Bundesliga

Before the first match of the season, I signed Federico Macheda, on loan for the season.

August

We had the worst possible start, a match against the best team in Germany, Bayern Munich. We were missing Edin Dzeko and Sasha Riether, but things got off to a flyer for us, Diego scoring in the first minute! Things were going well for us, we were playing very well, and things got better when Neymar scored on his debut in the 31st minute to make it 2 – 0. Neymar wrapped the match up in the 63rd minute, scoring a wonderful goal from a tight angle. However, Neymar missed the chance to get his hat-trick in the 90th minute, missing a penalty that would have given us a astonishing 4 – 0 victory. However, Bayern never really challenged us, and we were off to a flyer.

Next up was Werder Bremen. They are weaker this year due to the loss of Mesut Ozil, but they are still formidable. Nothing really happened until the 41st minute, when Neymar had a goal disallowed. The match proceeded in a flowing way, both teams attacking well but not getting past the goalkeepers who were playing brilliantly. However, in the 87th minute, Grafite managed to slip past the injured goalkeeper and slot it in to give us a 1 – 0 victory!

September

After a tough August, we had a relativley easy match against Hannover. The match started badly, and Hannover got the first goal in the 15th minute, Emanuel Pogatetz pushing it past Diego Benaglio. However, in the 19th minute Karim Haggui got a red card, and Edin Dzeko converted the resulting free-kick to level the scores. Then in the 25th minute, Dzeko got free in the box, and scored his second of the match. Then in the 62nd minute, Neymar scored a screamer from outside the box. Macheda then came off the bench to score on his debut in the 71st minute.

Away from Schalke, we were extremely lucky to win 3 – 0. The game started well, when Neymar scored the first in the 7th minute, but everything went downhill immediately. Peter Pekarik, the only right-back we had available, got a straight red in 11th minute. After that, Schalke came just attacked, no let-ups. However, in the 21st minute, they gave a penalty, and Jadson slotted it past Manuel Neuer to make it 2 – 0. We then scored a quick 3rd in the 24th minute, Kjaer getting up to convert the corner. After that, Schalke just took the game to us, but Kjaer was outstanding at the back and they never came close to scoring.

We came back from the brink against HSV. Heiko Westermann got the first goal in the 28th minute, after HSV pounded away at the goal until they actually scored. Ruud Van Nistelrooy made it 2 – 0 to HSV just before the break. We came out after the break, after the players got a verbal thrashing from me. Mandzukic got one back in the 49th minute, and scored again in the 52nd minute. From then on, anybody could have won this game, even when HSV had a man sent off in the 61st minute. The final score however was 2 – 2, and our 100% win record was gone.

Our last game of September was the most spectacular match yet. Stefan Kiebling took the lead for Leverkusen in the 10th minute,but Cicero got the equalizer in the 14th minute. Neymar scored to make it 2 – 1 in the 25th minute, and Cicero got his second in the 30th minute. However, Patrick Helmes made it 3 – 2 in the 40th minute. After half-time, it was all to play for, but nothing spectacular happened, and we won 3 – 2.

Heres what the table looks like at the end of September. We are at the top, and playing well

This is how the squad is playing.

Edin Dzeko has made a wonderful start, scoring 6 goals from 5 league starts. Neymar has made a good start to his Wolfsburg career, and looks like we will be a fantastic signing. Surplrisngly, Peter Pekarik, despite having not too good stats, has made a very good start. Jadson has made a solid start, and I’m sure he’ll build on that. On average, the team has been playing well, with the majority of players having average ratings of more that 7.

Thanks for reading, feel free to comment. I’m not sure when I’ll be able to post again, but hopefully it will be soon.

Before we welcome 2011 with both hands, i would like to thank everyone of you who read, visited and commented in my stories. Without you, this blog wouldn’t have gone so far. From the bottom of my heart:

THANK YOU

and

HAPPY NEW YEAR

I wish everyone of you GOOD HEALTH and A PROSPEROUS 2011. See you next year.

Best regards,

Lye

As you remeber, last season was a great success, and we would have to live up to it. However, the board seemed to think that it was a one off, and so they only expected me to get Europa League qualification. I accepted that, and took on the massive transfer budget I got with it – 24 million pounds.

