British Steel - Now with added steel!

I've had a few meagre attempts at FM14 this year which have resulted in stories that have failed to really get off the ground, this time around I have waited a while before beginning a thread to ensure I continue to enjoy the save beyond the first few weeks, which I am, so lets get down to business shall we?

British Steel - With Extra Welshy Goodness!

Yes the premise for this story is simple, I shall be attempting the British steel challenge, but with an added twist; I have always disliked how Wales only has one playable level which made many see it as a cop out starting in the country, I have rectified this by activating the second tier, which for those of you who don't know is split North/South by two divisions; The Cymru Alliance in the north and the Welsh football league in the South. the champions of each are promoted to the Welsh premier league.

I'm fairly sure when I first set-up the British steel challenge four years ago I stipulated that editor data would not be allowed, and thus I realise this will not count towards the leader board now run by DanW19 which I don't particularly care about as this is a personal conquest.
I'm sure most of you are familiar with the British Steel challenge by now as there are many career threads dedicated to it throughout these board, although to my knowledge only one person has ever finished it. The challenge is simple in theory, starting with a Sunday league reputation you must begin in the lowest division of one of the home nations and gradually make your way around the isles using only British and Irish players, collecting every playable trophy over the course of a single career. Here's the list, with the Welsh first division added;

England
Fa Trophy, Blue Square North/South, Blue Square Premiership, Johnson's Paint trophy, nPower League Two, nPower League One, nPower Championship, League Cup, Community Shield, FA Cup, Premiership
Scotland
Challenge Cup, Division 3, Division 2, Division 1, League Cup, FA Cup, Premier League
Ireland
Munster Senior cup, Division 1, League cup, Senior Challenge Cup, Premiership
Northern Ireland
Mid-Ulster Cup, Steel & Son's cup, Interim cup, County Antrim Shield, Division two, First division, League Cup, FA cup, Setanta Cup, Premiership
Wales
League Cup, FAW cup, Premiership, First Division/Cymru Alliance

So beginning in Wales I now set upon an epic adventure around the British Isles in order to become only second person to complete this most challenging of gauntlets, and if I finish it, I'll actually have won one more than the great Gendo did last year

I already knew what club I wanted to begin my glorious career with before I started, using a little hocus pocus on the editor I swapped the lowest ranked team in the Cymru Alliance (Llanrhaeadr) for Barmouth & Dyffryn United who were one division below in the Mid-Wales league. I didn't do anything to the finances or reputation of Barmouth and as such they are by far the smallest and probably poorest club in the division which means it will be a challenge to get them into the Premiership, but one I am relishing.

I chose Barmouth because my family owns a small hotel there and we used to go every year at least once, I have many wonderful memories of the place. It's located in Cardigan Bay, Gwynedd, surrounded by the steep fells of Snowdonia national park and overlooking the meeting of the river Mawdacch and the sea. It is famous for it's 900 yard long bridge that carries both pedestrians and trains across the estuary.


The football club dates all the way back to 1863, although in those 150 years it has never played top flight football, something I intend to rectify. As I said, I did no editing to the club itself aside from trivial stuff such as adding correct kits and setting rival clubs, so we start out with no players or staff at all (I checked the option to prevent the game from filling the side with regens so I will get to build a squad entirely of my own making)


Club Profile


The ground is set in a scenic location;

Its also surely the only ground with it's own pirate ship!

OK, now you know the background of the club, let me catch you up on where we are at the moment, I'm currently three months into my first season with Barmouth, but before we go into results and such let's first take a look at the squad of players I (rather hastily) assembled;

I tried to stay true to Wales and hire a predominantly Welsh team, all of which are on amateur contracts so there are no monthly wage bills, the downside to that however is that other teams can poach my players without any compensation being due to us.
I'm happy with the players I managed to bring in, they should be capable of helping us avoid relegation back to the Mid-Wales league, strengthening will probably be needed when we begin to look above rather than below but for now I'm happy.
You will notice target man Tinashe Mutanha is Zimbabwean which goes against the British and Irish only rule, he does however have Welsh citizenship and has never appeared for his native Zimbabwe, the making him legal for the challenge.


