[FM20] Devotion to Promotion

[Zilla Blitz]

Season 0: Episode: 0
The Boring Part Where We Talk about the Fiddly Bits

Club

“If you can’t learn to do it well, at least learn to enjoy doing it badly.”—despair.com

Welcome to Devotion to Promotion! In these digital boxes I’ll be posting my FM20 adventures as Zilla Blitz, an inexperienced 20-year nobody who has decided to enter the world of football management rather than attempt to, you know, actually play football himself. I’ll start off with no coaching badges, no job, and a smattering of Sunday League playing experience. With this haughty resume, I’ll thrust myself on the football world, grovel for any job I can get, and have a grand old time managing teams in the British Isles.

Wait, will there be a challenge of sorts?
Why yes, two challenges in fact. I will aim to start my first job in the spring of 2020 with a newly promoted Vanarama South or North team and take that one team to the top of the football world. Doing so would qualify me for the Dafuge Challenge. Given my recent success with FM19, however, I can say with all confidence that my odds of achieving the Dafuge Challenge are slim at best. So when that turns out badly, I’ll shift my career into an attempt to clear the British and Irish Steel Challenge, which aims to win the 50 leagues and competitions available to Irish, Northern Irish, Welsh, Scottish, and British teams, using only players of British or Irish nationality. You might be thinking, “Wait, isn’t that even harder than a Dafuge Challenge?” To answer that, I’d say, “Yes.” I’d also point out that I have not claimed to be intelligent. Onward!

However, my priority is fun, so if the official challenges get tedious, my life will morph into a pure journeyman adventure through Europe, questing with interesting teams in interesting places, and living the life of a wandering manager.

Will any house rules govern your career?
I’m glad you asked, because there are a few. I’m not interested in false greatness, and feel that stories with ups and downs are more interesting than stories of just up. To that, I’m not looking for any advantages. Attribute masking is on, of course. I won’t be downloading killer tactics, no editing the database, no watching videos to learn of hidden wonderkids, no save scumming to get better results. In short, what happens happens, and if that means I spend 20 years stuck in the Vanarama South League, so be it. I hear the bars are pretty good at some of those clubs.

How often will you be posting?
In addition to managing digital football players, I’ve got a real job and real family, so I’ll be moving at a modest pace. The goal is shortly daily updates five days a week, each update covering roughly a month of one season. That’ll be 10 updates to a season, 2 seasons played in a month of real world time. That’s a pace I think I can keep up.

Anything else to know?
If you want even more than a quick read, I’m creating Let's Play videos for the career and will post details as the episodes come out.

What’s next?
Waiting for the official release on Tuesday. Fingers crossed that the next update will have my career underway with job offers from some newly promoted teams in the Vanarama regional leagues.
 

Edited November 16, 2019 by Zilla Blitz

[bigmattb28]

Just start in the Welsh second division, lower rep than Vanarama North / South, new leagues to the game and realistic enough as a starting point for an unknown. Anyway, will follow.

[Zilla Blitz]

20 minutes ago, bigmattb28 said:

Just start in the Welsh second division, lower rep than Vanarama North / South, new leagues to the game and realistic enough as a starting point for an unknown. Anyway, will follow.

Thanks! Starting in the new Welsh league is a good idea. However, if I start in Wales I'd be disqualified for the Dafuge Challenge. Starting in the Vanarama regional leagues would still keep both challenges alive.

I ran a test with the first beta release a few days ago and the game offered me jobs with newly promoted teams in the Vanarama regional leagues, so I'm hopeful the chances are good it'll still work with the official release.

[Nobby_McDonald]

On 16/11/2019 at 05:33, Zilla Blitz said:

Will any house rules govern your career?
I’m glad you asked, because there are a few. I’m not interested in false greatness, and feel that stories with ups and downs are more interesting than stories of just up. To that, I’m not looking for any advantages. Attribute masking is on, of course. I won’t be downloading killer tactics, no editing the database, no watching videos to learn of hidden wonderkids, no save scumming to get better results. In short, what happens happens, and if that means I spend 20 years stuck in the Vanarama South League, so be it. I hear the bars are pretty good at some of those clubs.