However, there was a problem. A lot of the current squad’s contracts were expiring at the end of the season, and when I went to renew them, they were asking for a lot of money. So already a lot of my budget had gone. My main targets were a new left-back, centre-back, right-midfielder and possibly a right-back.

Getting a new left-back turned out to be very difficult, but getting a new central defender turned out to be easy. I went for one of my favorite players from FM 10 and indeed a transfer target in my first season – Danny Wilson of Liverpool. He is already one of my best central defenders, and he has the ability to be a world-class player. He joins for the rather large amount of 9 million pounds.

Due to issues with Somen Tchoyi’s work permit, the search for a right-midfielder became even more important. I looked through all the players that I remember from FM 10, and then remembered Vladimir Weiss. He is a good right-midfielder and was available cheaply – an attribute I cannot say my other signings have had. He joins for 2.2 million.

I finally found a left-back who was willing to come, but not cheaply. I had to pay almost 11 million pounds, and then sit through a drawn out contract negotiation to get him. But I am very happy to have him. Leighton Baines joins West Brom as we prepare for our assault on Europe, and he is a very good left-back.

At this point in time, I thought that my spending was over, we had no more money. However, I managed to get some more out of the board. I targeted a back-up goalkeeper, as I wanted to sell Scott Carson. So I once again looked for players that I signed in FM 10. I decided on Alex Smithies from Huddersfield.

Here are my total summer signings. We signed 4 players that completely ate up my transfer budgets – not including agent and signing on fees.

We had a responsibility to sell players not only to make money, but also to reduce the wage bill. We also sent players out on loan to get first-team experience. Hull had a very small squad – less than the minimum 15 players – and took a keen interest in our players. In total, we made 6.5 million, of which I saw about none.

I targeted getting some staff members in. Here are the ones that I got. Scouts were very important as we only have 2, and the coaching is already of a high standard so we just need to improve.

We played 6 pre-season friendly’s, and I tried to play against high-quality opposition, and we paid the price, losing a lot of our matches. However, we did play well, and demolished AC Milan, which makes me think that we can do well this year.

We also played the Community Shield, but before this there was bad news. Vaclav Kadlec and Dave Whyte got injured and Romelu Lukaku and Connor Wickham were at the Olympics, so we had no starting strikers. Whyte’s injury was very serious, he got it while playing at the Olympics. Kadlec would be injured until the middle of Septmeber at least. On top of this, Leighton Baines would miss this match because of a minor injury.

The Community Shoeld is regarded as a joke in England, but I still wanted to win it. This would also be Danny Wilson playing against his former club. However, scoring would prove difficult without strikers, so I reluctantly played the person who I’ve been trying to sell – Simon Cox. Going into half-time, the scores were level, but I knew that it was going to be hard for them to stay that way. That was proven in the 55th minute when Fernando Torres scored. Vladimir Weiss scored on his debut in the 68th minute to level the scores. Then, in the 73rd minute, Simon Cox managed to slip his marker and slide it past Pepe Reina to make it 2 – 1. However, in the 76th minute, Gonzalo Jara got a straight red. Then, in the 80th minute, Simon Cox got injured and we were left strikerless, and with three defenders. In the 82nd minute, Liverpool inevitably equalized, and we were not going to be able to score. However, in the 84th minute, we came close, but nothing came of it. It went into penalties. Wilson Palacios took the first one, but hit the post. Milan Jovanovic scored his, before Graham Dorrans slotted his home too. Torres then scored his, before Simone Pepe put his wide of the post. Daniel Agger kept his cool to score his, and Jano responded, scoring as well. However, if Insua could score, Liverpool would win. He did, and Liverpool won the Community Shield.

It turned out that Simon Cox’s injury was very serious, he would be out for about 2 months.

Overall, I think that our pre-season went well, but we could have done better. We should do well, at least Europa League this season, and my personal aim is to reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League. The board expects Group Stage, but we get that anyway so the board’s expectation has already been fulfilled. This is what the fixture list looks like for the months of August and September.

There is one thing that I haven’t told you yet. I applied for various international jobs this summer, and was offered the Belgium, Congo and Ireland jobs. I decided to take the Ireland job. My main target will be qualification for the World Cup, as they do not have great players. However, my self-appointed assitant manager disagrees, and he thinks that we are very good. It is going to be interesting to manage them.

