Holliday game

What a fantastic signing! Looks like a great addition to your squad, and he is only going to get better! Might need to ship out a couple of fringe players though to help balance the books though.

All in all october has been a good month. Starting off with a win over Aldershot, for those how remember thats the team that crushed me out of the FA-cup last season. Then a penalty win over Swindon (D1) in the Johnstone Paint trophy.

After which i got the work permit for Yoshiaki Takagi. A bore draw and 2 wins in the league before getting a very unlucky loss. Last match was agains the butchers called Morecambe, the manage to give a knock to 5 players and injuring an other one. But we still got a draw.


Ofcourse the highlight was the signing of Takagi. We are still working to get him to full match fitness but he is starting to make an early impression. And scored his first goal.


I will be monitoring the finacial situation closely for the time being but this month the wages didnt cause an problem.


Altho we are not climbing fast on the table we are again in contention. 2 points behinde the play-off spots and 9 points behinde the leaders, both with 2 games in hand. But its tight for al lot of team at the moment and all is open. Lucily there has opened a big cap to the relegation spots.

Great addition buddy! nice to see you swiftly moving up the table!

With Takagi coming to full match fitness, we start to find our winning ways. Leaving november a month to purr about.
First up was round 1 of the FA-cup. Due to the match agains the butcher called Moracombe i decided to play with my 2nd eleven and rest all first team players because they where struggling with there fitness. Basicly i had peace going out the first round hoping that resting the key players would help getting into better shape in the league. But cleary my reserves felt they had something to prove and put down a supurb display beating Luton Town 2-1 away. Also the original plan work well, and we put down a good run in the league winning four in a row., before an unbilieveble draw agains Yeovil Town. having 34 shot at the goal of which 15 on target, but still failed to score. I felt hard done by the result.


Apparently my team was shocked aswell putting in a subpar preformance next match. But then they bounced back with an amezing first halve in the second round of the FA-cup, outplaying the mumber 3 in division one Brentford.



The FA-cup draw giving us a great match again Premier league strugglers Swansea. Unfortunately our fans have to travel the 130 miles to wales to see the match.


But overall a great month and we continue to clim the table, and all my promotion hopes are up again.

The Good:
December started on a high. We got to the Johnstone's Paint Trophy Semi Final, and got a home draw agains AFC Wimbledon, giving us a decent chance to progress even futher. Also winning the first two league matches, which made us climb to 2nd place in the league. Takagi score an amazing goal, giving him goal if the month.


Futher did i manage to extend the contract of Ivan Almeida, Rob Kiernan, Stéphane Madeira and Richard Haklander. All on the same turns as they had.And to top things off i got my first job offer as manager of RKC Waalwijk (Dutch 2nd league), which i ofcourse declined.


The Bad:
After winning the first couple of matches, the tables turned and we are now on a 5 match slump. This made us slip down the tables again and now we are just hanging on to a play-off spot. Can it be my team can't play in the cold? Lets hope we can turn things around again or i might regret turning down RKC Waalwijk.



The Ugly:
And when you think things can't get worse you get other "great" news. Missing my goalkeeper and best central defende for the whole of januari.

Not the best ending to the month, tough with the players going to internationals! However your sitting nicely up in the table!

After the dreadfull end of december, januari started on a low aswell as two of my key players picked-up long term injuries (Andréa Fileccia and Ivan Almeida). With 2 players gone for the African Nations Cup i felt i had to take some measures to prevent us going into a real rot. So i digged into my scouting network to get some loan deals done. I got good reports about an expirianced Goalkeeper (David Forde) and a young right back (Elliot Hewitt). But nothing on a good striker. But then one of my scout brought my attentions to a striker released by Sligro Rovers. So again i looked at the board and tapped into my already heavy overdrawn wage budget. As i got what i thought was a good deal on the striker (Gary O'Connor) i pushed on and did the deal. I now pay 23,8k wages froma 20,4k wage budget.




Other highlight of the month was our trip to Wales to play Swansea in the FA-Cup. And we tried hard but couldn't pull off a major upset. We hold on the first 45 minutes, but where hopeless outplayed the 2nd 45 minutes. But we went out with our heads up high.


But in the league we had a great run not losing a single game. Most of the good form comes down to one man: Yoshiaki Takagi. What an great signing he turnes out to be. Just a reminder there are stats from an attacking midfielder.


With our current form we are in good shape to win a third promotion in a row. With good form comes a reward, climbing up to 3th posistion, and less important but still nice Motm. And in the progress we also reached the regional finals of the Johnstone's Paint Throphy. Lets see if we can keep going strong and maybe even push for the title.

The young Irish regen looks good for you mate, apart from the expected haemrign from Swans another good month!