How often will you be posting?
In addition to managing digital football players, I’ve got a real job and real family, so I’ll be moving at a modest pace. The goal is shortly daily updates five days a week, each update covering roughly a month of one season. That’ll be 10 updates to a season, 2 seasons played in a month of real world time. That’s a pace I think I can keep up.

 

My kind of save.

You'll be playing a lot quicker than I can with my job and family. I'm halfway through the third season on my FM18 save, which I started in September last year.

[Zilla Blitz]

^ Thanks, yes, I hope I can go a bit faster than your pace.  Our kids are older now, though, so they pretty much only need me when they run out of money. No way I could do a pace like this when they were younger.

[Zilla Blitz]

I'm going to wait until they get the 1-attribute determination issue sorted out before starting. Bummer, but another couple of days won't kill me. With a save this long, I'd like to make sure the start is stable.

EDIT: Apparently consistency, versatility, and important matches hidden attributes are an issue as well.

Edited November 19, 2019 by Zilla Blitz

[bigmattb28]

10 hours ago, Zilla Blitz said:

I'm going to wait until they get the 1-attribute determination issue sorted out before starting. Bummer, but another couple of days won't kill me. With a save this long, I'd like to make sure the start is stable.

EDIT: Apparently consistency, versatility, and important matches hidden attributes are an issue as well.

Hotfix out now that's addressed this

[metallimuse]

Oww my kind of thread this, giving it a follow. 

[Zilla Blitz]

Club

Season 0: Episode: 0 
Jobs ‘R Us

We officially enter the football world on June 22, 2020 as a hungry, homeless, and unemployed 20-year-old wanna-be manager. Wasting no time, we scan the job centre for manager opportunities, and soon learn that East Thurrock, Nuneaton Borough, and Ashton United have gained promotion to the Vanarama regional leagues and are in need of managers. A couple of weeks later and we’ve got three job offers. Which to pick?

Once decided, we’ll attempt to stick with this team through thick or thin until we win the Champions League or get fired, so it’s kind of like choosing a college, having a baby, or figuring out what sub to order at Subway.

Here are the details:

Offer #1: East Thurrock
My Salary: £800/wk
Team Salary Budget: £3.5k/wk (£1.0k allocated already)
Team Transfer Budget: £0
Goal: Fight bravely against relegation
Media Prediction: 20th
Team Value: £14.17k
Notes: Tiny team

Offer #2: Nuneaton Borough
My Salary: £800/wk
Team Salary Budget: £9.25k/wk (£4.7k allocated already)
Team Transfer Budget: £12k
Goal: Fight bravely against relegation
Media Prediction: 22nd
Team Value: £45k
Notes: Their fans laughed at me, and why is there a Pokemon on their logo?

Offer #3: Ashton United
My Salary: £750/wk
Team Salary Budget: £7.5k/wk (£5.5k allocated already)
Team Transfer Budget: £0
Goal: Avoid relegation
Media Prediction: 16th
Team Value: £17.11k
Notes: There is quite a bit of trash on the roads outside their stadium

If anyone has advice or favorites, I’d be happy to hear them! Who should I pick?

EDIT: First YouTube episode (19 min.) is up, mainly talking about the series background, house rules, and a deeper look at the three job offers.
 

Edited November 21, 2019 by Zilla Blitz

[Zilla Blitz]

Club

Season 1: Episode: 0 
July 2020: Hired!

Of the three job offers on the table, Nuneaton was clearly the best. More salary room, less expectations, bigger budget. But I was really struggling with the whole "chained and muzzled bear" team badge for Nuneaton. I just didn't feel right managing a team whose badge was an endorsement for animal cruelty, even if the roots of the badge went back 500 years. So I was all set to go with Ashton United as our first job. 

But then a comment on YouTube brought up the point that the club reformed in 2007 and redid their badge at that time. Even better, when they redid their badge, they unchained the bear (see above)! If I swapped out the current badge in the game for the up-to-date one I could manage Nuneaton without worrying about losing all the support from Yellow Pokemon Bear lovers around the world.

That made it an easy choice: Nuneaton!