Thanks for reading, feel free to comment. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Premier League

February

Feburary started with the visit of Sunderland. We dominated this match, and deserved to win by a larger margin than we did. Graham Dorrans gave us the lead in the 38th minute. We then got a second goal in the 49th minute, and then laid siege to the Sunderland goal. However, Jonas Olsson scored an own goal in the 79th minute, giving us a 2 – 1 win.

We then had a trip to Manchester City. This was always going to be for Manchester City to lose, not for us to win. However, we played well, and played effectivley on the break. However, neither team played up to the standard that they should have, and the match looked like a dull match. However, Romelu Lukaku scored in the 78th minute to give us a 1 – 0 win!

We then had an equally tough match against our 2nd place competitors – Arsenal. This was a exciting match, which Arsenal attacked, and then we countered. However, both teams were unable to score and the match finished 0 – 0.

March

March started with a derby against Stoke away from home. This was a match were we could back our form. This was a good match, and Jano got the solitary goal in the 25th minute. Youssuf Mulumbu got a red card in the 70th minute, justifying Lorenzo Crisetig’s signing.

We then had Everton at home, and we had a great start, Romelu Lukaku got a goal in the 6th minute, and then we tried to press home our advantage. In the 34th minute, we scored again, Graham Dorrans finishing with style to give us a 2 – 0 victory. At this point in time, we were 4th in the table after 26 games with 59 points. Liverpool were top having played 30 games and were on 69 points. We had 4 games in hand and if we won all, would be top by 2 points!

Fulham were next away from home. Fulham were doing well this season, so I expected them to play well. Fatigue was also starting to settle in, and with a packed fixture list, we were going to struggle. However, I was immediately disproven, when we went out and played well, and in the 11th minute, we took the lead, Romelu Lukaku breaking to score. This turned out to be the only high point in a tough match. Dickson Etuhu equalized in the 18th minute, before Bobby Zamora scored a penalty in the 26th minute to give Fulham the lead. However, Aaron Hughes got a red card in the 82nd minute, and Graham Dorrans swung the free-kick into the box, where Kadlec managed to get his head to it, and give us a 2 – 2 draw.

We then had a derby against Birmingham to look forward to. We started the match playing defensively, but after 50 minutes of nothing, I decided that it was time to go for it. It paid dividends. First, Dorrans scored in the 73rd minute, before Kadlec wrapped the match up, moving round the keeper to slide it into the back of the net, giving us a 2 – 0 win.

Only two days after the first leg of the Europa League quarter-final, we played Manchester United. We started the match well, and Kadlec got the first goal in the 5th minute, then the second in the 8th! Paul Scholes got injured on the stroke of half-time. Romelu Lukaku got the third goal in the 69th minute to give us a historic 3 – 0 win.

Our form this month meant that we recieved some awards. I won the manager of the month award, and Kadlec won the young player of the month award, Romelu Lukaku coming in second.

April

April began with a match against struggling West Ham. At the same time, Chelsea were playing Manchester City, so we knew that we could capitalize on this. In the first 60 minutes, we had alot of  1 on 1 chances, but they were all put wide. However, in the 57th minute, West Ham got a penalty, but Mark Noble’s penalty was saved by Ochoa. However, we only managed to get our goal in the 77th minute, Lukaku setting up Kadlec to make it 1 – 0. Kadlec then got a second in the 86th minute, in a goal which was almost a carbon copy of the first. The final score was 2 – 0, and Manchester City managed to beat Chelsea 1 – 0, so this victory didn’t mean much. However, we moved up into 3rd in the table, level on points with Arsenal, with four games in hand and a better goal difference. Manchester City were 6 points in front of us, while we still had 4 games in hand. League leaders Liverpool were 7 points ahead of us, and we had three games in hand on them. The race for the title was heating up.

Next up was a pair of matches against Newcastle. The first one was at St. James Park. These matches could be crucial to our continued challenge for the title. The match started badly when Fabio gave away a penalty, but Danny Guthrie had his penalty saved again by Ochoa. Romelu Lukaku began the scoring for us, scoring a long-range screamer in the 35th minute. Jonas Olsson made it 2 – 0 just before half-time. Immediately after half-time, Jano made it 3 – 0, wrapping up the tie. Connor Wickham came off the bench to score in the 73rd minute, and Lukaku got his 2nd in the 82nd minute to make it 5 – 0.

