KieranA91 - Comments

7-0 away to Braga was their worst result, had about 4 5-0 defeats, even more 4-0 defeats! Shocking!

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Speaking of shocking...



Whey! England lift the World Cup of 2014, defeating the previous holders Spain in extra time, thanks to a 115th minute winner from Danny Welbeck.

Cheers Dan, I can't complain with how things are going. 8 games, 4 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses, I'll take it!

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Not an update as such but was going through my inbox and this appeared, quite a staggering image coming up, something I've certainly never seen in FM before!



1 point in 30 games, didn't win a single games all season! Only scored 8 goals while conceding 108, giving them a woeful goal difference of -100! Unbelievable!

After just missing out on the World Cup Playoffs, we had two more friendlies to end 2013. Both home fixtures against Denmark and Finland.



Not a great end to the year. Darren Fletcher came back into the side as captain and was poor in both games, I actually think it upset the rhythm the squad had built. He ultimately decided to retire from international football after the shock defeat to Finland, more of that later...

Scotland vs Denmark


In all honesty I think this was a fair result. Denmark led twice through the game, with Arsenal striker Niklas Bendtner scoring both goals. Robert Snodgrass & Jordan Rhodes got the equalizers for us.

Scotland vs Finland


3-0... And we ****** it up! Horror show really after totally dominating the first 35 minutes of the game. Berra scored again for us from a corner and Blackburn striker Jordan Rhodes continued his impressive run by adding another 2 goals to his international tally before the wheels came off. Finland pulled one back before half time and battered us in the second half, couldn't do anything to resist it. Topped off with a 88th minute winner after a long free kick caused us all sorts of problems.

World Ranking


So we dropped the 3 places in the rankings to 38th in the world, surprised it wasn't more to be honest but happy enough, I feel looking at the teams around us in the rankings we are in about the right spot at the moment, hopefully in 2014 we can push on however.

Was a shame to not see you getting automatic promotion in the end, horror run towards the end but still great achievement making the playoffs in your first season in League 2. Good luck in the playoffs!

FIFA World Cup Qualifying Group 1

So it all comes down to this. 2 more games, one we should win, one we probably won't, but the important thing is what Belgium can do against Croatia. A victory for Belgium will virtually seal my fate as it will then come down to how well we do against Croatia compared to Belgium against Wales. However to at least get it that far we have a small task of defeating Serbia at Hampden Park, marking my first home game as Scotland Manager.

Scotland vs Serbia
Matchday 9

Turned out to be a very heated affair, and one we almost let slip. We started brightly, scoring twice in 2 minutes just after the 10 minute mark, with Steven Fletcher scoring his second in two games and once again James Morrison finding the back of the net. He's been poor for his club as of late and pundits were questioning his inclusion, but I'm sorry, the lad has scored 5 times in 4 games now for me, he's playing! Lekic pulled one back for the Serbs 10 minutes later to take the score to 2-1 at half time. Second half was just as edgy as the first, made even better for us when Charlie Adam picked up a second yellow card, reducing us to 10 men. Serbia took advantage of this and Lekic brought the score level. However we dug deep and substitute Jordan Rhodes scored the winner at the 83 minute mark, giving us a fantastic result, edging us ever closer to sneaking into a playoff spot.

However...

Belgium battered Croatia 4-2 at home, pretty much condemning us to third in the group. What a shame, however we would still give it our all in Croatia, maybe the Welsh could help us out?

Croatia vs Scotland
Matchday 10


Gutted. To be fair it was always going to happen, but conceding in the 89th minute was a bitter pill to swallow, but it was always going to happen. We got dominated for the most part and things didn't help when Grant Hanley received a straight red for a violent tackle. The Belgium/Wales game didn't matter in the end, as we just missed out of the playoffs.

The Table


So there's the final standings, we missed out by just the 3 points but it was a really positive end to the campaign, one in which I wonder what would have been if I can have a full qualifying campaign with the squad. I think we can really look ahead to the Euro 2016 Qualifiers and have a sniff at getting through!

Before all that though will be plenty of friendly fixtures, our first two against Finland and Denmark.

Cheers Dan. Was expecting a slow start if I'm honest with you so pretty delighted with the way things are going so far!

Morrison has been a revelation for us willz. He'd already played 27 times before I took over but only netted once, not sure what I've done differently but he's clearly more suited to the style of play I'm getting the players to play!