We accept the job offer and take a look at our club. Things are a bit ... dire. We have no staff. I mean absolutely zero. Only 5-6 players on the roster will work as Vanarama North players. Adding to all that, our first match is in just 20 days. So yes, we have our work cut out for us!

Time to get busy!

 

[Zilla Blitz]

Club

Season 1: August 2020
Not Totally Garbage

Record: 2W-4D-3L, 10 points (18th place in Vanarama National North)

20 days and 3 friendlies was not nearly enough time to hire a coaching staff, find good players, and establish a tactical vision. Not only that, but with the Vanarama National North and South newly expanded to 24 teams, they packed all the extra games into the first two months of the season. We have 2 matches every week in August & September. I really should have quickly brought in any sort of non-contract players, but I didn’t and now we’re looking at handling a heavy match load with a shortage of bodies. We start our opening match completely unprepared, 16 players in all, and only 2 functional central midfielders.

Not surprisingly, we lose our opening match 2-0, and it doesn’t help that one of our two central midfielders picks up a three-match ban for a horrible tackle and a subsequent red card. Things get no better after that, and by the mid-point of August we’ve only got one point from our first four matches. But having £4k in salary room to work with gives us the ability to bring in a good number of players, and by the middle of the month reinforcements start to arrive. Our play starts to pick up as these new players get into match shape, and we put together a decent run. We go unbeaten in the back half of August and finish the month with 2 wins, 4 draws, and 3 losses. The results lift us to 18th place, 4 points above the relegation zone.

Having said that, we’ve played some of the softer teams in the league so far, and I’m sure we’ll struggle against better opposition. We’re also maddeningly inconsistent, with a lot of gaping weak spots in our roster. Our defense in particular can’t find their way, with our best defender in our back four rated a 6.53 after nine matches. Our main striker, Luke Benbow, also only scored 1 goal in 8 appearances despite getting 15 shots and a good number 1-vs-1 breakaways.

Speaking of 1-vs-1 breakaways, no one can score these. It’s laughably bad down here. Benbow’s sole goal did come on a 1-vs-1, but I’ve seen at least 15 other clear breakaways by us and our opponents, and none of them go in. Most are just kicked right at the keeper.

Going forward, we’ve got another month of 9 matches coming up, and many of them against more formidable opposition. I’d be ecstatic if we could duplicate our August results in September.

Video Edition

Quick note: With the holiday in the US this week, I'll be traveling a bit. Next update won't be until next Monday. From that point I don't have significant travel, so things should start to roll more regularly.

Edited December 5, 2019 by Zilla Blitz

[Nobby_McDonald]

On 18/11/2019 at 23:41, Zilla Blitz said:

^ Thanks, yes, I hope I can go a bit faster than your pace.  Our kids are older now, though, so they pretty much only need me when they run out of money. No way I could do a pace like this when they were younger.

Mine is 4 so it's a while until she gets to that stage. She loves football though and already has a favourite player.

Good luck at Nuneaton.

[SRL88]

Good luck with Nuneaton 

[Zilla Blitz]

Club

Season 1: September 2020
Struggling to Find the Way

Record: 4W-5D-8L, 17 points (21st place in Vanarama National North)

Back at it now that the new patch has fixed ratings, 1v1s, and some odd stuttering I was experiencing...

September hit us hard. We started with a draw, lost three in succession, bounced back for two wins against bottom of the table teams, then ended the month with two more losses. We only pick up 7 points in 8 league matches. The poor play drops us to 21st place, just in the relegation zone after roughly a third of the season done. On a minor positive note, we did make it through the 2nd Qualifying Round of the FA Cup, and our next round draw is also against a club in a league below us.

I feel like we should be playing better, but maybe it’s a matter of tweaking tactics and letting new players get comfortable in their roles. We’ve brought in a bunch of players, and have pretty much tapped out the rest of our wage space. Some of these players should up our play, but our biggest gamble, an £800/week splurge on Ivor Lawton, a central midfielder with sky high mental attributes, good physical skills, and weak technical skills, has panned out terribly so far. Every match the guy plays has been a mess. Instead of solidifying our midfield, the guy is a sieve. I still haven't given up on him, but it looks as if it's a painful lesson in the importance of technique.