Then came the reverse fixture at home. This was my 100th game as West Brom manager. We dominated the early proceedings, but never managed to score. In the 36th minute, Youssuf Mulumbu played a beautiful through ball for Kadlec, who made no mistake to give us the lead. In the 41st minute, Lukaku ran from the halfway line and chipped the ball over the keeper to score a fantastic goal! Going into half-time, Kadlec picked up a injury, but I wasn’t feeling concerned. The second-half was largely uneventful and the match finished 2 – 0. We were now in 2nd, and closing on Liverpool!

We played Bolton the day after the first leg of the Europa League semi-final. THE NEXT DAY – excuse the capitals. However, a lot of the players who did not play the first leg in Europe, helped us demolish Bolton. Romelu Lukaku started the scoring in the 26th minute, and Simone Pepe added another in the 30th minute. Wilson Palacios converted his penalty in the 40th minute, and Somen Tchoyi scored his first in a while in the 47th minute. Lukaku finished off the rout in the 80th minute, leaving the final score at 5 – 0.

We then played Tottenham, three days after the Bolton match. This was a boring match, and Connor Wickham only managed to get the goal we deserved in the 82st minute.

We then had a massive week, with four games. The first one was Bolton again, this time at home. This time we were unable to do anything, even though we were at home this time, but the match ended 0 – 0.

We dominated the young player of the month award, with Fabio winning it, closely followed by Kadlec and Lukaku.

May

Blackburn was our next match in our week. This was once again a boring match, and the sole goal came in the 2nd minute, through a header from Pablo. We dominated large parts of the match, but were unable to finish properly. This result sent us into 1st in the table.

We next face a pair of fixtures against Chelsea. Victory in one of these matches would secure the title. We dominated the first 10 minutes, and got the first goal in 15th minute, Kadlec pouncing on a fumble by Petr Cech to score. Then, in the 26th minute, Kadlec got the ball near the half-way line, shot, and scored an unbelievable goal to make it 2 – 0. Kadlec got his hat-trick from the penalty-spot in the 62nd minute, and gave West Brom our first title since 1920!

The reverse match against Chelsea was a game where we could rest the first-teamers and play the youngsters and the benchwarmers. We lost 4 – 1, in a painful defeat, where we played terribly. But still, the title was ours.

We did very well this season to win the title. It is shocking to see how low down Manchester United are, they barely made it to the Europa League. Bad news for West Ham, Bolton and Sheffield United, the Championship awaits them. Overall, I am very happy with our perfomance this year in the league, but know that it will be hard to stay there in the coming season.

FA Cup

We played the 5th round of the FA Cup against a very tough opposition, Manchester City. I realized that we needed to take less long shots, so I changed my tactics slightly. In the first-half, Manchester City dominated, and continuously attacked our goal. Carlos Tevez only managed to give City the lead in the 52nd minute. I then decided that we needed to attack, and brought on all 3 substitues. We then immedialty began to play better, but Connor Wickham had a goal disallowed in the 56th minute. However, we get on attacking, and Jano managed to equalize in the 76th minute, leading to a dramatic last 10 minutes. In the 89th minute, Arda Turan scored, giving Manchester City the victory, and knocking us out of the FA Cup.

Europa League

We played the First and Second Knockout Rounds in these months, along with the first leg of the quarter-final.

We played Celtic in the First Knockout round, and the first leg was away from home. This was a thriller, with many events. Celtic started the match well, and got the first goal, Giorgos Samaras scoring in the 29th minute. Things got worse for us when Graham Dorrans got injured in the 48th minute, and then Gonzalo Jara also got injured in the 62nd minute. However, I brought on one sub that wasn’t going to replace injured players – Adem Ljajic. He played brilliantly. He got the first goal in the 67th minute, and then won a penalty in the 75th minute, which Fabio missed. However Ljajic got a second goal to give us the victory in the 84th minute. The second leg was at home, and all we had to do is limit then to either a 1 – 0 win, or we had to win. This was a boring match, and the result was 0 – 0, sending us through to the second round, CSKA Moscow.