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So heading into my second qualifier in charge and with a bit on momentum we could push on and pip Belgium into second place, and hopefully make the playoffs! We traveled to Macedonia to take on the former Yugoslav republic, with expectations of a victory.

The Squad


Only one change from the victory against Belgium, with Alan Hutton replacing Steven Whittaker at right back.

The Match


Was a comfortable victory in the end, made even more so by a brilliant first half. We slowed down in the second half but still created chances. Defence Christophe Berra opened the scoring with a bullet of a header from a corner, before Steven Fletcher scored a majestic lob just after the 30 minute mark. And who else but James Morrison scoring right on the stroke of half time to give us a commanding 3-0 lead. Macedonia pulled one back at the 55 minute mark with the result was never really in doubt.

The Table


So that victory has tied us on points with Belgium for second with 14 points. They have a slightly better goal difference however. The advantage we have is the fact that they also have to play group leaders Croatia, as well as Wales. So providing I can get some sort of result against the Croatians we should feel confident of getting through. We next have Serbia at home with an away trip to Croatia to finish.

World Rankings


Moving in the right direction in terms of world rankings as we jump up to 39th in the World, overtaking nations like Tunisia, Paraguay and Hungary. England are 9th, Republic of Ireland are 56th, Wales 64th and Northern Ireland sit in 105th.

I know George, hoping Jordan Rhodes turns out to be a top international scouts have him as my best striker but yet to see the best out of him yet, though give it time.

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So heading into my first competitive fixture I was quietly confident, despite playing Belgium, who have some top, top quality players. I honestly felt like if we could strike early on like we did against France we would have a real chance in this match. Here's how we lined up.

The Lineup


Made a few changes with Whittaker, Charlie Adam, Robert Snodgrass and Steven Fletcher all coming in. All of those names apart from Charlie Adam have recently returned from injury. We hit a few injury problems as well, and we are still without Darren Fletcher. However we still have some strength on the bench, and hopefully Jordan Rhodes can be somewhat of an impact sub for us.

The Match


Great result, fantastic performance from the squad. We lost the lead twice before getting that elusive winner towards the end of the match. James Morrison has been outstanding in the 2 games I've managed, already netting 3 times, and Graham Dorrans has provided for 2 of these goals, one in each game. Really pleased with this, as it really gives us a sniff at qualifying, with 3 games to go we only trail Belgium by the one goal.

The Table


With us defeating Belgium, I think its safe of say that Croatia have the group all but wrapper up, though we do still have to play them. However with 2 fixtures remaining against teams below us I'm really hoping that maybe we can squeak into the playoffs and who knows from there!

Great start in League 2 Dan, keep it up!

I would use those non-league cups to get your youngsters some game time and experience, could be a blessing in disguise!

Fantastic work mate getting into League football, onwards and upwards!

Thanks Dan, hopefully I can stick to this now all my uni work is finished! World Cup fever has hit me and I wanted to get on board a national side!

Cheers Sean, I've always thought the Scots have looked an interesting team to manage!

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So it was time to get the ball rolling and start life as Scotland manager with a short trip to France. France were expected to record a comfortable victory and I had a few injuries, with no Steven or Darren Fletcher available.

The Squad

So here's what I've gone with, happy enough with the choices available and I really feel that we can give the French a few problems providing we don't go behind early!

The Match

Great result I feel. Ranked 9-2 outsiders we managed to take the lead through a lovely bit of a passing, Graham Dorrans playing a great through ball into James Morrison who made no mistake in slotting the ball home. France had most of the possession but didn't really create any chances until the 66th when a corner saw Arsenal Striker Olivier Giroud slot in a simple finish from 6 yards to level it up. After that it was fairly plain sailing, neither side really creating any chances. I'll certainly take it for a first game and especially without a couple of key players! Should hopefully get the morale up as we head into qualifying against Belgium and Macedonia.

The Challenge
I will be managing Scotland, a country I've never given much though about managing before. The starting goal is to get the nation back into major tournaments, something which hasn't happened since the World Cup in France back in 1998. From there I aim to take the side past the group stages. As of yet in the history of the country, they have never progressed past the first round of a major tournament, something that I hope to change!

The Manager

There's me, I'm actually 23 not 33 but I always like to use 1981 instead of the youngest, may be down to the fact I used to use 1981 when I was too young for things on the internet back in the day!

The Nation

So at the start of the game (July 2013) Scotland are currently ranked 50th in the world, something I will certainly be looking to improve.

