benglish
6 years ago
1 year ago
16
From Wollongong to where?


Welcome to the world of my alter ego, Benny English. Born in Wollongong, Australia in 1993, he is a man with big ambitions. After high school, he flitted from job to job, unsure of what direction life was taking him in. The only thing staying consistent in his life is his love of the beautiful game.

https://sortitoutsi.net/uploads/mirrored_images/UakikfZ1wtFBa7oJH5mMHWH6nMIFsTSqfRzroJA0.jpg


The month was June 2018. Benny sat down at his laptop, opened up chrome, and started searching. Putting out his disappointingly bare resume to all those who would accept it. No qualifications, no footballing experience. All he had was a dream and the small amount of money in his pocket. After weeks of no response, finally he got an email back. And this is where the story begins.

https://sortitoutsi.net/uploads/mirrored_images/H8S0AgdOBqBW4UqOoKQ1TCUwLIBcOgeeF3RgkPev.png

Looks like it's time to book some flights - we're off to Scotland, with Albion Rovers.





benglish
6 years ago
1 year ago
16
Welcome to Scotland


So here we are. The glorious 4th tier of Scottish football, home to teams such as Cowdenbeath, Queen's Park, and of course our very own Albion Rovers. Let's get stuck in.

Here's the league, and the predictions for the season so far.
https://sortitoutsi.net/uploads/mirrored_images/vhnrQx9xDJgpd4a6E1482oguVOQQhv8c6nix9PLq.jpg


At this stage we are predicted to finish dead last. With the squad we have here, that sure seems a fair prediction - there is lots of work to be done. Anyway, here it is:

https://sortitoutsi.net/uploads/mirrored_images/8LiRgaBSIhlCd5rPkU7mW8lvn5z3ASm8FGaa4GXv.jpg

Key Players

Gary Fisher
Gary Fisher looks like he could be a real rock in the centre of midfield for us. Having played for the likes of Kilmarnock and Hamilton, this man looks like he could be a real stalwart for us.
https://sortitoutsi.net/uploads/mirrored_images/3AUNItGJQK5mQZgvU1sil23rIoZAuPPWcy4iPkFz.jpg


Bryan Wharton
He may not know how to mark, but Bryan is our most capable centre back at the moment. He looks like a good, well rounded player.
https://sortitoutsi.net/uploads/mirrored_images/62JWyPMGX0JzTBTeJWoVzK67dffpoCJqXETEBVul.jpg


The problem is, that's about it. Looks like some recruitment really needs to be done. As for finances, we are in the black with 18k in the bank.
https://sortitoutsi.net/uploads/mirrored_images/7fnqSGpTNyODO4y0VulpJ4Bu6cvsRJSAqyMQIIUH.jpg

As for board expectations, in the league all they want is for us to avoid relegation. It's looking like that could be quite the task. In the upcoming Betfred cup, and in the IRN-BRU cup, the only request is for us to "Be Competitive", whatever that means. We are also expected to reach the third round of the Scottish Cup. Our training and youth facilities are both 1.5 stars, described as below average. As for our stadium, we will be playing in the 1,572 capacity Reigart Stadium in Coatbridge.

https://sortitoutsi.net/uploads/mirrored_images/1PB2HnrVD541gz1NmEeD5eylpZttNccYt0I9KjaZ.jpg
Not the worst start.

Lots of work to do, but we have an alright foundation to get started on. Next up, a pre-season review.






tongey
14 years ago
1 month ago
1,101
Looking forward to this journeyman. I'm aboard the Benny English train! Good luck with Albion Rovers!

(can I ask what skin you're using?)
bigmattb28
10 years ago
3 days ago
1,474
Premium
Good luck with this, Scotlands lowest league is the go to start for a lot of journeyman careers, interested to see how you get on!

I second what @tongey says about the skin, I'd like to try that out
Looch
6 years ago
9 months ago
187
Good luck, nice to see that ur from Australia and it's going to be interesting to see if this manager can do it from a more ruralish area.
benglish
6 years ago
1 year ago
16
Cheers Tongey, nice work on the win with Tranmere too. I'm using Keysi Rensie's dark skin, you can find it here: https://mrkeysirensie.wordpress.com/2018/10/30/the-fm19-rensie-custom-skins/

Yeah, i'm hoping not to hang around in scotland for too long matt, I definitely want to go somewhere more exotic before returning to Europe. Skin's just ^there^ for ya

Thanks Looch, hopefully it'll be a long and successful story

Anyway, on to the pre season...

Pre-Season Review


After a few hours of tedious tactical exploration and experimentation, i've decided to go with... drum roll....