Once again, the first leg was away from home against CSKA Moscow. We started the match, Kadlec scoring in the 7th minute, and we then dominated the rest of the match. We only got the second goal in the 51st minute, but I was already celebrating going to the quarter-final. However, CSKA got one back when Olsson put the goal into our own net in the 79th minute. Things got worse when Landon Donovan equalized in the 90th minute. If we drew 1 – 1 in the second leg, we would still go through, but we drew 0 – 0, sending us to the quarter-finals against Valencia!! However, in the second-leg, Joe Mattock got a serious injury, which made the left-back situation terrible – as Fabio had missed both legs with a serious injury as well .

We played the first-leg at home this time. I have actually played this match twice, as the first time, I won 3 – 0, but subsequently, my game crashed, so I had to play it again . However, we got into an even more astonishing match than that. Valencia struck the first blow, Roberto Soldado scoring in the 5th minute – as Juan Mata got injured –  but Wilson Palacios got the goal back in the 8th minute. These quick goals epitomised the match. Kadlec then started running rings around Philippe Mexes, and got his first goal in the 16th minute. He then proceeded to get his second goal in the 18th minute. However, Dave Whyte, starting his first game for us, got injured in the 40th minute. Kadlec put this past him to get his hat-trick just before half-time. Connor Wickham also got a goal in the 47th minute, but Kadlec overshadowed his goal by scoring a fourth in the 51st minute. However, we then became complacent, and let Joaquin score, leaving the tie at 6 – 2!!! Connor Wickham also got injured, in the 80th minute. In my mind, we were through to the next round. We played the same way the next leg, hoping it would work again. It did, and Dave Whyte scored the first goal in the 7th minute. However, Valencia dominated possession, and got a goal back in the 57th minute, and took the lead in the 59th minute, Victor scoring both goals. This did not have much effect, as we were still leading 7 – 4 on aggregate. After both goals, there was a flurry of yellow cards for both sides. No more goals were scored, and we were through to a Europa League semi-final against Espanyol – the same Espanyol that we beat twice in our Europa League group.

We were faced with troubles before our semi-final. Kadlec would miss both legs because of an injury, and Lukaku is ineligible - he hasn’t played any Europa League matches, so Connor Wickham would be our only striker that I like in the team . However, we had Simon Cox – the forgotten man, and Dave Whyte who could both play as striker. Then Tom Cairney got injured, and we were just getting worse and worse. Before the match though, Kadlec did improve, meaning that he would start up front. The match started and immediatley showed how cruel football can be. Dennis Aogo missed his penalty in the 4th minute, and then Wilson Palacios scored his penalty in the 12th minute, to give us a 1 – 0 lead and show me that we could play without our key players. However, the our problems became worse in the 30th minute when Palacios got injured. However, we felt better when Maor Buzaglo missed his penalty again, which gave us a narrow lead to take into the second leg. This was a very close match, both teams played good football and created a number of chances. However, Espanyol got the first goal, Daniel Osvaldo scoring in the 36th minute to make the aggregate score 1 – 1. Graham Dorrans made the aggregate score 2 – 1 in the 54th minute, meaning that Espanyol would now have to score 2 goals to go through to the final. While they threatened many times, they never really came close, and we went through to a Europa League final against Athletico Madrid!!

The final was played after the Premier League season was over. Both teams started well, but we started better, and Kadlec got the first goal in the 12th minute. Kadlec grabbed a second just before half-time, and we were in control going into the break. Jano effectivley wrapped the match up in the 71st minute, and I was already celebrating West Broms first ever win in Europe! Towards the end of the match, we began to relax, but Madrid never conjured up anything and we won!!

League Cup

We played Chelsea in the League Cup final, at Wembley. If we won, it would be our first League Cup since 1966. The match started with both teams attacking, and we began the match well. Yury Zhirkov got injured in the 45th minute, which had no result on the result I think. However, Fabio got a serious injury in the 77th minute, which was later compounded by Joe Mattock’s injury, and was ruled out for at least 2 months. The team responded to this injury be playing their best for the last 10 minutes, and Vaclav Kadlec got the only goal of the game in the 88th minute, giving us the League Cup!!

Season Summary/Awards

We have done very well to win the treble, and certain players are responsible for our success. Our best player over the course of the season has been Kadlec, who scored 33 goals in all competitions, a very good haul. Jonas Olsson, who did not feature much last year, played extremely well, and was one of the reasons we did not concede much this year. Wilson Palacios showed that he is still a wonderful player, he and Dorrans – the next best player – showed that they really gel and made a good partnership this year. Simone Pepe also did well, and considering that I signed him for a free, he has been exceptional.

