DoyleeUK - Comments

Ah I see mate, yeah I did really well with Wick, finished top of the Highland league in my first season. Just finished my second season with them, finishing 6th in the Ladbrokes League 1. Very enjoyable I have to say.

Congratulations on the promotion mate, and another win in the FA Trophy - happy days. Some club improvements too which is great and of course the professional status. Overspending by 10k a week doesn't sound too good haha, but I'm sure you'll be able to sort that out at the end of your first season in League 2. It's funny recognizing a few players here and there on your team, Rugare Musendo has been a midfielder who always pops up on my saves, good player. Also Josh Street, did he used to play for Eastbourne Borough by any chance? Connor Dymond, another solid player who has done well for me in the past

Good luck for the season ahead, my predictions are mid table around 14th-12th place.

Wow! That semi-final game over the two legs looked amazing haha! That's what football manager is about - moments like that! Shame about the final but its still great progression and good income. Should be able to tie up some even better players in the new season and finally push for the promotion. Great stuff mate.

Another great season mate, baring in mind you are overachieving! Best of luck in the playoffs - you can do it!

Halfway through my first season playing as Wick Academy in the Highland League, enjoying it very much. I take it the prize money after each league game is to keep finances level right and not an exact replica of what happens in real life?

Looks like its going to a be a final push for that top spot towards the end of the season! Hard luck in the Trophy, never done very well in that cup myself to be honest. A nice run in the FA Cup which will of boosted your bank balance as well - happy days mate, keep it going.

Gonna give this a try. Will leave some feedback once I've completed a couple of seasons.

Unfortunately I've run into a couple of bugs with this save game so I'm gonna have to stop it from here on. I will be doing another one in the future though when a more stable lower league database comes out.

Wow! What a save so far, looks like you're doing a great job mate - keep it going!

Some feedback after my first season managing Alftanes in the Fourth Division Group A:

I would say that there is far too much prize money. I'm currently sitting on just over £1,000,000 due to a good run in the Icelandic Cup. This is an ludicrous amount for an amateur club! Other than that the editor data file is pretty good. Looking through most of the clubs in the leagues it seems like amateur clubs dominate the leagues up until the first division, where there is some semi-professional teams. The premier division consists of mostly semi-pro teams, one amateur club and a couple professional clubs. Now I'm not sure how things will pan out but if my board won't let me become a semi-pro club, I can see several seasons of amateur football getting quite tedious and boring, but all in all a solid file and much fun to be had!

One question I have: Do amateur clubs dominate most of the Icelandic football leagues in real life?

If you can do some more research on the finances side of things you could make this file a real gem - great work!

Here you are @Dan: http://www.fmscout.com/a-fm17-database-england-lower-leagues-to-level-22.html#comments

I tried using it in an online save with my friend and he had some crashes every time he clicked on his reserve team, however, offline seems to be working fine. There is a few things missing like U23 and U18 leagues in the lower levels, so I'm having to organise friendlies instead but once we get to Vanarama N/S I should be entered into the lower U23 and U18 league.

Thanks @Dan! I too love the lower league. I've been managing lower league teams on FM now for about 6 years.

On another note, I just did some research about the club. If you notice on the clubs badge it has some latin writing: 'ex cinis cineris nos orior oriri ortus'. Which means 'from the ashes we rise'. The clubs clubhouse burnt down in a tragic fire a few years back so they created this new badge. Who knows, maybe we will rise from the ashes again.

Thanks @r96Skinner! It was a great season, but I was gifted with some fairly talented players. I can tell you now that the next season is going to be a lot tougher, as I've lost a lot of my good players from last season, and I am struggling to find sufficient replacements.

End of Season Conclusion:

In conclusion, a very productive and successful season. Performing exceptioanlly in the league and also in some of the cups, bringing home some silverware while we were at it. Club finances are looking great and I am enjoying life at the club greatly! In terms of next season, I'm expecting much more of a challenge in the league and I think I am going to struggle to hold on to some of our most 'loyal' players. I think a top half finish is definatley on the cards though, maybe even a playoff spot. I would also like a better cup run in the FA Vase.

Cups:

This season we were involved in some very interesting cup games and competitions.

Firstly, the FA Vase - the FA Cup of non league! We didn't do great in the FA Vase this season but we did beat our expectation by getting to the second qualifying round and losing out to Fakenham Town, receiving a little bit of prize money which will come in handy some day. In the Mid Sussex Senior Cup, we very unfortunately got beaten by cup-setters Copthorne in the 3rd round. The board weren't very pleased with this as we were supposed to get to at least the semi-final! However, we did have some success in the Division 2 Challenge Cup and also the Sussex Intermediate cup were we got to the final in both competitions, were we inevitably lifted both trophies to bring home some silverware and some very tasty prize money!

The League:

We absolutely smashed the league in our first season in management which was extremely pleasing and is great for board confidence! Only losing 2 games all season we won the league by a mighty 12 point lead and secured promotion to the league above. Signing players only on amateur contracts was tough as loads of them came and went as they pleased, but we managed to find around 11 players that were loyal enough to stay the whole season. These 11 lads were brilliant for us and probably too good for the league - lets hope we can manage to keep them around for next season.

Introduction:
Hello and welcome to my first managerial career on 'sortitoutsi'. Please be kind.

First of all I loaded a database with all the lowest leagues in Scotland, Wales, Ireland, N.Ireland and finally England (going down to level 11 of the football pyramid). I started out as an unemployed manager with the most basic managerial coaching stats and basic past playing experience, jumping straight into the world of football, not knowing where I might end up. I applied for a ton of jobs but the ones that caught my eye was Westfield FC, a team not far from where I live, so I didn't hesitate to take the job.



Upon arrival at the club there was plenty of work that needed to be done and with a budget of nothing, this was going to be hard work. But without further ado we pressed on.