Scotland have been as high as 13th in the Rankings back in 2007, and if you go back two years you will see their lowest point in Football, ranking 88th. As mentioned before they have never progressed past the first round in any major tournaments, whether this be the 8 times at the World Cup (last appearance 1998) or the 2 times at the EURO's (last appearance 1996).

They play out of Hampden Park, which holds a little over 52,000 spectators.



The Players

I will show off my first team selection when we play our first game, however there are some decent players within the ranks. Steven Fletcher who of course is a solid striker for Sunderland in the Premier League and Darren Fletcher, a stalwart for Manchester United. At the back there's Alan McGregor and Alan Hutton.

The Fixtures


Nice easy start to life in charge, as we travel to France to play in a friendly before meeting Belgium and Macedonia away in the qualifiers. I'll probably get a friendly after this before we entertain Serbia before finally traveling to Croatia.

World Cup Qualifying Table


This is where we stand. Not mathematically out of it yet but it is very unlikely we will qualify. I don't really want to qualify anyways as I know it won't happen but I'd rather it stay true to real life, just for this tournament before really starting fresh for EURO 2016.

Good luck Dan, not something you see every day starting with the Under 19's, I'm sure you'll uncover some gems to give us some hope in future years!

3 months is good mate, real shame on relegation but I have the utmost confidence that you'll get straight back into League 1

Hope the January transfer mix up doesn't have too much change on your league positioning, doing well so far!

I wish this would happen in real life! Great job winning the Champions League, good to see Sanogo playing well too!

Why Liverpool are paying me £20k a week to not play is beyond me, not that I'd be complaining if this was reality though!

I just use the in-game editor, as well as this file located here (put in the editor data file), which removes the squad registration rules. From FM Base.

http://www.mediafire.com/?0ypfh4820403xw0

Hah thanks Rick, there was no reason for picking them just wanted a mid table team to start with.
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A routine victory in the Capital One Cup over League 2 side York gave us our first player, not that it really is going to make any difference as I doubt anyone in the York setup will be good enough to play for us. The fixture gave me a chance to rest some players with only Yacob and Mulumbu playing from my last game at Arsenal. However injury to veteran Zoltan Gera dampened the victory, though he is on the fringes.



Tom Allan is a young 18 year old centre back who I'll put straight out on loan to play as he won't be anywhere near our standard, in fact his potential may only see him as high as League 1 but I obviously wasn't expecting much here!



Next Game: Everton (A) - Premier League

I know Crane! Just fancied doing something totally off the radar and random to keep me engaged.
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Spirited comeback from the lads, Anelka has been on fire scoring 2 goals in both the opening fixtures, imagine if he kept that run up! A last second equalizer for us meant that no players are exchanged, which is a shame has any player from Arsenal would have helped my squad massively!

Next Game: York (H) - Capital One Cup 2nd Round

Not a good start. Despite being in the lead at 1-0 and 2-1 we fell to a late Fulham winner to lose 3-2, and perhaps more disappointingly lose a player. Now all my players in the starting 11 and subs bench are eligible to be lost, which is out of the following...



I like most of my starting 11 so I'm kinda hoping that I lose a substitute, but we shall see...



So heading over to Fulham is winger Morgan Amalfitano, quite a good player to be losing first up, hopefully I can bounce back with a win and get a good replacement.

Next Game: Arsenal at Home, would love to turn over my club and get a quality player!

My Haelsowen Town save got messed up due to me being stupid and forgetting to save, and I really lost all motivation to play it. So instead I thought I'd go for something completely different and after watch TheFMHub's Win One, Take One videos have been inspired to go for a save like that myself. Here's what is going to happen:

1) I will not make any transfers at the start of the game
2) Every competitive game I play will follow the Win One, Take One rules (Win a game = take a player from their squad using a randomizer - Lose a game = lose a player from my squad - Draw = nothing)
3) I have the squad registration rules removed so players are eligible throughout

That's pretty much the ground rules, so I'm pretty excited to see how this pans out! In the videos he started from scratch and added 1 player from every club, however I will start with the squad I have, be interesting to see which players remain come the end of the season.

The Squad


So this save will be updated probably after every game, first game is against Fulham at Craven Cottage, let's see what happens!

So glad to be finally put out on loan, 1 competitive match in 2 seasons! Hopefully I get some time with Celtic now!

Congratulations on promotion mate, let's hope you can keep them up then build from there!

Headed into November with mixed form and a pile of injuries to key players, so how did we do with a reduced squad and even more injuries!!!


