Number 1 Activity
The nucleus of this project is there, but so far, progress has been slow, not least as I've been too busy to play much FM recently, and indeed have been overtaken by real life events where Brackley are in a play-off for promotion to the National League to...
This has progressed slower than intended as I've just been busy and not had the time to play on. Nevertheless, I have managed to squeak my way through pre-season, and we managed to do this…Mixed bag in fairness. In our games against EFL sides, we did...
In the real life 2021-22 Brackley season, which we are mimicking here, the team made it into the National League North play-offs. Our ambitions as outlined, meanwhile…… are to basically build a team up. As much focus also seems to be on cup runs, whi...
On the outskirts of the small market town on Brackley in Northamptonshire is a world championship winning sports team, in the form of the Mercedes Formula 1 team. Since Mercedes purchased the Brawn GP team in 2009 to return to the F1 grid for t...
Impressed with the ambition to try this challenge, even more impressed that so far it's all going to plan. Keep it up.
Season 2 ended at Wembley, with that game seeing us take Bristol City to the Championship play-off final. Season 3 will also end at the North London stadium, this time in the form of the FA Cup Final against Liverpool. The Reds certainly might be mor...
We have stumbled into the month of May, and the end of our third season as Bristol City manager. Three games remain and contrasting with our pre-season expectations of being certain bottom three finishers, we look on course for a top half spot. Sheff...
April began with a rerun of the last game we had in March. In that month, we'd ended it with a shock win over Manchester United in the FA Cup Quarter Final, while for this version, we travel to Old Trafford. So, could we manage to inflict more shock...
Our cause now entered the month of March, and began with an opponent we had just taken on in the form of Aston Villa. With the Villains still struggling to escape the relegation battle, this could be just cause to get us closer to our goal of staying up.I...
February has rolled around, and we will be doing so with a new face in the fold. January had been a fairly quiet month on the transfer window front, with letting Atkinson go on loan and recalling Pring to stand-in the main thing of note. Antoine Seme...
January began with a test, in the form of a visit to Leicester City - under the tenure of Erik Ten Hag, no less. We were unlucky to lose out to a 90th minute goal when we welcomed them to Ashton Gate, so could this meeting of Foxes and Robins go bett...
A definite sense of delight came from our unexpected victory over Spurs, but it's not as if things were about to get more straightforward. After all, next up was a home match against Chelsea, and it's just as well we had Strahinja Pavlovic and Rieche...
We carry on our push to achieve survival in our first season in the Premier League with a home contest against West Ham United, who we're level on points with in what could demonstrate signs that we're adjusting to the task. Could we get ourselves a...
The late heartache against Leicester in our first game after losing both Bazoer and Pavlovic meant that really, we might have some work to do in order to ensure that we don't fall into these pratfalls again when in contention for vital points. After all,...
Having got ourselves some acclaim in holding out against Liverpool with all their talents, we turned attention to an on-paper more winnable assignment. Next up, we welcomed Lincoln City, very much not in the Premier League, to Ashton Gate. So it woul...
Before our second game of the season and first Premier League encounter at Ashton Gate, some business was conducted. A £3million fee has seen us sign the full-back Josip Juranovic from Celtic, further strengthening our defensive line. Admittedly, he was a...
Season 3 of our run as Bristol City manager represents a very different challenge. After all, the first 2 were defined by our attempts to make it into the Championship play-offs. This, however, is now what comes after making it into that skirmish, as...
The play-offs are here then. That strange post-season skirmish where somebody will end it on the way to the Premier League and all its millions. We have a two-legged affair against Reading, starting with a game at Ashton Gate as we finished 5th so ha...
Time is running out on our second season as Bristol City manager, and with it, our attempt to make it back-to-back top six finishes for the Robins. Four games remain, starting with a trip to play Middlesbrough at the Riverside Stadium…That will do al...
April has arrived and with it the first of our final 8 games to try and secure a place in the play-offs, and hopefully this time succeed after we were dumped out over 2 legs by West Brom last season. We dive straight in with a clash at home to relega...
Into March we go, and there is still plenty to play for as we try our best to lock in that top six finish. Can we do it? We'll see. Will I be happy if we do? Partially. Will I actually show game photos rather than asking rhetorical questions? So firs...
February then. What happened in February? Well, it began with a home game against Preston North End.It was a slow start for a modified team, as although we dominated mid-table Preston and created some excellent chances, we just couldn't get one in th...
January, then. Last season was quite the up and downs on the transfer front, given that 2 key men left in Bentley and Dasilva, with 5 coming in. So what would this one bring? Well first up, we welcomed Cardiff in a Severnside Derby at Ashton Gate.Pre...
