62 replies to this topic

[nielsneutron]

So I will try another Wales story. This time I got an custom database which expand Wales down to level 4. You can see the update here: http://community.sig...additional-Cups I have done nothing too it myself but I guess you have to trust me on that. It is made by the FM Wales Head Researcher so I guess it will be as good as it gets.

I have taken over the team with the easily pronouncable name CPD Penrhyndeudraeth FC as the unknown Danish manager Bent Nielsen. Penr (my own nickname for the club but it is nicknamed Cockle Town in game) play in Welsh Alliance League Second Division in level 4. If you want a more complete story on the league format in wales check wikipedia http://en.wikipedia....l_league_system but I will give a short summary. We have the top division Corbett Sports Welsh Premier league with 12 clubs which feature a league split after two matches against each team. Then the 6 teams in each pool play each other twice again. In the lower leagues the division have normal rules, each team play each other twice. In the second tier we have two leagues (South: Welsh Football Division 1 and North: Cymru Alliance). In the South the next two levels also only have one league covering the whole region, Welsh Football Division 2 and 3. But in the North the region is shared by 3 leagues in level 3 and 4. Welsh National League (Wrexham Area), Mid Wales Football League Division and Welsh Alliance League.

So this will be a story about the amateur club CPD Penrhyndeudraeth FC from Caernarfon http://maps.google.d...n&gl=dk&t=m&z=8 . This means that players have no wages but can be poached any second as well. I will try and limit my signings but I have a decent squad size. The stadium is huge (375) and all facilites are either basic or minimal but the field condition is good (that is about to change for sure).. I tried to get a parent club but the board could not find any.




As for transfer I have only signed 6 players but quality over quantity. My squad already had a decent size and hope that I can sign better players as the season progresses. (My scout and entire backstaff is of course rubbish but so are the players). I will show my three best players from the friendlies.






What I learned is that my assistent manager can't be used to select a squad as he just picks the squad at random disregarding any logic. We can agree on the striker but nothing else. He really wants my wingers as fullbacks, a defender as a midfielder and the fullbacks as central defenders...

So my goal for the first season is to survive in the league, keep signing better players and get them bonded for the next season. Until I reach the top tier I will keep signing only Welsh players (backstaff not counted as I have signed a Nigerian coach although he did play a season in the Welsh club Barry in 2002-3.). After that I sign as many foreigners needed to completely dominate Wales and perhaps some success in Europe. If I have any passion for the story after that I will try to get only Welsh players and take over the national team as well.

I have loaded the Welsh league, and the French, German, English, Spanish and Italian top tier on view only.

So the league I guess you all know the popular Welsh Alliance League Second Division but I will just sum up. There are 13 teams and Penr is predicted to finish 8^th. There are two relegation spots and 1 direct promotion slot and the next four will enter a playoff for a single promotion slot to the even more famous Welsh Alliance League Premier Division but I am getting ahead of myself.

If you managed to read all my babble, then congrats. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. The tactics and first half of the season will be next update. Until then...

[Declan Byrnes]

Really good luck with this mate, it could be tough at times but I have a feeling that this could be a brilliant story!

[jonathancarver]

Looks like a tough challenge!! Good Luck!!

[Darren Smith]

Well there's a challenge and then there's a freakin impossible challenge, I think this is the latter. Good luck.

[nielsneutron]

First goal is to survive the league. So far im last after 8 matches and have only gathered 6 points. I hope my new tactics will improve this eventually.

[Archie]

You don't make it easy for yourself mate, good luck.I dont have a clue how to pronounce their name but I see their nickname is 'Cockle Town' so I'll just call them that.

[NUFCdan]

It is going to be tough! good lcuk this would make a really good story!

[vaibhavc]

This will be really tough, good luck!

[nielsneutron]

So I had already given up on this story before it started. I mean I knew this would be an almost impossible challenge but I had expected to dominate Wales from the start. As you will see that did not happen. It was the Nordic Challenge story that inspired my to continue.

I almost wanted to skip the mid-season update due to our poor position. Penr is dead last but if you look at the table and analyse my matches you see some clear trends. First of all the league is extremely close. I mean 8 points between top and bottom after 12 matches. I have not seen anything like that before.



We had a little more success in one of the cups. Penr entered two cups, the North Wales Coast FA Cup (a regional cup) and the national sort of non-league cup called the FAW Welsh Trophy. (The cup for the European spots seems to be for team in the top and second tier).