Looking ahead, we’ve got another busy month, with seven matches in October. We’ve yet to have a week with less than two matches. Fortunately, only one of October’s matches are against teams in the top 3rd, and more than half are against bottom half teams. If we could find our form just a bit, I’m hopeful we can pick up some points to lift us clear of the relegation zone.

[Zilla Blitz]

Club

Season 1: October 2020
Ah, This Looks Like the Way!

Record: 8W-6D-9L, 30 points (13th place in Vanarama National North)

As September ended I felt like we were playing better but just not getting results. We were getting good amounts of shots and chances, but not able to convert enough of them to pick up points. In October, things shift in our favor. The shots start to drop, the goals start to pile up, and our tactics seem have molded us into shape. The result is 4 wins, 1 draw, and 1 loss over the month in league play. We finish the month in 13th place, a good nine points clear of the relegation zone and eight places higher than where we started the month. The clubhouse mood is strong. We’re firing on all cylinders.

If I had to point to one reason for the better play, I’d have to say that I think it’s simply a matter of the newer players we’ve brought in getting into match shape and getting comfortable with their roles and with each other. We just look smoother. Our passing is better. Our defensive play is more confident. I’m not sure if we can keep this up over the back half, but it’s fun for the moment!

We’ve still got weaknesses, in particular out on the wings, but we’ve completely tapped out our wage budget now so we’ll just have to hope we’ve done enough with the roster as is. We’re also going to run into unhappy players shortly. Some players are grumbling already about playing time, and the lighter schedule isn’t going to make things better for them.

Looking ahead, our schedule slows down considerably going forward. We’ve only got three matches in November, one of which is the first match of the FA Trophy Cup. With fingers crossed, we start the second half of the season...

For more in-depth coverage and a look at our match versus Blyth:
Video Episode 3

[Nobby_McDonald]

Showing good improvement.

[Zilla Blitz]

7 hours ago, Nobby_McDonald said:

Showing good improvement.

Thanks! I'm not used to this with relegation-slated teams, but I'll enjoy it while it lasts!

[Zilla Blitz]

Club

Season 1: November 2020
The Beat Goes On

Record: 9W-7D-9L, 34 points (12th place in Vanarama National North)

A quiet month but solid month sees us nudge up in the standings to 12th place. In our only two league matches, we grind out a 1-0 win over a strong Darlington club then finish the month with a thundering 5-1 victory over Bradford PA. We also advance in the FA Trophy Cup with a tight win over Southport. The undefeated month sees me end up third in the Manager of the Month voting.

I’m a bit at a loss to explain the sudden rise in fortune and I keep feeling like the shoe is going to drop. In FM 19, I tried three times to keep relegation-slated Vanarama regional teams up and only barely succeeded once. To be sitting this high in the table at this point in the season feels a bit like fantasy-land. I can say that the budget with Nuneaton did give us a lot of room to bring in players, and not all the players we originally had were garbage. Our main striker, Luke Benbow, was on the team when we started, and we’re still using a handful of other players. So compared to the previous three times when I tried this with FM19, this attempt with FM20 is probably the easiest set up of them all.

But that aside, we’ll enjoy this while it lasts. To be in the top half of the table heading into December is a glorious feeling. We’ll just keep taking matches one at a time and see how this goes.
 

Edited December 11, 2019 by Zilla Blitz

[Zilla Blitz]

Club

Season 1: December 2020
Playoffs?!?

Record: 10W-8D-9L, 38 points (10th place in Vanarama National North)

In a light month of activity, we continue to defy the oddsmakers and slowly rise up the table. We only have two league matches. Chez Isaac, our newly acquired midfielder, blasts a 92nd-minute rocket into the top right corner to salvage a 1-1 draw against FC United, and we end the month with a solid 2-0 win over Needham Market. In between those matches we pick up an FA Trophy Cup win over Braintree to advance to the second round.

I’m still amazed at how well this team is playing. One third of the way through the season we were in 23rd place. We are now in 10th place and potentially chasing a playoff spot. A big reason, for sure, has been the additions of striker Harry Williams and central midfielder Chez Isaac. Williams has been a scoring beast that gives us multiple weapons up top. He can combine with our other striker Luke Benbow, and our attacking midfielder Rafferty Pedder has more targets to feed. Similarly, Chez Isaac has been a big upgrade in central midfield. The guy plays like his hair is on fire. He’s everywhere at once and creates so many problems for other teams to solve. It’s no coincidence that our good run of form started with their insertion into the starting eleven.

