[FM19] Grantham Town - From unplayable to Champions of Europe with only youth players? You must be crazy!

[theBlackPrince]

[theBlackPrince]

[theBlackPrince]

It's this time of the season I hate as every day transfer request's over and over again! What was the board thinking???? That's not the best deal we could get and I had to use the old "after all I have done for this club" tactic to get them to stop the transfer. I can see me losing another few players, surely with the League position we are in they would want to keep starting players....

[theBlackPrince]

Wow, I put £5,000,000 to put them off as they offered much less, I thought they would all say no way and leave me alone! And then this comes in with a few hours of deadline day to go.

This really put's me in a sticky position. It's a huge amount of money for a club of our size and eclipses previous deals we made last season. It may mean we do not have to sell anyone else and can upgrade training facilities or possibly get more than 5,000 seats in the stadium, especially if we can move up to the Championship. I really don't need to sell as he has a year left plus a 1 year extension and I don't have much in the way to replace him. I have a few players that can play that position, but none near his current level or that will reach his potential.

Might have to sleep on this one and make a call in the morning. I guess it all depends on if I can make anything of the below, potential replacements for him.

Scott Robinson 31j is the first name to fill the spot and could get us to the end of the season, his upside is not so great but serviceable he would be. Another option would be to take one of the 3 players who can play DR and train one (on the job) to play the AM(R) role and it would be sink or swim. I really like Dan Martin 32b and Craig Porter 30j for this as both already can play in a midfield role, but will look into more detail to the stats and see if either really makes sense.....

 

[sourgrapes11]

5 hours ago, theBlackPrince said:

Well... wasn't that a crazy shootout. Tense every single kick and just could not believe they was only 3 misses in 38 attempts! In the end, it was Sam Deakin 26a who would save a penalty then be called up to score his second one of the shootout to send Grantham Town through. From a terribly boring 0-0 draw to an epic shootout!

Incredibly, that's our 5th shootout of the year and our 5th victory..... I really hope we don't need another one soon as we must have used up all our luck now!

Longer than any shootout I've had in FM, must have been nerve shredding! Are Bournemouth still in the Prem?

[theBlackPrince]

6 hours ago, sourgrapes11 said:

Longer than any shootout I've had in FM, must have been nerve shredding! Are Bournemouth still in the Prem?

Sadly not, they had a few season of top 10 finishes but then in 23/24 were relegated and it's been a downwards run since then in the Championship, which is a shame as I like what they do in real life.

The current teams are pretty much as expected, maybe not Derby and least they not breaking their own worst performance ever record this time!

The Premiership has been dominated by Man City, Man Utd and Liverpool, with the London clubs really struggling!! But i mean, Tottenham has won the league which is something right? Chelsea have been finishing outside the top 6 recently, Arsenal are still close but it is Tottenham who probably are the best team in London right now (right as I say that Arsenal lead the tablee)

[theBlackPrince]

I had to take the money and hope we can sort something out for the rest of the season and maybe pick up a new player in the upcoming youth recruitment to be the long term replacement for him. I wished him well, said he could come back anytime and saw my bank balance shoot up to £6,600,000. I am going to not force any changes at the minute, rather wait until I know if we achieve promotion and spend wisely. But the plan worked, I could reject all other offers and lost no other players.

In terms of who played that role in the next match? Many of the long term followers will know this guy, I still to this day cannot work out how he holds most of the teams scoring records (With a finishing rating of 4) and is that player I just keep playing a few games as he deserves it, despite his scouting report saying Vanarama North at best! Yes, indeed it's Trevor Sithole 20c. Scorer of many goals in crunch times to gain us more than one promotion!

And he did just fine.....

[theBlackPrince]

[theBlackPrince]

[Deisler26]

Good Checkatrade Trophy win!

[theBlackPrince]

3 hours ago, Deisler26 said:

Good Checkatrade Trophy win!

Was really impressed with that as I had to play mostly rotated teams with lots of fixtures! Great to get my first Trophy in the 14th year!

[theBlackPrince]

[theBlackPrince]

[theBlackPrince]

So far, so good.....

[theBlackPrince]

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[Deisler26]

Oof. That's a nasty run of defeats. Good to see QPR struggling though 

[PThomason01]

This is a really great read and probably the best format on this forum. 

I only have one very minor gripe is when you say "Premiership". The league was renamed from the FA Premiership to Premier League in 2007 when it became independent of the Football Association. Just a very minor thing, but I love this career and keep it going! 

[theBlackPrince]

16 hours ago, Deisler26 said:

Oof. That's a nasty run of defeats. Good to see QPR struggling though 

It was only 6 losses not 7, I had got carried away as I just assumed the run we was on we were going to get whooped by top of the table Swansea..... ooops! QPR,cannot believe they were a couple of points from going up last season to the Premier League (Not Premiership as below) to terrible and might go down.

7 hours ago, PThomason01 said:

This is a really great read and probably the best format on this forum. 