Also the team seems to draw a lot. Further analysis shows that if football matches had only been 80 minutes 3 of the 5 draws in total would have been wins. I attribute that to the fact that I had my preseason high fitness training last until 8 matches into the season by mistake. They simply tired out (and still lack match practise and fitness but that might have something to do with our amateur status). We also concede to many goals from corners so I hope the set pieces guide by Johnny can help my out there.

Lastly I signed a lot of players and constantly made small changes to my tactics and in previous FM's that did not seem to affect the team much (or I was better at handling it). This time around it seems that players need more time to find each other on the pitch and I guess that is more realistic.

In the FAW Welsh Trophy we faced Pencader in a very boring match which ended 0-1. Pencader does not play in a playable league (even with my update so that is below tier 5) and they have all grayed out players. However comparing their players with ours they are actually equal in strength so the loss was ok. Our goalkeeper could not catch the ball and they scored on the rebound. Silly mistake but my goalkeeper was my weakest point until I signed Liam Shanaham which is miles better when you look at the stats at least. He still haven't impressed me much.

In the North Wales Coast FA Cup we have managed to get to the 4th round. Now we face Colwyn Bay a team that plays in England in the Blue Square Bet North.My assistent says that I should focus on defensive positioning and I must admit that I don't have many hopes for that match. The have two non-grey players and one of them is Frank Sinclair. Lets compare him with my assistent choice for the DR position.



Slight difference in quality

If you look at my player ratings some are actually doing great! 4 players with our 7 in average rating and my striker Richard Evans has banged in 4 goals in 6 matches making him 4th most scoring in the division. My assistent rates him as my best player and with his performances so far I agree for once!. I also wanted to show my new goalkeeper Liam Shanagan. I have signed him in previous FM's and he has been excellent so my expectations are high.



'
Note Evans great finishing and stamina! Shanagan also has great handling and kicking...

So can we change things around? Will the challenge end before it has even started? Will Liam Shanagan keep a clean sheet and will Richard Evans continue his scoring spree? Will the next update come any faster? Will I get any good christmas presents?

Who knows? Until next time.

[NUFCdan]

Firstly unlucky at being bottom of the leauge, however a few wins and you could be up there! Its looking very very tight

[Archie]

Tough start mate, but there is still a long way to go. A bit more luck and you'll be rising up the table no problems. Just keep going and you'll soon be getting the results.

[Darren Smith]

Very difficult start indeed, always tough to settle at this level. But I'm sure the next set of results will be an improvement.

[kevin]

Oh man, I'm glad this is not my challenge. Really tough but all the best in raising the level at Cpd Penrhyndeudraeth!

[royman]

It's looking tough but you can get out of there with a couple of wins. You can do it .

[syemo]

I know just how frustrating it can be, but you should be able to turn it around. The league looks tight and anything can happen with just a win. Im glad that you got some inspiration from my Nordic adventure, thats a challenge i think have i bitten more than i can chew but time will tell. But this on the other hand is mammoth i've only tried Wales once and couldn't really get into the save. So i commend you on how much you've done so far.

[nielsneutron]

Thanks for all the support. I know I have not answered you but I have read your comments and I do enjoy them.

I will try and be better and give you the feedback you all deserve.

Know back to the game. You all seemed to believe that it just a matter of time before Cpd Penrhyndeudraeth would crawl up the ladder and nobody thought that relegation was a possibility. You will see what happen a bit further down.

First lets answer me open questions.

So can we change things around? Indeed
Will the challenge end before it has even started? No ( so you know we survived the league)
Will Liam Shanagan keep a clean sheet? Yes but how many?
and will Richard Evans continue his scoring spree? Not at the same pace but it was ok
Will the next update come any faster? It was ok wasn't it?
Will I get any good christmas presents? Yes (one of the benefits of getting older and earning money is that you can buy presents for yourself. My fiancee
did chip in though)

Ok so you probably wanting me to cut to the chase so lets have it.

But first. My ambition is to play with Welsh player only until the top division and rely on youth. This is our most promising players from the youth intake. I did try to sign a Nigerian player in a weak moment but he could not get a work permit.