Pre-season went well with four wins and one defeat, collecting the South Snowdonian cup in the process, beating neighbours Tywyn in the final. The one dark spot was a heavy defeat at the hands of Blaenau Ffestiniog, a small town at the foot of Mount Snowdon who we really out to have beaten comfortably, let alone get mauled 5-0.


Despite that rather worrying defeat, the squad gelled almost seamlessly as we have begun the campaign magnificently for a newly promoted team;

Just one reverse in ten league games, What more can a newly promoted side ask for? at this early stage we're sitting pretty at the top of the Huws Grey Alliance;

Can we stay there? tough question, we're on fire at the moment however we have no reserves or youth players so any injury crisis would cripple us, we've looked far from invincible throughout most of the games, winning most by the odd goal and often having to come from behind, so I'm not going to get too excited yet, although I firmly believe we should finish in the top half of the table after seeing what my side is capable of so far.
My players are topping the performance charts as well as the table;


I largely attribute our unexpected success to my tactics, I have tried to keep things solid in defence and have the big target man Mutanha as a constant outlet for long balls which he knocks down for his striking partner Dwayne Mardenborough, a system that has so far paid dividends.

Simple and direct tactics with a slow tempo are almost always the best way to go in such a poor quality division, simply put we don't have good enough players to play fast paced sexy football, so old school kick em' off the field play is the way we will go.

The only problem at the moment is our finances, when I took charge there was £5k in the bank, now we're £17k in the red despite being a completley amateur club with the situation projected to deteriorate. It's a shame we fell at the first hurdle in the FAW cup as we could have done with a cup run to boost our bank balance.

Good luck Rick! This challenge is an absolute beast even without adding the extra leagues! Will be looking forward to see how you get on.

Good luck mate, you always seem to have so much detail in your stories so I'll be looking out for this!

Yeah, I'm a glutton for punishment.

Thanks mate.
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One win, one draw and one defeat this month which keeps us top although the jury is still out as to whether we are genuine title contenders or just temporarily punching above our weight.

We didn't deserve anything from this one, Caersws were pretty dominant throughout most of the game, we had the odd chance to steal an undeserved point but Caersws deserved their win.

A better performance as Mutanha netted his tenth goal of the season to keep us top of the Cymru Alliance on goal difference and still unbeaten at home in the league this season.

It was a top v bottom clash here, in pre-season most would have predicted Holyhead would have been the side occupying pole position, however we were unable to finish off Spurs after taking the lead from the penalty spot. we were nearly punished as the away side battled back to take the lead. Thankfully we got back on terms before beginning a relentless assault on the Spurs box, but try as we might we just couldn't find a way through.

I've noticed despite both of my strikers being quite big we are not getting many goals from headers so I am trying to tweak my system to compensate for this, having my wingers drill their crosses instead of floating them should help reduce the amount of wasted balls into the box.

Good luck with this Rick, will be following.

Really interested in the start of this Rick, hopefully its one of your good careers that lasts seasons

Look forward to the progress!

Thanks lads.
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A disappointing month which saw us pick up just a solitary point from our three games, causing us to slide down the table even more gutting was losing 3-1 to arch-rivals Porthmadog in my first ever meeting with them.

Flint are one of the main promotion favourites so there isn't any shame in this defeat, never the less it was still disappointing to drop off the top.

So gutting! Porthmadog are our fiercest rivals and to chuck away the lead so quickly was utterly infuriating. we put up a fight late on but Porth, who were a Premier League team until the league restructuring a few year back were too strong or us, much to the fans who had travelled up the coast disappointment.

Another gut wrenching result, I had told the team to shut up shop in the final few minutes which backfired as Penycae levelled in the last minute.