Our players have been recognized in the team of the year – Ochoa, Pepe and Kadlec are all starters and Dorrans is in the substitutes.

Our performance was also recognized in the player of the year award, Dorrans and Kadlec came second and third.

I was awarded manager of the year for this season, a award I am very happy to have!

So that’s how our season went, feel free to comment, and give me recommendations on good left-backs – I really need to find a good one

I will not be posting for a while as I am going on holiday and I do not know whether I will have time to write, so incase I don’t Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Conference North is currently the sixth overall tier of the English football league system. It consists of teams located in Northern England and English Midlands. There are currently 22 teams in the Conference North League with the champions promoted to Conference National(Aka Blue Square Premier) and the other place will be the play-off winner between 2nd-5th position teams.

I have chosen a few teams and will introduce them one by one. I will conduct a final poll so that you will decide which team i will manage in FM11. Lets go.

1. Corby Town

Full Name: Corby Town Football Club

Nickname: The Steelman

Founded: 1948

Ground: Rockingham Triangle (Capacity 3,000)

Last Season Position: 6th place

2. AFC Telford

Full Name: Association Football Club Telford Utd

Nickname: The Bucks or Lilywhites

Founded: 2004

Ground: New Bucks Head (Capacity 6,300)

Last Season Position: 11th place

3. Gainsborough Trinity

Full Name: Gainsborough Trinity Football Club

Nickname: Trinity, The Holy Blues, The Recreationists

Founded: 1873

Ground: The Northolme Gainsborough(Capacity 4,304)

Last Season Position: 14th

4. Gloucester City A.F.C

Full Name: Gloucester City Association Football Club

Nickname: The Tigers

Founded: March 5, 1883

Ground: Whaddon Road, Cheltenham (Ground share with Cheltenham Town)(Capacity 7,066)

Last Season Position: 18th

5. Harrogate Town

Full Name: Harrogate Town Football Club

Nickname: The Sulpuhrites Town

Founded: 1914

Ground: Wetherby Road Harrogate(Capacity 3,500)

Last Season Position: 21st

These are the five teams i have chosen. Please take a look and let me know which team you prefer me to manage. I will put up the poll on the siderbar for you to cast your votes. Thanks.

November Results

Some tough opposition here but we did quite well having won the game against Peterborough, drawing with Man Utd and the only loss came against Everton.

Away at Goodison Park

First game of the month was against 11th place Everton who has pretty good strikers in their ranks. They played a 4-4-1-1 formation when the match started. They dominated the match early on and we were forced to defend our goal most of the time. They finally found some space near the penalty area and bang, they lead by one goal. Our performance doesn’t show any improvement and their right winger scored another goal in the first half injury time. Some harsh words in the dressing room doesn’t have any effect as we conceded another goal soon after the break. The two central defenders are guilty of some slack defending. All their goals were scored in similar circumstances. The introduction of John Leonard and Bastian Bruckner saw us playing better and John Leonard headed in a goal in 80th minute from a Brian Sorensen cross but it was too late to mount a comeback.

Home against Man Utd

Next was a difficult game against 5th place Man Utd. The game was played under showers condition and Man Utd showed their intention early with a few shots at our goal. However we took a shock lead through a Hakan Metin penalty after Brian Sorensen was fouled inside the box. They hit back immediately when a free kick was saved by David Cook but their left winger was there to pounce on the rebound. Alexandar Lafuente was having a good game as he constantly wreck damages down the right flank. It was his vision in 37th minute cutting a cross back to Bastian Bruckner who unleashed an unstoppable shot into the net. We went into the dressing room with us leading. Man Utd looked like a different team in the second half, we conceded an early equalizer by a superb solo goal. The match then went into a stalemate and we shared a point each after the final whistle.

Away at London Road

Last game of the month was against our former parent club Peterborough. They are currently lying in 10th place. They were taking control of the game from the start. An injury to Bastian Bruckner saw Colin Madden came in early on. He made an immediate impact as he slide a ball to John Leonard who dribbled past their defender and scored a superb solo goal. However they equalized in 34th minute when we failed to clear a corner. The second half saw us suffered heavy pressure without any chance to close in their goal. Luckily they were mostly wasteful and aimed the ball at David Cook who was comfortable on holding the ball. The game was heading for a draw but we had a dramatic end in injury time. A throw in to Uche Okpara was pass to Hakan Metin and he hit the ball with power that flied into the net. We won the game. Their fans were shell shocked and couldn’t believe they had lost this game. They got so many chances to bury us but that’s football.