In this save game, England won the World Cup. A 2-1 win over Spain in a grand final in Qatar giving the Three Lions a first World Cup in a while, and a euphoria we didn't see in real life. FM's coding alas precludes us from getting evidence of fans engagi...
Despite our injury problems in attack, we did enter October still as top spot of the Championship. Staying there would however be a challenge, given we might not be able to sustain it. The next test as to whether we could manage this would be a trip...
September begins for us with the Carabao Cup, where we made the trip north to face Blackburn Rovers in the tournament's second round after surviving a scare against Notts County in the previous round. So, would we do the business more efficiently thi...
The season had started well for this little project, with Bristol City winning on the opening day with that win over Coventry at Ashton Gate. Now for the challenge of actually keeping such a run going. First of all was a distraction in the form of th...
Our first campaign at Ashton Gate was ultimately a case of so near yet so far. Absolutely a sign we can do well given we managed to get into the play-offs with a squad many expected to be lower midtable at best, but still a kicker that when we got to that...
The play-offs then. That unusual skirmish that pits 3rd-6th in the Championship one another for the chance to become Premier League whipping boys (at least that's how some more cynical types see it). This one has slight contrasts. West Brom and Sheff...
Just three games left of the season and our push to get ourselves a spot in the play-off picture. Unfortunately, for drama purposes, we don't have a big decisive summit against Barnsley and Millwall, with our final assignments being against teams wit...
Thanks for commenting and yeah. Not long until we find out if we make it.
As the end of the season gets closer and closer, we have a small handful of games remaining for us to secure our place in the Championship play-offs. April will be a super busy month, with one match at the start of May to wrap the season up, and it l...
We're heading into the business end of the season now and March is upon us. 4 games loom in the month, including a big one at Barnsley, and 4 steps closer to seeing whether or not we qualify for a place in the Championship play-offs. First up in this...
Following the manic scramble of January, we had something of a quiet opening to February, with our trip to Blackpool deferred by 2 and a half weeks. The first taste of our amended squad would see us take on Reading at Ashton Gate, with the Royals tru...
January has arrived, and this all got a bit wilder than I expected. But before things got particularly busy, there was some football, with our first test being a home tie against fellow play-off chasers Millwall. Would we start 2022 the right way?… Y...
December has arrived and with 5 games, it's another busy month in the world of the Championship, albeit perhaps not as busy as some Decembers can be prone to be. Nevertheless, we have an array of challenges coming along as we seek to try and force ou...
We arrived in November on the back of four games without a win and having slipped out of the play-off places as a consequence. While it's not a deal-breaker given our ambition topped out pre-season at just getting a top half finish, I'd like to give it a...
October has arrived, and with it the chance to try and push on with a mix of games coming up, with early strugglers and strivers both coming across our path. First up was a trip to Peterborough, who would be bottom if not for Derby and their 21 point...
August and our introduction to this Bristol City project was broadly a success, but the challenge now if we are to get to the PL is to carry on in such a vein. With that in mind, we have September, although with a delayed start as after the ludicrous...
With a pair of late winners to win 2-1 in our opening two games as Bristol City manager, we now made progress to try and turn such a promising opening into something more tangible. First up for this, a trip to Middlesbrough in our first league away g...
The pre-season is done and dusted, and ahead of opening the season with a visit of Blackpool, this is how we performed in our friendly runs…After the classic “new squad so first XI v reserves”, we played a trio of games in Spain, including a somewhat surp...
Our first season has these ambitions before us…This certainly feels more modest - the ambition is to challenge for the play-offs a few seasons down the line. I certainly like the idea of trying to challenge for play-off places straight out of the gate, an...
There was a while on Football Manager when Bristol City, by hook or by crook, seemed to find a way into the Premier League. In the FM08-FM13 sequence, the side from Ashton Gate seemed to often end up succeeding in game where their real life equivalen...
So… that World Cup eh? Sure was an interesting one.
Season 4 is upon us as we begin a second season in the Premier League. Aspirations can only be really to make it to another one as we still largely have a Champ/L1 squad that we managed to get to 14th. To that end, new signings were targeted and have...
Think I'm just lucky. I know 4-2-3-1 Gegenpress, which has been my usual formation, is seen as overpowered on FM22 but equally I could easily try that every game and get mullered. This was almost like an Allardyce-like arrangement - win all the six pointe...
With our Premier League survival secured, there's an argument the pressure is off for our final 3 games of season 3 as Ipswich Town boss. That might well be the case, particularly as we are several points clear of the teams below and a similar amount...
The time has come for one more push, where a few more positive results should confirm us safe even before May starts. Which, given we were forecast to finish last and by wages should be last a long way, is a magnificent achievement. A few big games a...