I had of course expected us to slide eventually, however it is still a shame to drop down whether we had overachieved previously or not, I think the hard work begins in earnest now. I seriously doubt we will be title contenders throughout the rest of the season, my priority is to prevent a major decline and slide down the table, being sucked into a relegation scrap would be harsh after all the hard work we put in during the first half of the season. I would be happy with a nice comfortable mid table finish in this first season with the club and build from that in 2014/15.

Things are going from bad to worse as our win-less run now stretches to seven games, we haven't walked ff the field victorious since mid-November as our season seems to be collapsing around us. I can't help but look beneath us to the relegation zone, only eight points separate us from the bottom three, and two of those teams have beaten us recently. Worrying times in Cardigan Bay right now.

Any thoughts of the title have now gone, my priority now has to be to stop the rot and steady the ship to prevent us sliding closer to danger. I just can't beleive how much we have regressed since our fantastic form that saw us top of the table in November.

To help try and sure things up defensively I have brought in a new face;

Ryan makes the swap from Welsh league side Goytre United, hopefully he will be able to plug a hole in my leaky defence.


A comprehensive defeat to a side who are only just above the relegation zone, we were dismal throughout and the 4-1 scoreline wasn't at all harsh on us, in fact it could have easily been more humiliating if not for some decent goalkeeping by 17 year old Carl Flynn who was let down badly by poor abysmal defending.

Knowing that we are prone to conceding early on I decided to park the bus early on in this away trip to Ceredigion and try to ride out any early pressure before gradually becoming more expansive, the home side however found a way through our back line (not exactly difficult at the moment) after less than ten minutes which put paid to my game plan. To be fair to my players they did have a go in this one and deserved at least a draw as all the possession and shots stats were equal to Penrhyncoch, however lady luck was once again nowhere to be seen as our poor run extended to six games.

If lady luck was merely deaf to us in the previous game, she must have been in a coma in this one. Tinashe had scored to surely win us a much needed point which would at least end our losing streak, however in the cruellest manner Llanidloes striker Jon Owens condemned us with virtually the last kick of the game, in doing so ending our undefeated home record for the season. a very bitter pill to swallow.

I'm considering switching to 4-5-1 as we seem to be getting overrun in midfield by sides utilising wing backs, a seemingly popular system here in Wales, an extra midfielder who can drop deeper would add some backbone as he can help protect the back four, however losing a striker would further depleat our attack who are struggling to find the net at the moment as it is, Dwayne Mardenborough hasn't scored since the game against Holyhead at the end of November, Tinashe Mutaunha has thirteen strikes to his name thus far but seems to be finding them harder to come by since we entered the second half f the season.

Good luck mate, I'm loving the wee graphic headers!

The changing header is good each time, keep it coming, the presentation is great even if the results aren't just yet!

Cheers lads, yeah I'm quite enjoying doing the headers, I got inspired by an article I read about the ever changing Google illustrations and thought I'd try and incorperate something similar into this story.
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Just the two games this month, although both failed to bring us the win we so desperately need;

I changed to 4-5-1 to counter the midfield diamond that Guilsfield lined up with, which proved largely effective as we prevented the opposition from making any great progress in our half of the pitch which made a nice change after recent performances. we offered precious little going forward ourselves though, making this one a drab affair, at least it ended our three game losing streak.

Heartbreaking. That's all that I can say about this one, storming into a 3-1 half time lead before capitulating in the most devastating fashion. My defence just couldn't get to grips with Cefn winger Andy Davies who ran amok throughout. We did pull it back to 4-4 and then shut up shop, content to settle for a point, however an 86th minute winner for the former Premiership team meant that we left Denbighshire with nothing, denied our first win since mid-November which at half time almost seemed in the bag.

Our win-less run continues, and so does our decline in league standing;

Just six points between us and the drop zone now, With nine games to go I'm just looking to ride out the storm and finish the season above the line. Amazing to think that just a couple of months ago we still had title aspirations following our plucky start after promotion. It seems we were just punching above our weight in that run now however.

