Steelman

I have embarked on The British Steel Challenge. As I spend a ridiculous amount of time on FM2013 I thought I may as well try to do something I've never done before.

So the story begins....

I started unemployed with all the leagues loaded, applied for the lower league jobs and got offered the Athlone Town job. I'd never heard of them to be honest, but all great careers start somewhere!!

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First look at the squad and the assistant reports show that I'm a bit weak in a few positions. Also released the Korean defender as part of the rules! He seemed pretty useless anyway so I'm not too concerned.



Odds for the season: I didn't think my team seemed that good.



Started pre-season and my main keeper has suffered a major injury, bit of a blow but not the end of the world.

Will update further when the season into full swing.

Good luck mate, will get you added to the leaderboard!

Good luck with them. I once managed them a short period. I hope you have more successes.

Should be easy getting the first trophy in the bag! Tough to dethrone Shamrock though!

Firstly, thanks for the support guys and sorry for the delayed update!

I've finished the first season and this is what happened.

So half way through the season and I was becoming extremely frustrated! My team could not score and when we did tended to let in last minute equalisers!



Despite the awful run of form and being knocked out of all cup competitions the league table looked like this.....



So despite the poor results I was still in touch with the playoffs and hopefully get a trophy that way, but it seemed unlikely with the inability to score goals.

I blitzed the second half of the season in a few hours as the results didn't get any better. Final League standings as below...



27 goals in 28 games was truly shocking. It was honestly one of the most frustrating seasons I have ever played on FM! I started thinking the challenge may not be as straightforward as to start with!

THEN.... the off-season happened.

As Athlone Town are a semi-professional team all the players are either on amateur or non-contracts and as a result are available to sign on a free from anyone who approaches.

I lost 7 of my 11 "team of the season" players and became even more disillusioned with an already frustrating game!

The thought crossed my mind to resign and go somewhere else in the UK as it couldn't get any worse!

However I thought I'd stay and see it out for at least half of the next season.

I was made favourite to win the league (I have no idea why!) and given the pre-season expectation of playoffs or winner!

So with an inexperienced squad of playing with each other, a board and group of fans disappointed all the players have left and very little managerial enthusiasm, I have started the second season!

Only played a couple of games and think the sack is just around the corner!

Anyway. I'll persevere and hope something changes.... but this is definitely a CHALLENGE, that's for sure!!!!!!

Good luck with your second season mate! I've found the same problem in Ireland with patchy form, strikers going weeks without scoring and losing my best players to other teams! Try and tie down your best players to contracts as soon as possible and then at least you will get some money for them!

Quite a lot has happened since my last update....

I was half way through my Athlone Town second season and was experiencing the same problems I had in the first season... inconsistent form, lack of goals and a lot of draws!

Despite that I was only a win of the playoffs so it wasn't all lost, just very frustrating!



I then got a message completely out of the blue.....



It was a tempting offer: I had only played the equivalent of 1 English season so I would be taking over the club at the start of the season. I think the major decision was the fact that I actually loosely follow Basingstoke in real life as my Dad lives there!!!

So I took the job!

It was the first time I've been in charge of a club that has no backroom staff, so I set about doing that straight-away and got some impressive names!





The squad was predicted to finish 6th and had a few decent players. It lacked upfront considerably so my first task was to bring in a striker. I managed to get Kwasei Appiah on loan from Crystal Palace, who is rated 4.5 stars for a BSS team, not bad!!

I've played around a third of the season, been knocked out of the cups but find myself top of the table (on goal difference). But at least I'm enjoying it more than life at Athlone (who finished 4th incidentally).

interesting decision to jump ship, but looks like its working out for you at the moment! Good luck with Basingstoke!

great additions to the back room! good luck mate¬!

great staff additions buddy. Good luck with Basingstoke mate!

Well it's been quite a long time since an update guys, as I've been on holiday for a month. But needless to say I was thinking of strategies and tactics to conquer the British Steel Challenge.

So last time I left you I had just taken over at Basingstoke in the Blue Square South and was top of the table on goal difference.

Well since that I went on to win the league!! with a game in hand!





There were a few close calls along the way but I think on reflection my team deserved to win the league. We limped over the line towards the end of the season which made the league look closer than it actually was for most of the campaign.

Either way..... MY FIRST TROPHY!!!!!!

An added bonus was the Manager of the Season award as well!



I think the credit really goes to two players that I brought in though; the ex-spurs keeper, Jordan Archer was a rock in goal all season and really made a big difference and also the on-loan Crystal Palace striker Kwasi Appiah who banged in 29 goals.