I only have one very minor gripe is when you say "Premiership". The league was renamed from the FA Premiership to Premier League in 2007 when it became independent of the Football Association. Just a very minor thing, but I love this career and keep it going! 

Thank you, see above, I'll do my best to correctly label the Premier League going forward. Guess I haven't paid that much attention since 2007 in real life 

I think this career will keep me going until FM20, a few I want to do but this is taking up a lot of time and pretty invested at this stage of it now....

[theBlackPrince]

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I have now played 6 games into the new season, so how is the tactic really doing? Not going to post the results or the league position, just how it is compared to the rest of the league. 6 games is not a huge sample as may have played all teams at the bottom, so will update again at the halfway stage.

Best possession at 61%, most passes completed by a long long way, most header % won, and maybe importantly, moat goals scored all without a striker.  The passes and possession are even higher than I expected, think in a couple of games have seen over 800 passes. It might be too much, but with the highest pass percentage in the league, I think it can stay as it is for now. If the other team do not have the ball that much, I shouldn't concede bucket loads of goals. Impressed with 12 goals also, now just to keep that up...

So we have around 600 passes more than the next best team and 1,000 more than the team in 6th place. I need to look into that more and see are we playing positive with the passes or is it all backwards and sideways. 

And finally, how is this formation stacking up to the last one. At the minute, pretty well, creating 3 chances for every 1 given up. 

[theBlackPrince]

[theBlackPrince]

I hate January.... Really had to dig my heels in to stop this happening!

[Nobby_McDonald]

Wonderful progress. Same goes for AFC Telford.

[theBlackPrince]

29 minutes ago, Nobby_McDonald said:

Wonderful progress. Same goes for AFC Telford.

They continue to shock me every season! Still not spending big and managing to stick at this level quite well. I genuinely like them being at this level and hope they can go one more eventually. Might finally have a team in the Premier League also challenging the top 6....

[theBlackPrince]

[theBlackPrince]

Getting to the crunch part of the season, and thankfully for us (Well actually it's kind of dulled the achievement a little right now) Sunderland have dropped off a cliff taking only 15 points in 14 games. We have not been much better, have drawn our last 4 games dropping lots of points but we haven't lost in this new year yet. Any other year another team would have come and over taken us and been out of sight by now, but I guess we just getting lucky now or just shows how hard it is in the league to string together good runs. All I can say is, I really, really hope we don't blow it from this position!

[theBlackPrince]

Last Day of the Season - All to play for 

A draw and two losses in the 3 games mean't the title was still to play for on the final day of the season. The young Grantham Team who had looked so strong til this point crumbled under the weight of expectation and set up a final day showdown for the title.

1st - Grantham - 84 Points

2nd - Sunderland - 82 Points

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3rd - Sheffield United - 81 Points

4th - Cardiff - 81 Points

5th - Fulham - 80 Points

6th - Charlton - 74 Points

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7th - Watford - 72 Points 

Live Feed - Battle for the Title and Play-off's

1st min - Reading striker Max Towers scores against Cardiff, who move down to 5th on goal difference.

3rd min - And it's the worst news for Grantham Town as Sunderland's attacking midfielder Stuart Grealish puts Sunderland equal on points with Grantham. Goal difference separates the team, Grantham at +27 and Sunderland at +24.

11th min - GOOOOOAAAAAAALLLLLL Andrew Hancock 34a. Adam Gibson 34b played a delightful ball from the right wing, split the defenders and Hancock finished right footed, on the half volley past the QPR Keeper. Grantham lead by 2 points.

18th min - Bolton take a surprise lead over Fulham

19th min - Watford, fighting to get in the play-offs now sit equal with Charlton as they go ahead of Sheffield United with a Stuart Jones strike. 

21st min - Cardiff are back in the game with an equaliser by Michael Cooper and head to 3rd position.

21st min - Fulham get the goal back by Lee Rees, take the game to 1-1

26th minute - Cardiff are trying to throw the game away, this time an own goal and they drop to 5th place.

34th min - GOOOOOOOAALLLLLLLLLLL Craig Porter 30j. But all the credit has to go to star man Dean Noble 29f, playing through the pain of a hamstring injury picks the ball up in his own half, runs down the left wing to the penalty box, cut's inside to put the ball into the path of Porter to smash home from 18 yards out.

With 45 minutes to go, here is how it stands.

 

[theBlackPrince]

[theBlackPrince]

[theBlackPrince]

August

Brighton - A fortunate goal against Brighton by Torain Stern 26a was probably not deserved as we managed 2 shot's on target and generally were out-played, but every single point will be valuable for us so I will take that! If they are going to be one of the teams finishing in the top 10, this really is a good result

Blackburn - We were actually looking the better team and were able to hold them to 0 shots on target in the first half. Bobby Groves 29d came on in the 60th minute to freshen things up and in the 62nd minute was sent off, absolutely horrible tackle and really put us on the back foot for the last 30 minutes when I thought we might steal a win here. 2 weeks fine and he will struggle to get another chance as he will be training with the Under 23's for the next month. 829 out of 905 passes completed (91%) with 66% possession was pleasing to see we can still play good football.