The exotic 4-4-2. What else. Since we're clearly a way behind the other teams in our division, we'll be playing a very defence minded, counterattacking style. No tiki-taka over here in Coatbridge. Now it's time to go over the signings that have been made. I think i've gotten some real good business done, but maybe not enough of it. We just don't have the wages to be able to afford anyone near the quality of the other teams in our division. One of the strikers for Clyde even has 13 finishing! Imagine that!

So, who did we bring in? Only four, but in all the positions we needed.

Mikey Hopkins comes in as another option for our midfield that was previously lacking in depth. 5 passing is a concern for a midfielder but he has some potential. He's not first choice, or even second, but hopefully he'll do enough when called upon.
https://sortitoutsi.net/uploads/mirrored_images/3ievNkQs6UrT3GHClza4NWh7qojzZ8feuJ5C8UlD.jpg

Aaron Bradbury will most likely be our first choice left midfielder this season. He's not exactly a world beater but he's better than nobody (which is what we had previously) and is on a cheap 55 pounds a week.
https://sortitoutsi.net/uploads/mirrored_images/iRRjgN0MkKJSvqFd91c1plC7VgbqbgTQcmICRHNZ.jpg

The wonderfully named Kevin Dzierzawski will definitely be our first-choice centre-mid this season. I'm not sure why he wants to come to Albion Rovers, but somehow he accepted the contract offer and i'm certainly not complaining. Decent bit of business here.
https://sortitoutsi.net/uploads/mirrored_images/aA4VJPpK9pLjAvlyTEXbbO4wlz58dn1N16LisrPC.jpg

Finally, we have Sam Dryden. This guy was an absolute steal. 80 pounds a week????? Am I reading that correctly? He's easily our best defender. Hopefully he can produce solid performances at right and centre back this season, since we'll certainly need everything he has to offer. Welcome Sam!
https://sortitoutsi.net/uploads/mirrored_images/fzy2hUtX8C9aDU7QjsXDNrPrzQK1Jf4h4gR0IJzE.jpg

Pre-Season matches

Surprisingly, i'd actually call our pre-season decent! Sure, we lost 4 but we won two (despite one being a morale booster against a bunch of kids) and didn't perform shockingly in most of our losses.

https://sortitoutsi.net/uploads/mirrored_images/oAEOPeq3prpNbDkUTie5YKqlNx27BehyxkajskDg.jpg

I'm not going to put up screenshots of every match since it's just pre-season, but i'll run through them briefly. The loss to Sheffield United was expected, but the gap in quality was made obvious as they scored 4 times in the first 15 minutes. However, we seemed to regain some sense of composure after a dreadful start and only conceded one more for the rest of the game.

I wasn't expecting anything from the Betfred Cup, and i'm quite happy not to have finished bottom of our group.

https://sortitoutsi.net/uploads/mirrored_images/GigiDvY08F0PnlFXsAMnacuubyzjsB9njDj7wyjP.jpg

We kicked off with a 1-0 loss to Airdrieonians, who play in the division above us. We actually bested them in terms of possession and shots, however we just couldn't make the chances count. A good performance in most aspects. We then suffered a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Ayr, and there is really nothing to take from this game. We were dominated completely by the Ladbrokes Championship side and it's a wonder we didn't lose by more. Then came our one win, against Berwick. Berwick are predicted to finish 5th in our division, so it was great to see us manage to scrape out a win (although admittedly we were more than a bit lucky). Finally, we faced Stranraer from the division above and put in a spirited performance despite losing 1-2. A decent cup campaign overall, with some promising signs shown.

Finally, I found the smallest team I could and scheduled a friendly to boost morale before the start of the season. This poor team was the mighty Fife Elite, and we performed well, putting 5 past them. Conceding two is certainly a worry however, both long balls over the defence for their 3 finishing 4 long shots striker to smash home from outside the box both times (this game sometimes, I swear).

Promising signs, but it's certainly going to be a struggle this season. I'm going to be travelling for the next two days (gotta love Australian distances) so don't expect anything until monday-tuesdayish. I'll be back with a few games played then. Up the Rovers!

tongey
14 years ago
1 month ago
1,101
Thanks for posting the skin mate! You've had a tough pre-season to cope with. BetFred Cup doesn't help when you constantly lose matches. Great achievement to not finish bottom of the pile though! Good luck for the season!
AdamRK
12 years ago
4 years ago
157
Great additions to the squad and going out of the cup surely means you can focus on the league and survival now! Looking forward to seeing how this all pans out mate!

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