campaign, however it was not to be, after once again taking the lead in the first half we threw it away in the second, although this time we did hold on for a deserved point. Still I think I need to work on my half time team talks as they appear to be causing this infuriating complacency.

As I mentioned earlier, the league table probably isn't filling many Lambs supporters with much optimism at the moment;

There are a few positives we can take from the first five games, our home form isn't bad, we are still unbeaten at the Lamb and we have been playing some reasonable football in the first half of matches, if I can improve my half time talk then perhaps we will turn this around quickly before we really have to begin digging in against the dreaded 'R' word.

The bad news kept on coming as the calender turned into September as the board revealed the club had made a loss of £55k last month, a substantial set back for my aim of making the club financially secure this season.


Things are not likely to get any easier for us next as we take on top of the table Braintree and their fellow promotion chasers Mansfield, both away in the space of three days. :/

Not the greatest of starts but its only early stages

Well, it looks as if we are digging in for a long and hard relegation battle, we find ourselves hovering just above the danger zone, we've done just about enough to keep our heads above water.

The bad run of six games without any wins was particularly worrying, however we did recover and beat fellow drop fighters Hyde which dragged us out of the bottom four, but we were unable to follow through against Ebbsfleet meaning we were unable to give ourselves some breathing space.

We remain hovering precariously above the bottom four despite an unbeaten month;


The draw with Macclesfield was a real kick in the teeth, having lead since Danny Lloyd put us ahead in the 27th minute right up until the 91st minute when Town substitute JP Kissock rifled in their stoppage time equaliser.
We overcame the disappointment of the two points dropped quickly though, beating fellow West Midlander's Telford in a comfortable 2-0 win which included the fit again Lee Hendire's first goal for the club, albeit from the penalty spot.
Cambridge proved a tough nut to crack and in truth we were very lucky to take a point from this one, had the U's been a little more decisive in front of goal they could easily have had four or five.

Finally came our first FA Trophy tie of the season, the minimum expectation is for us to reach the third round which we are still on course for despite a resilient display from Conference North side Bradford Park Avenue, we twice took the lead but were pegged back both times, the dismissal of centre back Tom Marshall in the 78th minute didn't help matters, but up stepped substitute Alex Titchener to see us through with his 80th minute tap in to book a date with arch rivals Nuneton in the next round.