Februari came and went. Not much matches played in the league and not much result either. We lost 3-2 from Oxford after being 0-2 up so that was a big disappointment. The we battered Bradford 5-1, but lost hopelessly against Aldershot. Our good run in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy went on, beating Southend away (2-4) and home (2-1) seeing us throught to the final against Barnsley (currently midtable in L1). Biggest plus is probably the return of our internionals from the African Nations Cup, and the return from injury (earlier the expected) of Andréa Fileccia and Ivan Almeida. All is still tight at the top and with 9 matches (including away against league leaders) everything is still possible. I remain confident we will gat a promotion done this year.

A triple promotion bounce could certainlyy be on the cards so could the JPT this year! fantastic buddy!

We the season drawing to a close we crept into a direct promotion spot. But the title seems far away, 5 points behinde two team with 5 to play. March only featured 4 games. We won the first on a close battle due to a brilliant free kick by Takagi. A well earned 0-0 agains fellow contenders Hartepool. Next match we fell 0-2 behinde but a late realy saved a point at the end. Last match we saw off already relegated Accrington comfortably. The battle for promotion continues, but we still have a second horse to gamble on with the Johnstone's Paint Trophy final this month.


The fixture list gives me 4 away matches and just 1 at home.
Luton Town are currently 19th
Shrewbury 20th
Winbledon 1st
Yeovil 13th
York 16th
Beside Wimbledon non of the teams have anything to play for anymore maybe it can work to my advantage.

The result against Wimbledon won't matte if you can keep a strong record against those lower teams!

With the last fixtures of the season or promotion dream turned into a nightmare. Unable to convert our chances and giving away goals cheap we slipped away and where even in danger not even to reach the play-off with the last match to play. Our current form will probably not get us promoted. So i am a bit downhearted at the moment.



On the plus site we did manage to win the Johnstone's Paint Trophy with a 2-0 win in extra time.



Now i can only hope my team regains thre confidence, and bring the play-offs to an good end.

With the disapointment still in my mind i checked our opposition in the first round of the play-off. Kidderminster Harriers, we have a very good track record against them, so that lifted our spirits.


So with a bit of renewed hope we went into the play-offs. I felt lucky to started with a home match. SInce our form wasn't to great i felt it would be easier to play at home to build a confidence. And everything worked out nicely. An early goal gave the whole team a lift and they ran away with an easy victory. On stupiditly giving away a second halve penalty to leave a shimmer of hope to Kidderminster.


Now with a good first match under our belt things must go unlikely wrong not to advance to the final. And things didnt go wrong. Again a good first halve display getting 0-2 ahead. Again second halve was much worse, that still is a problem. But hopefully we can improve that in the final.


More very soon.......

So with a good play-off semi fial result. Things did started to look up again. In the final we had to play Hartepool. Also against them we had a decent track record.


But there are always complications. Both my starting strikers where out injured, i look to my back-ups to shine. Only slight problem, O'Conner has score a single goal yet. So i have to turn to Takagi again to shine or make others shine.


As the match unfolds, the first halve was you call uneventfull. So all came down to the second halve, and ofcourse the team doesnt have a good track record playing second halves. But they did well, we gave away nothing at the back and createted 4/5 very good chances. But the strikers failed (again). Ad so the game went into overtime. And the extra time didnt start good. My hope in dark days Takagi got injured almost immidiately. So tihing started to look darker and darker. But then Kabeya, the subsitute for Takagi, broke free on his favorite right side and provided a cross my striker couldn't even miss. Altho he tried hard to squander it, the rebound fell to him with the goal empty. We helt on the the lead without any real trouble and so my dream still came true!

Congrats on another promotion!

With the season now over and the new about to start. Here are some nice fact i would love to share. To start off halve way the season i took a big risk signing Takagi, over drawing my wage budget. This payed of in many way. I don't know if it because of this signing, but we managed to rake in the highest sponsorship intake.


We didn't to badly at all financialy this season, making a hugh profit even if you deduct the investments done by the take-over.


Takagi was also the player with the highest average rating in the league and ofcourse the buy of the season.


He wasn't the only player preforming well for me this season as Kai van Hese also made the seasons best eleven.


Going into the new season with a good feeling. And i even got a decent budget to get some improvements in.

The new season is here. I told the board i want to finish mid table and the told me i can have a transfer budget of 900k and a wage budget of 40,9k. We currently have a wage cost of 30,9k so i think a possible 3 good signings. Prioraty are a goalkeeper and a right back. I am thinking about switching to a 4231 fromation and if i do that also need a good right winger.


Also the build of our new stadium is complete:


Also turned down a new job offer.