Table

No changes on our position as we are still lying in 14th place. Things remain pretty the same as we are still three points above 18th place Sheff Utd. The good thing is most of the teams doesn’t have a game in hand. The traditional strong teams are struggling this season, just look at Arsenal and Liverpool. They are directly below us. Players who stand out this month are John Leonard and Hakan Metin. John Leonard is a happy man as he is an Irish international now scoring three goals for his country in five games. He is bring his international form to club level. It seems Hakan Metin has finally settled down and starting to show his potential. He has been playing well in the last three games.

December Fixtures

It will be an busy winter for us in December. Six games in total and a lot of points up for grab. Although not much traditional giants except Tottenham but it is by no means easy. Hull, Brighton and Burnley are the top six teams. Only Wolves are lying below us. Hopefully we can win some games over there.

Wrap Up

Not a bad month for us, especially the lucky win against Peterborough and the draw against Man Utd. Dear friends, this is how we do for this month. Thanks for reading and i will see you back in my next post.

If you are not a FM lover, you can participate too to join in the fun. Ultimately it is a big event for all soccer fans. So FM and soccer lovers what are you waiting for? I will see you in Johnny’s site and good luck to every participants who will be taking part in the contest. Lets get the World Cup rolling yeah!

I have been playing football manager for years including the times when they were championship manager. I just concentrating playing and never think of anyone will write a blog regarding his football manager story. Somewhere in June/July 2009, i came across “truefootballmanager” written by Vitaliy Mokosiy by some FM forum(i think so) and i was ‘wow’ somebody has written a blog about football manager.

But i am hungry for more, so i search around using some keywords and one day i saw Johnny ‘s “footballmanagerstory”. I was hooked to it immediately and will always came up to look for his new updates. At that time, Johnny’s website has been around for several months and because of his Chester game unable to load up, he started a new story which he chosen “Blyth Spartans”. I was even more interested to find out as i always started playing from the lowest league. Neverthless i still follow his Chester story and started reading from the beginning. It was well written and very interesting and in fact i thought it was the best football manager blog that i ever came across.

I started to make some comments on his story, Johnny is a very friendly guy and he imediately reply to my comments. From what i noticed, he always respond to every comment made to his blog and will try to answer any question his readers have for him. Based on his recommendations, i also downloaded some enhancements such as facepacks, logos etc. For the past i just played without all these and this enhancements really excites me especially the facepacks.

The more i read Johnny’s story, the more eager i will think ’Can i write my own football manager story’?  Johnny really inspires me to start out a blog writing my own football manager story. Thats how my “fmstory” starts.

The reason why i want to do this post is that since the released of the new verson football manager 2010. I started to notice that visitors of Johnny is starting to write the football manager story of their own. I started to make new friends from the football manager community. I believe most of us is inspired by Johnny’s website to actually create a blog and try to learn from each other to make our football manager journey more enjoyable. 

The links to Johnny’s site is increasing now and then, there are almost 15 blogs in his link page now. I don’t know how many of them are inspired by him, but i definitely know Kevin, Martin and me(yours truly) are inspired by Johnny to write a story of our own.

Johnny has always trying to improve the functionality of his website,  recently he had introduced 2 new features to his website.

1) Guest Author

Johnny allows a guest author to publish a story on his website and i think this is really a gracious gestures by him. I am delighted that Kevin had decided to publish his Swindon Town story and add an extra dimension on top of his Notts County story.

2) Web browser toolbar

Johnny created a web browser toolbar for the readers to create a real FM community.

I really love these 2 features and i hope to see more innovative ways of him to excite us in future.

Before i end this post, i would like to say a big ‘THANK YOU’ to you Johnny for making the football manager game more enjoyable and interesting. Since the commence of my blog, i had found more purpose in playing football manager and my passion had grown even deeper. Thanks…

P.S to the creator(SI) of football manager: Please continue to make and improve the football manager game so that our passion can last forever.