Desafio das Ilhas FM23

VIDEOS IN PORTUGUESE

This is a version of the Island Hopping Challenge. I'm only allowed to manage teams that are based in islands. In the case of the UK, only teams not in Great Britain are allowed.

I've decided to start this series with Cowes Sports FC, a semi-professional club based in Cowes, UK. Cowes is the third largest city in the Isle of Wight, the largest island in the UK, being located 3 to 8 kilometers off the coast of Hampshire.

We start the season 2022/23 with four competitions to play: the Wessex League Premier Division (tier 9 in the English system), the FA Cup, the FA Vase and the Wessex League Cup.

As there are no players linked to Cowes Sports in the current database, I've had to build the squad from scratch. It is quite nice to have carte blanche to have a group of players the way I want, but it is challenging to be able to have a team ready for the first day of season. The consequence of this is that we were knocked quite prematurely out of the FA Cup, in the preliminary round. This was the only L in our first season, as I found out that the squad I had built was quite good. These were the results:
 

• Wessex Premier: 1st place - 38 games, 36 wins, 2 draws, 0 loss - 140 GF, 38 GA, 102 GD
• FA Cup: knocked out by Glebe in the Preliminary Round, 0-2 defeat.
• FA Vase: Champions, after beating Guisborough Town at Wembley, 4-1
• Wessex League Cup: Champions, after beating Baffins Milton Rovers, 6-2

Having won the league, we were promoted to the Southern League Division One South. The positive results against a few stronger sides in the 2022-23 FA Vase made me confident that our squad was good enough to win the league title again, but I was still looking for new signings. I took a look at the Irish and Scottish markets and was able to bring in some nice additions to our team, which helped us maintain domination over our local rivals. These were the results:
 

• Southern League Division One South: 1st place - 38 games, 35 wins, 3 draws, 0 loss - 135 GF, 34 GA, 101 GD
• FA Cup: knocked out by Bristol Rovers in the First Round proper, after forcing a replay, 2-2 and 1-3 defeat
• FA Trophy: knocked in the semi-finals by Bromley, 1-1 draw, 4-5 penalties