Another average month, topped off by another first round cup exit. Wow we stink in the cups. In the league we had 2 wins, a draw and 2 defeats for an average performance. I don't like to make excuses but injuries are really slowing us down. I honestly believe with a full strength squad we could be in the top 3 at least. However there were some positives, mainly getting Jack McGowan back from injury and scoring twice in the month, including once in a 2-0 victory over Bedworth. I've finally beaten my bogey team! Other top notch performers include wing back Chris Shaw, who after a torrid start to life at Halesowen has comeback with a bang, scoring two goals, and now leading the team in average rating. More bad news struck however, leading scorer Iyseden Christie, after scoring twice in a 3-2 victory over Newcastle Town was injured, ruling him out for a couple of months. This was reflected with other injuries in midfield, leaving me to have 3 youth academy players in my starting lineup in our 1-0 defeat to mid table Coalville. On the bright side however striker Nathan Hodge should be back in December, along with midfielder Jason Hill.

League Table

Despite the average month we remain in 4th position after 15 games, collecting 26 points. We trail leaders Chasetown by just the 3 points. Defensively we are one of the strongest in the league, mainly due to the 5-2-1-2 formation I'm using at the moment I feel, however with my top 3 strikers never fully fit together we are struggling at times to score goals. Hopefully I'll get them all back soon and we can get on a good run and push us right up near the top of the table. Only time will tell!

Next Update: December 2014 - Last month of year, hoping to be right up there!

I'm certainly trying to Dan!
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I decided to play through October as well due to only having 2 fixtures in September, how did my now injury struck side get on?


Well I guess at least I can concentrate in the league now. We started well beating Barwell 2-0 thanks to a Jack McGowan double, however he then got injured, ruling him out for 2 months. This left me with just Christie up front so I had to bring in some under 18 players to fill in, however their inexperience showed and they were clearly not ready to play for the first team. I played Bedworth in another cup competition, this time the FA Trophy, only to lose 2-1. I get the feeling they are my bogey team! This was followed by a shock 2-1 defeat to Coventry Sphinx in the Birmingham Senior Cup, meaning we failed to defend our trophy at the first hurdle. We then returned to winning ways, defeating Loughborough 1-0 before a barren spell of 1 point out of a possible 9 made us fall down the table a little bit. However we made amends with a 1-0 victory at Kidsgrove thanks to another Christie strike, who has tied his goal tally from last season already with 5.

League Table

Despite a dip in form we find ourselves sitting nicely in 4th place, with 19 points out of a possible 30. Romulus continue to lead and have been for virtually the whole season so far. At the bottom Rainworth are the only team in the league who have failed to register a win. Our bogey team Bedworth sit in 13th place.

Next Update: November 2014

Tough few months Dan but I'm sure you'll be fine, what a player McKinnon looks for a 15 year old as well!

About time I got some game time finally!

Cheers Dan, yeah definitely the money boost is perfect, nice to know I got a supportive board!

I know Juke, some were already in the squad as well, relying on their experience to help the younger players through!
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So its time to finally get the season underway, and with a little more expectation and being able to manage the team from the start of the season, how did we get on?



Bad start losing 2-1 away to Stamford. A game in which we controlled for large portions but couldn't seem to convert. However all was not lost as we defeated Carlton 1-0 in our home opener thanks to an early strike from forward Nathan Hodge. Sadly he then tore his calf muscle during the game, ruling him out for 5 months. We then entertained Bedworth in the FA Cup, to perform shockingly and lose 1-0. However we continued to strive on in the league, defeating Chasetown and Retford to finish the month on a high.

League Table

2nd after 4 games, its only the beginning of the season but its a nice position to be in that's for sure. However I started well last season with Guildford before it all fell apart so I won't be counting any chickens just yet!

Top Performers


With the signing of wing back Chris Shaw, Sam Benjamin was meant to be the backup, however Shaw started poorly and the 21 year old got his chance and has shone so far, creating 2 goals and performing very consistently. Jason Hill, another player in the starting 11 due to injuries has also played brilliantly. Next in the list is Iyseden Christie who is joint first in the team with 2 goals and leads the squad with 3 assists, proving early on he can score as well as provide.

So with a decent month finished, hopefully we can continue to push on a solidify a high position in the table in September.

Next Update: September 2014

Decent start to the season, I would assume after the first season performance you will be looking for promotion, even though you surpassed your own expectations!