January will be a huge test. We’ve had some matches cancelled in December due to bad field conditions, and those rematches have fallen in early January, giving us a packed schedule again, with some tough opponents throughout. We’ll need all our team depth to keep the run going.

January Video is up.
 

[Zilla Blitz]

Club

Season 1: January 2021
Riding the Edge of the Playoff Zone

Record: 15W-9D-10L, 54 points (7th place in Vanarama National North)

A packed January schedule is made even tougher to navigate thanks to a couple of key injuries, but we make it through the month with 4 wins, 2 draws, and 1 loss in league play. The play lifts us three spots in the standings, and we end the month in 7th place, the last playoff spot.

A lot of our results come from late heroics, goals in the 80th minute or later kind of stuff. For whatever reason, this team just doesn’t seem to give up. It’s been fun watching them play. Our only league loss of the month comes against first place Boston United, who also beat us earlier in the month in FA Trophy Cup play. 3 matches against Boston this year and 3 losses. We just don’t have quite enough to take on the top team … yet.

12 matches left and we suddenly find ourselves in a playoff battle instead of a relegation battle. Considering we were in 21st place after 18 matches, I’m certainly thrilled with how things have gone. The playoffs would be gravy on a good season, but now that we’ve got hold of 7th place, I’d like to keep hold of it and finish the deal.

Four matches coming up in February, each and every one of them important for reaching the playoffs! Go Yellow Pokemon Bears!

February Video is up.

Edited December 12, 2019 by Zilla Blitz

[Zilla Blitz]

Club

Season 1: February 2021
Slipping, but not Sliding

Notes

We start the month by extracting revenge for our Boston United defeat on King’s Lynn Town, pasting them 3-0. A close 2-1 win against Altrincham follows, but our results tail off at the end of the month. We draw to 22nd-place Blyth, then lose at home to mid-table Spennymoor. 

Fortunately, the teams around us in the standings fare no better, and we end the month still lodged in 7th place, 6 points up on 8th place Gateshead, and 2 points back of 6th place Darlington.

It’d be nice to make the playoffs, for sure, but in all honesty I don’t think we’re ready to make the jump to the National League. We started pretty much from scratch building a team this year, and we’ve got little to no talent that is ready for another promotion. Of course we’ll take on the challenge if we go up, but I think another year to bring in a few more strong players wouldn’t hurt at all.

But eight matches to go and we’re right in the thick of things! Onward!

March Video is up.
 

Edited December 14, 2019 by Zilla Blitz

[Nobby_McDonald]

You should make the playoffs.

[Zilla Blitz]

45 minutes ago, Nobby_McDonald said:

You should make the playoffs.

I agree, but I always feel like I'm one step from tumbling into the abyss with this game.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Confident thoughts Zilla...

[Zilla Blitz]

Club 

Season 1: March 2021
Let’s All Be Mediocre

Another month of mixed results. We net three draws and a strong win against Hartlepool, but it’s clear the magic has faded. Losing our Left Back to a month-long injury and Chez Isaac, our best midfielder, to a 3-match ban hasn’t helped either. 

Fortunately, everyone around us struggles as well. With four matches to go, we find ourselves on the cusp of securing a playoff spot. We’ve just got to seal the deal.

For more details and an advanced look at next month:
April Video is up.
 

[Nobby_McDonald]

Still in the hunt...

[Zilla Blitz]

16 minutes ago, Nobby_McDonald said:

Confident thoughts Zilla...

Thanks! The other teams below us seem to be determined to give us the playoff spot, which is helping a lot. Seems like whatever team gets to 8th place immediately implodes. Very nice of them.

[Zilla Blitz]

Club

 

Season 1: April 2021
Playoffs!

Notes

With the continued help of the faltering 8th and 9th place teams and a huge 5-1 win over Southport, we lock up 7th place with two matches to spare! On the whole, we play like Jekyll & Hyde during the month, with two disappointing losses and two inspiring wins.

