drtrick Posted December 15, 2012 Share Posted December 15, 2012 Inspired by SnakeXe's Chorley career found here, i decided to start a similar game using Kendal Town. Up until now i've been restarting the game every weekend, so making a thread following the career will motivate me to stay with a single save. Being a Cumbrian, the only Cumbrian team available to me at the bottom of the ladder is Kendal Town. I could have chose Workington and saved myself a holiday season and the several reloads to get Kendal into the league, but there's no way i was taking control of those jam eaters. KENDAL TOWN FC So, as with SnakeXe's thread that i'm totally ripping off, the aim is to run the club with the current players and youth intake only, and take them (hopefully) to Champions League glory and beyond. Facilities: Stadium: Parkside Road, Kendal Capacity: 2490 (450 seated) Training Facilities: Basic. Youth Facilities: Minimal (rented). Youth Set up Category: 0. Junior Coaching: Minimal. Youth Recruitment: Limited. Unfortunately, after speaking to the board, they have refused to increase the Junior Coaching Budget, to expand the Youth Recruitment Network and to expand the Youth Facilities due to lack of funds. The previous manager has left me with a pretty decent first team, nothing special, but it should be talented enough to avoid relegation in the first season: Season 2013/14 Pre-season The main task was to keep hold of some of the players whose contracts were set to expire. Important players such as centre-back Roche and winger Simpson signed and my best available left fullback Fitzgerald who initially refused to sign up. I'm a little worried by my substitute centre-back Duggan's refusal to sign a new contract given my lack of depth in that position, but for now he's staying at the club on a month-to-month basis. We had an 'okay' pre-season against lesser reputable sides, as expected, while my tactics bed in, but i would have liked a few more goals, but we managed to get through it without picking up any injuries so things look good for the start of the season: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
drtrick Posted December 15, 2012 Author Share Posted December 15, 2012 Season 2013/14 Board Expectations: Stay clear of relegation. Media Prediction: 22nd. At the midway point of the season things aren't looking too good. A failure to hit the ground running followed by a run of disappointing results left us in the bottom quarter of the table from the get go. The performances of the team haven't been disastrous, but a pattern of conceding early goals and the failure of my 'star' striker to perform are what initially held us back. I've been using the same classic 4-5-1 formation for a few versions of FM now and been successful with it, but it clearly isn't cutting it this version, so i used the default 4-5-1 as a template to create a new version so i can take advantage of the new tactical options. The first game using the new version was a spectacular turn around of form: Unfortunately i lost both my first choice central midfield players to injury during that game and we have only managed three draws and two losses since. Still, we're only five points from safety, and with three key players due back from injury in the next month i'm hopeful we can make up the gap. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gundo Posted December 15, 2012 Share Posted December 15, 2012 I love these types of careers and I too have enjoyed following SnakeXe's career thread past month. Look forward to following your progress with the mintcakes. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DazRTaylor Posted December 15, 2012 Share Posted December 15, 2012 All the best mate - will follow with interest. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lenzar Posted December 15, 2012 Share Posted December 15, 2012 Ah, a team from the county of Westmorland! Good luck in this - I could have done with Kendal being a little higher for my county game.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
B.W.G Posted December 15, 2012 Share Posted December 15, 2012 Best of luck with Kendal Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
drtrick Posted December 16, 2012 Author Share Posted December 16, 2012 It's amazing how sensitive this match engine is. A couple of minor changes to make my tactic slightly more conservative and we go and win 3 - 0 away. (And that takes us off the bottom!) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
drtrick Posted December 17, 2012 Author Share Posted December 17, 2012 YOUTH INTAKE I'm very pleased to see one of the two three and a half star potential players is a DM, as i've been using players out of a position there. Plus there's a couple of semi-decent centre backs. My two first choice centre backs are excellent (relatively speaking), but i've lacked depth there all season and it's no coincidence that as soon as i got them both fully match fit and free of injury for a period of time my defensive frailties vanished, which will be clear to see when i post my results list at the end of the season. The best of the bunch, Ronnie Green, looks handy; a defensively minded CM. My current first choice is as brittle as a piece of freeze-dried straw. (I'll try and do something about my screenshots being barely readable in the future, the forum doesn't seem to like them.) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
drtrick Posted December 17, 2012 Author Share Posted December 17, 2012 Every time i make a drastic change to my match tactics i seem to come away with a win: I switched to the default 4-4-2. In other news, i have five games to make up five points and avoid relegation or this will be a contender for the shortest game on this board. (Though i have a game in hand and that's against bottom of the league (and already relegated) FC United.) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
drtrick Posted December 17, 2012 Author Share Posted December 17, 2012 D'oh! The annoying thing being if we'd have won our last two game (both at home) we'd have survived (an Workington would have went down instead, haha): We had a mini-revival towards the end of the season with three wins on the bounce, but were unable to maintain the upturn in form and ultimately our fate was down to not scoring enough goals (isn't it always, haha). We just couldn't break out of the bottom three, despite there rarely being a gap of more than six points so survival always seemed possible. Oh well, i still have the save from the beginning of the season before i took control, so i'll probably try this again when i'm a little better at the game. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gundo Posted December 18, 2012 Share Posted December 18, 2012 Unlucky drtrick, hopefully you can do better second time round and I'll look forward to following your next attempt. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
drtrick Posted December 18, 2012 Author Share Posted December 18, 2012 Thanks. I was tempted to reload and cheat on those last two games and save myself, but decided against it as that'd just make the whole thing less enjoyable. I've already had better results in another practice game after doing some reading, so hopefully some time after christmas i'll feel confident enough to give it another proper attempt. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ri916 Posted December 19, 2012 Share Posted December 19, 2012 Do you still have the original save game with Kendal getting promoted drtrick? I reloaded for ages without getting them and would love a save game with them up. edit: Just seen that you have! Would you mind uploading it? Pretty please? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
b101 Posted December 19, 2012 Share Posted December 19, 2012 unlucky there drtrick - it's a really tough challenge. Best of luck when you next go for it! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
drtrick Posted December 19, 2012 Author Share Posted December 19, 2012 Thanks all, i'm just not very good at this version of the game yet! Do you still have the original save game with Kendal getting promoted drtrick? I reloaded for ages without getting them and would love a save game with them up.edit: Just seen that you have! Would you mind uploading it? Pretty please? Yeah, i'm uploading it now. You'll have to retire me as i saved it right after i had taken over and did the chairman meeting and the like. Ah, a team from the county of Westmorland! Good luck in this - I could have done with Kendal being a little higher for my county game.. Doesn't exist as a county anymore, mate. But if you want to get all historical on me, i'll remind you that the Kingdom of Cumbria was around well before the county of Westmorland was created. (lol, sorry, i missed this first time around.) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
drtrick Posted December 19, 2012 Author Share Posted December 19, 2012 Kendal Town: http://www.sendspace.com/file/9lt3lf The other teams that got promoted in this game are different from the ones in the one i used in the updates because i accidentally saved over it, but it's from the same initial save so the transfers and such are identical. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ri916 Posted December 21, 2012 Share Posted December 21, 2012 Kendal Town: http://www.sendspace.com/file/9lt3lfThe other teams that got promoted in this game are different from the ones in the one i used in the updates because i accidentally saved over it, but it's from the same initial save so the transfers and such are identical. Thanks Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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