With the pre-season ending and the new season at verge of beginning. The Salisbury fans are excited to see how the team will do at the brand new Salisbury Stadium. With the team newly promoted and high favorites for the drop, the fan are hoping for the signings to shine.

Our new goalkeeper:


Batteling for right back spot:


Our new right winger:


Back-up at left back/left wing:


Back-up at the left back/left wing:


Back-up as attacking midfielder:


To try to make this season a succes the players and technical staff worked hard in getting used to the new tactic.



Only trouble i am starting to run into now is that almost all english based player are asking for insane wages. Thats the reason i have to turn to foreign signings. And that makes me (very) low on players with the Home-Grown status.

Updated: Screenshot player (now with names)

Nice squad you have. Home-grown can be trouble later in the leagues. Try to buy foreign players at 18 (or below) to make them homegrown for you when you need them. That's the way I used to do it in FM2012. Good luck with your career at Salisbury.

P.S. In the screenshots of the players there are no player names. I know the Turkish player must be Sinan Keskin you got from Ajax I think but further it's difficult to guess who is who.

Fantastic double there matey! really well done!

Oeps cut off the manes, i ll update the screens before i ll start my season.

Great work Mate !

been dying all day to get home from work and snap up this wee japanese kid on my own game only to find out he's not on it

I think he is from the dutch league as he has a history playing fro FC Utrecht.

I didnt expect to win the leugue this time, i just hope i could compete for a play-off spot. But the start of the season hasn't been the greatest, altho it could have been worse.

First match was a hard battle against Tranmere at home. As this was the first match in our new stadium i hoped we the team could bring some extra. We went ahead from a wel taken corner kick and a great header, but only a few minutes later a defensive mess left the goal exposed and Tranmere took full advantage. But substitute Martín Kozhuzarov got us the winner with a well placed shot.

Next up Championship outfit Bristol City, the gave us absolutly no chance at all we where "lucky" only to lose 2-0. I the mean time I was still worried about our home grown players when a good addition became availeble on the transfer market. Eventho i was well covered in the spot of right back i didnt hasitate and snap him up.


My scouting team in the meanwhile had found a nice prospect in Scotland, and with some transfer budget to spare i wraped him up aswell. He will start in my U18 but i have high hopes for him, and probably will feature him in the main squad later this year.


Back to playing football, or maybe i shouldn't. My team put down a great preformance again Stevenage, only to see us down 3-0 at the break. They tried hard but couldn't turn things around anymore the 2nd 45 minutes.

Bournemouth gave us the early lead Rob Kiernan heading home a Yoshiaki Takagi corner. A rather boring fist halve didnt give anything else to see. Just after the break the 1-1 was made. But the team woke up and bounced back Andréas Fileccia being the most alert on a rebound.

A hard confrontation agains Leicester next, we got 3 bookings in the first 8 minutes, but went ahead by a header from an other good corner. At the verge of the whissle Leicester came back with an incredible shot from the edge of the area. Second halve gave a lot of battle but no football and no goals.

Swindon went ahead on a soft penalty, but i wont complain because the out played us (Swindon 22 shots; Salisbury 3 shots).

This all leaves us mid table and leaves me with more questions then answers about the team. I ll have to see how the season unfolds.

Another couple of good looking players there buddy, you have to be content with that league start, following three promotions on the bounce you can't expect it all the time!

This month we started with a 0-0 draw against Oldham, our best oppertunity fell to Takagi but he only found the sidenetting. A 85 minute counter gaves us a scare, but at the end they only hit the post.

The Chesterfield match was a tremendous one. With them lying in 2nd place our hopes wheren't high. We started well, but after 15 minutes they took controle and score after 25 minutes, on the 30 minute mark the got a penalty, but it was birrliant save by Andrea Caroppo to keep us in the match. Just after halve time they did get the second goal. But the team bounced back scoring three time in 8 minutes. But Chesterfield didn't want to give up, and they went out full attack. It brought them the equalizer in the 70th minute. And with them going for all 3 points Richard Haklander score the winner at the other end.

Crewe where down to 10 man early as there striker got sent-off getting a second yellow card for diving. An other goal from a corner gave us the lead. But we didnt took full advantage of the extra man. And as often is the case we the goal doesnt come your way it falls at the other end.

Next three matches where great, we got a 1-0 home win due to a good strike from 20 meters by N'Toko, and 2 1-1 draws which both could have been worse. But we remained unbeaten this month are are crawling closer to the play-off spots.

Too many draws! however keep the unbeaten run continuing buddy!

I do agree, but the last two draws are matches where the opponents where better. So that doesnt feel that bad. On the other hand we should have won the Crewe match so it all evens out on points.