We’ll face Darlington on the road for our first playoff matchup. We’ll need to win three road matches to gain promotion. A tall order for sure, and our road performance hasn’t been strong.

First Playoff Video is up.
 

[Zilla Blitz]

Club

 

Season 1: May 2021
Playoffs vs. Darlington

Darlington controls the first third of the match, outshoots us, and goes up 1-0 just before 30 minutes. We shift our tactics and things balance out a bit, but our offense just cannot find a way. We have a disappointing lack of chances and fall 1-0. Our first season is done.

On the whole, however, we have to be thrilled with the first season. We were in 21st place after 18 matches, then cranked it up and roared up the standings for the middle third of the season. Securing 7th place in our first season feels like a solid foundation to build from.

Time to move on to Season 2! Really looking forward to it.

Season Wrap Video is up.
 

[Zilla Blitz]

 

Season 1 Summary: 2020-21
Season Review | Table | Manager Profile | Transfers: 1, 2

Season Notes
Nuneaton Town were slated for relegation as a newly promoted team, but had a handful of decent players on the team and over £4k in wage room. Nevertheless, we started out the season horribly and sat in 21st place after 18 matches. But our reinforcements started clicking and led us on a long charge through the middle of the season that saw us rise to 7th place. We hung on to that playoff spot for the back third of the season, but got eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. We’ll be back next year!

Year-by-Year Results

Season	     Club            Division	     Position	Champions League    Notes	
2020-21	     Nuneaton Town   National North  7th        -                   Lost in 1st Round of Playoffs

Season Two Preview Video

[Zilla Blitz]

Club

 

Season 2: Summer Preseason 2021
Leveling Up?

Onward to Season 2!

We have a busy three months spanning from early May until the end of July. Our hopes are to accomplish two main goals: retaining the half dozen or so players we want to bring back, and replacing our expensive unproductive players with better ones. For the most part, I feel like we accomplish both of our goals.

Most of the players we wanted to bring back were demanding exorbitant wages early in May. We held out until Mid-June and as the new season dawned their demands lessened. We end up bringing back everyone we hoped to get back.

That still leaves us with a lot of holes, and we spend a lot of time bringing in outside backs, center backs, and wings. We get notice that our team has risen in reputation, which I think is helping us attract some better players than we were able to get last year. Over the course of a couple of months our team comes together with some promising signings. As we head to the start of the season, the media predicts a second-place finish. I do feel like we have the ingredients to make something good, but getting results out of this will be our next challenge…

Season 2 Opening Day Episode is Up
 

Edited December 21, 2019 by Zilla Blitz

[Nobby_McDonald]

Decent enough first season.

[Zilla Blitz]

1 hour ago, Nobby_McDonald said:

Decent enough first season.

Yeah, I'm still learning the game. I was super happy with how that went. I tried the same thing in FM19 three different times and only stayed up once, and barely. So to get 7th felt pretty good.

[Zilla Blitz]

Club

 

Season 2: August 2021
Rolling

Record: 8W-1D-1L, 25 points (2nd place in Vanarama National North)

The season starts with a shocker of an off-field announcement: The team is up for sale and board takeover is underway. I respond by spending the rest of my wage budget in case an embargo is imposed while the sale goes through.

On the field, things start out marvelously well. Our new signings look to be the real deal, and they blend well with the better players we kept from last year. We are thundering over opponents. By the end of the month we’ve piled up 8 wins against 1 loss and 1 draw.

You’d think that this sort of performance would see us sitting well atop the National North, but we have a problem. South Shields, a professional club with tons of resources, got promoted to our league for this season, and they look invincible. They have yet to lose, and have a single draw to their record so far. I’m not sure how we can compete with them, but we’ll give it our best.

It’s very early to be drawing conclusions as to how the season will end, but at the moment I feel like we can’t afford to drop any points if we’re going to have a chance, and it certainly puts a lot of weight on each match. Fun times, hoping we can keep up our winning run!

Season 2 Episode 2 is up on YouTube.