I spent the summer trying to bolster the squad but found it difficult to bring in anyone apart from promising youngsters due to my exceptionally low wage budget I was assigned. So I already assumed that the season in the Blue Square Premier would be a season of building and hoping to finish mid-table, rather than going for back-to-back promotions.

A couple of interesting news pieces I got over the summer as well......



.....and hopefully a sign of things to come.....



So I kicked off the season with a media prediction of 20th, a board expectation to battle against relegation and around 10 new faces in the team. As you'd expect, consistency was a real issue to start with, but I was winning every other game so I thought I would easily avoid relegation but definitely not be challenging for promotion.

It then came to the start of November and I was presented with the second big decision of my steelman career..... a job offer from Kidderminster.



I thought a little while and decided to take the job. Realistically I wasn't going to win anything with Basingstoke this season and hopefully would get something next year if all my youngsters performed. The Kidderminster team, on the other hand, had had a bad run of results but still had a much stronger squad than my Basingstoke team.

So I accepted the job and for the first time was asked by the board to "play attacking football" as a team philosophy. The squads were as follows, with only 1 non-UK player in the team, I listed him and put him in the reserves.



and the first team....



The two lads up front, Matt and Malbon, were a big factor in my decision to jump ship again, both looked like forwards who should be playing at a higher level.

So I've been playing as Kidderminster for a few months now and having taken over in November I have only lost 7 games. Which although sounds quite good has left me hovering around mid-table.



Even so, I think Kidderminster are a team I have a realistic chance of either winning the league with next season or maybe even the FA Trophy!

One concern though is their ridiculous amount of debt! With a balance of -£2million we need either investment or could face some point deductions soon. I wouldn't rule out me jumping ship again if a half decent team who have a chance of winning something approach me!

Finally, a quick question for anyone reading..... do we have to win both the North and South Blue Square leagues?? Or is one enough?

Thanks for reading!!!!

The new season at the helm of Kidderminster opened with some pretty average news.... the club was going into administration. As a result my wage budget was slashed just as the transfer window was about to open: a bit frustrating to say the least. This just meant that I had to look into the loan market instead, which is great for Blue Square teams as you rarely have to contribute wages.

Summer and January transfers:



I set myself a target of promotion in the board expectations, mainly because if I didn't get it I would leave the club anyway at the end of the season.

I thought pre-season was a good chance to get a bit of extra cash into the club so organised as many games as I could against premier league teams. I also got a game against my new parent club, West Brom (parent teams seem pretty useless compared to previous FM games, don't really send you anyone!)



The first few months went ok, I picked up some good results and was getting a load of goals so I was happy with that. It was really annoying that I lost to my old club Basingstoke 4-1, which turned out to be my worst result of the season!



My good run continued for the next few months, progressing to the 2nd round of the FA cup and losing narrowly to Cheltenham and only losing a couple of games in the league left me top of the league in the new year.



Got a great headline after my 5-1 win over Lincoln...



The league...



So all was going well, with the team on course for promotion quite comfortably. This was until I met my old team Basingstoke again....



I'd managed to get into the final of the FA Trophy as well. Which I was now thinking was my main priority. If I didn't win it this season then I would have to come back at some point and win it with another team... which I don't really want to do!



However, before the final, I needed to concentrate on finishing the league! I stumbled over the line somewhat, drawing a lot of games with late goals but still managed to win the league! Trophy number 2!!!

I think on reflection I deserved to win the league, top scorers by a long way and only lost a handful of games. I owed my success to the two strikers I had up front, Target man Matt and Poacher Malbon.





Jamilie Matt



Anthony Malbon



With the league wrapped up, my attention switched to the FA Trophy where I was up against Aldershot. Fortunately their top scorer, Adil Nabi, was on loan and his spell ended just before the end of the season, so I wouldn't have to face the player who had scored 24 goals for them!

The final was a lot more comfortable than I thought it would be... a goal from Matt in the first half meant I was never that nervous, although I would have liked it if we had finished some of the numerous other chances we had!



TROPHY NUMBER 3!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Once the season had finished I got approached by two league 2 teams... but I think I'll stick it out with Kidderminster until Christmas at least and then maybe think about moving on if things are too tough at a higher level. Although I was very tempted by the MK Dons offer!!





So far the career has been a challenge, but with 3 trophies in 2 seasons there is light at the end of the tunnel! It's still a f***ing hard challenge though!!!!