Four points! four points that could be precious with just six games remaining this season as we are exactly that number of points above the danger zone, just a couple of wins in those remaining fixtures should be enough to guarantee survival and give us something to build on in 2014/15.

A great result that brought great relief around Wern Mynach as our win-less run came to an end. There were a few groans when Rhydymwyn took an early lead, however we stepped up and battled back to an important victory.

I had hoped that the Rhydymwyn result would spur us on to victory in this one against relegation threatened Conwy, however we found ourselves pegged back the Musselmen for most of the game. Simply put this was a game we should of got a much better result in considering our respective league positions, especially after gaining a bit of momentum in the previous game. colour me annoyed.

If we had managed to keep all of the team on the field I genuinely feel we would have had another win in this one as we looked rather dangerous and created several good chances whilst keeping Buckley at bay at the other end. unfortunately ill discipline from midfielder Mike Salmoni who elbowed an opponent in the face midway through the second half meaning we had to switch to a defensive mentality to see out the game, full back Martyn Beattie also saw red in the last minute but we clung on to claim a point.

We've moved up a couple of places since last month following the four points we collected in March, the table is still ludicrously tight however, with even second placed Penrhyncoch could still be relegated as just eleven points separate second from fourteenth!

Massive ask to get anywhere now, shame your form slipped away so heavily!

The penultimate month in the Cymru Alliance finished with our survival still not 100% assured, although I am fairly confident we have done just about enough to to guarantee another crack at the division next season as we are six points clear with just three games remaining.

A bit of a drubbing in front of our own supporters, I've prided myself on our home record this season with only one previous defeat at Wern Mynach so this was a bit of a kick in the teeth. I made my feelings clear to the players afterwards.

A switch to a new formation mid-way through the second half paid off instantly as we scored twice in three minutes. dropped two of my five midfielders back in holding roles and advanced the other three to make a 4-2-3-1, providing extra cover at the back as well as increasing our fire power up front which immediately bore fruit as Mutanha belted us ahead before Gary Wallwork scored a second shortly after to give us an important three points.

A tough defeat to take as we put in a good shift against second placed Caernarfon as we showed a good deal of fight in attempting to battle back, even if it didn't eventually happen for us, a disallowed goal in the 82nd minute really could of changed things but Matthew Tannetta was adjudged to be offside. Tinashe Mutanha's 19th goal of the season takes him joint top of the scoring charts, the club also climbs two places following the win over Llundudno.

The 2013/14 Cymru Alliance season has reached it's conclusion with us surviving to fight another day in the second tier of Welsh football after taking four points in the last thee games to finish a respectable position, which if you had offered me back in August when we were freshly promoted I would have taken gratefully.

Our future at this level looked far from assured after this drubbing by already relegated Holyhead, leaving us perched precariously above the drop zone Holyhead supporters must have been just as frustrated with their team as ours were with mine, only producing this sort of display when it was too late. Still this was an utterly unacceptable showing where my blundering defence once again showcased it's frailties, specifically dealing with anybody who possesses some pace, this is something I'm going to be looking to correct in the transfer market this summer.

How's that for inconsistency for you? from getting hammered by the leagues bottom side, to beating the champions-elect. The win ensured our survival and both sides could celebrate a successful season, although it wasn't quite over yet...

This Gwynedd derby proved to be a bit of an epic as we recovered from going a goal down early on to storm into a half time lead as two youth players shared all three of our strikes between them, both Stephen Blower and Neil Carroll could feature more regularly next season as I look to rejuvenate my squad. Unfortunately our arch-rivals managed to party-poop what would have been a great curtain call for our season by snatching a late equaliser.

I know being a newly promoted side with no money or even players to begin with I should be happy with eleventh, but after the fantastic start we made I can't help but feel a little disapointed not to have at least finished in the top half of the table. Still, There's always next year!

In other news, my first batch of young players has come through in addition to the promsing youngsters I have procured throughout the campaign;

There should be a few there who can progress to the first team, I'll give them a try in pre-season and see how it goes.