Sunderland - An early season 6 pointer and with them coming off a 6-1 drubbing to Man City, a great time to try and get points. Things didn't start well well a free kick gave them the lead after 24 minutes. Things would go from bad to worse when in the 3rd game we pick up our second straight red card, this time WB (L) Reece Lindley 35e on the 27th minute. 60 minutes with 10 men, just what we wanted! Somehow on a rare breakaway, Torain Stern 26a was able to slot home from a Brad Butterfield 29e cross in the 82nd minute to save the game and grab our third draw in a row.

Aston Villa - A disallowed goal in the 35th munute for Ricky Charles 32g would have made the half time team talk easier, but it wasn't mean't to be and the sides went in level with Aston Villa not showing much so far. Despite dominating the game and getting shot's off, we couldn't hit the target to make it count. A 93rd minute penalty for a trip gave Aston Villa the chance to secure the victory, but Sam Deakin 26c came up with a huge save when needed to keep the game 0-0 and a 4th draw on the season.

Fulham - A 20th minute penalty from keeper Sam Deakin 20c was the difference between the two promoted teams and gave Grantham Town their first win in the Premier League and extends their unbeaten run to 5 games, although none against one of the big 6. It was a dazzling run by Adam Gibson 34b, getting brought down in the box for the penalty. After that Grantham would play the possession game, playing 891 passes with a 91% accuracy and 71% possession to frustrate Fulham and come away with the win.

 

[theBlackPrince]

September

Tottenham - Our first game against one of the big boys and for 58 minutes, defended well until Scott Ash 34a gave away a penalty and that gave them the easy goal, which was unfortunate as we frustrated them all game! Tottenham would get a second late on and it was all over once they scored the penalty.

Stoke - Stoke stopped the Grantham passing game in the first half, breaking up play and pass percentage sat at under 70%. The joy with playing a short passing game is the long ball tends to catch people out. A glorious cross field ball from Fabricio Brennan 35a found Dean Noble 29f on the edge of the box. A lofted cross landed for Torain Stern 26a to volley the ball and hit it sweetly past the keeper in the 52nd minute for the 1-0 lead. A red card in the 64th minute for Stoke defender, Marcos Paulo for pulling back Dean Noble 29f in an obvious goal scoring opportunity helped the cause. Grantham would score a second with lovely build up play, Torain Stern 26a played a ball through for Adam Gibson 34a to slot home past the keeper and settle the game. 

Leicester - 1 minute in and a glorious start, Dean Noble 29f looked up, saw the run of fellow winger Adam Gibson 34a, he put the ball into his stride and Gibson fired home from 12 yards out to stun Leicester. A lightening quick counter attack from Leicester would get them back into the game in the 31st minute. Another Dean Noble 29f ball to Adam Gibson 34a would result in Gibson winning his second penalty of the season, keeper Sam Deakin 26c stepped up again and made it 2 from 2 for the season and put Grantham back up before the half. Leicester would hit Grantham for the second time on the counter from a corner, and once away swiftly put the ball away to level the game, must to the managers disappointment. Poor defending and not clearing the lines cost Grantham as Leicester would score late on to take the win.

Will update again at the end of December, but we have started well! Just hope we can keep it up but a tough, tough run of games against most of the top 6 coming up!

[theBlackPrince]

[theBlackPrince]

[theBlackPrince]

[theBlackPrince]

[sourgrapes11]

Looking good for next season! Hopefully the new stadium won't mean you have to do an Arsenal and sell big players every season.

Do you think it's time to promote Sam Davie to first choice? He looks ready tbh.

Also any chance of seeing Fabricio Brennan and Andrew Hancock's stats?

Loving the frequent posting btw

[theBlackPrince]

2 hours ago, sourgrapes11 said:

Looking good for next season! Hopefully the new stadium won't mean you have to do an Arsenal and sell big players every season.

Do you think it's time to promote Sam Davie to first choice? He looks ready tbh.

Also any chance of seeing Fabricio Brennan and Andrew Hancock's stats?

Loving the frequent posting btw

The second second is always harder I find when moving up, just have a feeling it's gonna be a struggle! The TV money in the Premier League is crazy and I've got a strict wage budget in at the minute (£25,000 per week) . It will go up but for now trying to stick to it) so hopefully we shall be ok for money.

Sam Davie, I want to see how many appearances current keeper can get before he starts to become a liability and I have 3 or 4 keepers all similar to Davie, not sure at the minute who will be the best long term.

Fabricio Brennan

Andrew Hancock 

To be fair, neither have really impressed that much for the potential they have! Thought Hancock would be racking up the assists but not so much yet, but still plenty of time!

Thanks for checking in!

[theBlackPrince]