Not excatly star quality. At least all of the players from the intake was rated five star but I guess that has more to do with my staffs poor judgment and the quality of the first team. I signed two players, the guy above and a midfielder named Waynne Owen (you will see him later).

On the rest of the matches. I lost to Colwyn Bay from England in the North Wales Coast FA cup no surprise there. What was a surprise was that we only lost by one goal from a direct free kick. A very even and uninteresting from a spectators point of view.

As for the rest of the matches take a look:


Huge improvement. Note that near the bottom I played two friendlies that ended 0-0. So in total 7 wins, 1 draw and 3 losses in the league. What frustates me where the losses against Amlwch and Nantile. Both where dead last when we played them but I guess we were too complacent.

How did the table then look like?



With one game left we actually have a shot at a promotion slot. At this point you are probably all thinking, he must be cheating. If I had done that I would have made sure that I did not loose my star midfielder from the first post Gwion ap Dafydd.

The frustrating part about a amateur club is the constant poaching by other teams. I constantly have to offer my players contracts. ( I imagine that I beg them to stay) and if I just miss one time they are gone...Players don't have any loyalty towards a club unless you counteroffer. I also lost Rob Walker on that account (another player from the first post) and few more fringe players.

So in order to have a shot at the playoffs we need to win against Llanfairpwll (the top team). A diffucult task since they still needed to win to secure the title and direct promotion. On top of that either Halkyn needs to loose or draw against 9th places Meliden who has nothing to play for . I did see a chance though since we could also secure a playoff if Kimmel Bay lost or drew to 2nd placed Penmaenmawr. That would secure Penmaenmawr the title so they had everything to play for.

All matches are played at the same time: Penr vs Llanfairpwll, Halkyn vs. Meliden and Kimmel Bay vs Penmaenmawr

5 minutes: Penr: A great tackle on the midfield gives winger Berry the ball. He moves quickly after on the left wing and corners it for Walters who is
totally free in the goal box. Easy task to chip it in.
1-0 to Penr
8 minutes Penr: A easy corner is not dealt with by Llanfairpwll Gierke gets the ball on the left wing. He shoots it in and almost hit Evans in the goal
box but it hits Llanfairpwll player who makes an own goal.
2-0 to Penr after just 8 minutes the crowd is going crazy.

9 minutes And the cheering continues. Meliden is ahead against Halkyn.

29 minutes Walters is there again. This time a poor long throw is captured by right back Graham who pases to Walters who runs past his direct
opponent and hits it flat into the opposite corner. The keeper has no chance.
3-0 to Penr

70 minutes Meliden has scored again. Now they are ahead by 2. Playoffs seems in reach.

75 minutes Hattrick. Walters cheat the offside trap and scores a similar goal as the one to 3-0.
This the first time that Penr has scored 4 goals and only the third time they have scored more than 3 in the league.

79 minutes A third goal from Meliden. AND a goal for Penmaenmawr against Kimmel Bay. This could complete the breakdown of Llanfairpwll.

90+1 minutes A late equalizer by Kimmel Bay. But a draw is enougth for Penmaenmawr. The have the title.

90+3 minutes In the abselute dying seconds Penmaenmawr managed to score and win against Kimmel Bay.

This means that neither Kimmel Bay or Halkyn will be in the playoff. What a round!



Lets have a look at the player ratings. A few comments. Richard Evans scored 10 goals in 19 matches and has been quite important to us. More importantly he has been instrumental in our wins and secured 5 Player of the Match awards. Derek Walters with his hattrick managed to get 9 goals.
Young Waynne Owen managed to get a 7.18 in average rating in six matches and he was one of my youth intakes! He only got to play since I lost Gwion so something good came out of that. All in all it is our offensive players dominating the average ratings.



I also wanted to show the player stats from the league. Two of my players are in top 5 in goals and assists.



I also managed to sign another midfielder which I hoped would play along Gwion. But he had already played for two clubs so that will wait until next season before Jack Jones can appear. Glad I am not paying him wages.



The playoffs will have to wait. Until next time.

[Archie]

Great second half of the season there mate, with any luck you'll go up from the playoffs. Best of luck.

[Darren Smith]

Good luck in the play-offs, you did really well to make them.

[NUFCdan]

Good luck in the playoffs, you deserve playoff glory!

[Declan Byrnes]

Just been catching up with this mate, you've done really well in the first season and I hope you can get through the play-offs!