Looks like a few good players could come from that intake buddy! Shame you finished in the bottom half but then again it was expected, the only thing that dampens the season is how well you began it!

The summer has brought about much change on the sandy shores of Cardigan Bay as the transfer merry-go-round went full circle with no fewer than thirteen members of my squad being lured away (so far!) which meant I have had to completely rebuild ahead of the coming 2014/15 season such is the nature of the beast when all of your players are only under verbal contracts.

Some of the deserters...oh sorry, departures; I'm more disappointed about than others, some of course I would have shipped anyway but Matthew Tannetta, Gareth Wallwork, Mike Salmoni and Gafyn Lloyd-Jones were all important players, the latter two heading to divisional rivals just adds insult to injury.

To fill the gaping holes in my side I've promoted the most promising of my young prospects as well as brought in a few experienced lads to create a nice blend;

Is that squad strong enough? I think we can at least equal last season's eleventh place finish but further improvement may be required to advance into the upper half of the table.

The friendlies didn't go as well as planned;

We did manage to retain the South Snowdonian cup, beating Machynlleth comfortably however losing to three sides who are all a division beneath ourselves wasn't encouraging.

We are predicted to again narrowly survive this season;

Coming up from the third tier are Gresford and Llandudno Junction and dropping down from the Premier League are Connah's Quay and Newtown, both of whom are tipped to make a strong challenge for an immediate return to top-flight.

Time to get going again!

Congrats on avoiding the drop, even if you're disappointed in finishing in the bottom half. Good luck this season pal.

Squad looks good this season buddy!

Apologies dear readers for my lack of updates to this career, rest assured I have not abandoned my attempt to conquer the British isles but have mereley been victim of poor management at work which has meant me having to do a sixty-six hour week, in fact I write this whilst preparing to leave for another day at the grind. Naturally after all that I havn't had much time to update this thread or even play FM that much. I have however completed a couple of months of the 2014/14 season;

As you can see it was a pretty slow start in August, an absolute hammering from Penrhyncoch was a major blow to moral, however we have shown signs of recovery, not least in beating title favourites Newtown 5-3. Tinashe Muntanha continues to be a beast up front for us after netting five, Joe Price who plays on the left wing has also slotted in seamlessly after his summer arrival by also contributing five.

I hope to get back to more frequant updates next week, so keep reading!

I went through all this just to look at the different post title pics you've made, im very impressed.

Good luck this season

Tough start to the season Rick, pick it up now!

I've finally had some time to re-immerse myself in this save and finish off the season in the Cymru Alliance;

Final Position: 13th
FAW Cup: 3rd Round


Pre-Season Expectations: To beat the drop again and try to improve on last seasons eleventh place.

Highlights: Beating recently relegated Newtown in an epic 5-3 win near the start of the campaign was the stand out result of an otherwise unremarkable campaign, Seeing Porthmadog relegated was pretty sweet though.

Lowlights: Getting thumped by arch-rivals Porthmadog 6-1 at home in the cup was a dark day for the club, as was the 4-1 Porth dished out in the league later on. The 6-1 to Penrhynchoch in only the second game of the season was also a major blow to moral.

Key Players: Tinashe Mutanaha was top goalscorer in the division for the second year running, Without the Zimbabwean we would be back in the third tier, simple as that. winger Joe Price was also impressive following his arrival from Conwy in the summer, scoring 11 goals and creating a further 12 in 27 games.


Most Improved Player: Goalkeeper Carl Flynn played every minute of the league campaign and was pretty consistent throughout, he could have done with some quicker defenders in front of him as he was all to often let down by players being allowed in one-on-one.


Next Season Holds: In all likelihood more of the same. Until the club can step up t semi-pro level and start protecting it's best players with contracts I can see no future beyond a perennial battle for survival. It is so frustrating to have to build almost an entirely new squad every year.

A tough season it seems, but you overcome the fear of relegation bud top work

Time for a move of clubs if you ask me!