[Zilla Blitz]

Club

 

Season 2: September 2021
Still Rumbling Along

Record: 14W-1D-2L, 43 points (1st place in Vanarama National North)

Our good form continues through September, as we hit on all cylinders. We roll to 6 league wins and only a 1-0 loss to 3rd place Chester tarnishes the month. Even better, South Shields comes back to earth and slips up frequently enough that we slip by them in the standings by the slimmest of margins. With Chester right on their heels, this is shaping up to be a three-way race for the title.

On a personal note, the results get me my first Manager of the Month award. After coming close a number of times in the past couple of years, it’s nice to pick one of these up.

The month hasn’t been without challenges, however. The packed schedule has us juggling lineups to try to prevent wear and tear on our players, and we’re starting to pick up a number of injuries due to the large number of matches.

Heading into next month, things will stay busy, with 2-3 matches all the way through the month. I’m hopeful we can hold together, as there definitely isn’t room to slip up, with Chester and South Shields right on our heels.

Season 2 Episode 3 Showdown vs. South Shields is up.
 

[Zilla Blitz]

Club

 

Season 2: October 2021
A Turn of Form

Manager Notes
We start the month well, but the three months of two matches per week finally takes its toll on us in the back half of the month. We stumble and drop out of the FA Cup against National League relegation candidate Chorley, then sandwich losses around a great match against second-place South Shields. All in all we pick up 4 league wins against 2 losses, but we end the month on a concerning turn of form.

One of the reasons that we’re struggling is injury. We’ve lost our league-leading striker, Ne-Nayeh, to a groin injury, and our best right winger to an ankle injury. With two of our best three offensive players out, we just can’t find the net.

On a positive note, we still end the month in first place, as both South Shields and Chester struggle to keep up their torrid first half pace as well.

Looking ahead, we’re through the brutal part of our schedule and have a light November match schedule on the horizon. Both of our injured players should be back in the lineup by the end of next month. If we can hold on to first place during the next month, maybe we can find our good form again with a healthy lineup.

Season 2 Episode 4 FA Trophy Cup Match vs. Guiseley is up on YouTube.
 

Edited December 30, 2019 by Zilla Blitz

[Nobby_McDonald]

Excellent first half to the season.

[Zilla Blitz]

8 hours ago, Nobby_McDonald said:

Excellent first half to the season.

Thanks! Now if only South Shield would implode and fade away.

[Zilla Blitz]

Club

 

Season 2: November 2021
Perhaps Back on Track

Manager Notes
In a surprisingly quiet month, we appear to have righted the ship…perhaps. We start out with another disastrous loss, a 3-0 thrashing at the hands of Harrogate. The loss cuts our 1st-place margin to 2 points, with both South Shields and Chester right on our necks. But we win our last two matches of the month in strong fashion. At month’s end, we’re 4 points up on South Shields and 5 points up on Chester.

Our injured players are back and getting into match shape, which appears to be helping. We’re also developing and starting to use a second formation, a 4-3-3 with a bit more of a defensive emphasis. It seems that a lot of teams have figured out our 4-2-4, and I’m hoping that we can mix things up a bit to keep teams off guard. Initial results are good. We score less but concede less, and teams struggle to get shots on us.

Lastly, we’re getting rumors again of an impending sale of the club. Last time it turned out to be nothing, but who knows? That would certainly make things interesting!

Looking ahead, we’ve got a pretty manageable string of easier opponents lined up for December. I’m hopeful we can go on a nice run here and open up some distance between us and second-place South Shields. Somehow, though, I feel our chances of leaving them behind is slim, and we’re going to need every point we can possibly get to pull this off.

Season 2 Episode 5 is up on YouTube.
 

[Zilla Blitz]

Club

 

Season 2: December 2021
Steady as She Goes

Manager Notes
We roll through December, as we win our four league matches and knock Telford United out of the FA Trophy Cup as a bonus. The month opens up a 9-point edge over second-place South Shields, who play well but not at our pace. The perfect month gets me a second Manager of the Month award. Yippee!

There are concerns, however. Yassine En-Nayeh, our star striker, can’t find the net after coming back from injury. Not only that, but he looks awful, missing sitters and easy shots and just generally playing like a shell of his former self. I’d feel a lot more comfortable about things if he were scoring.

Also, Chairman Jimmy keeps bouncing back and forth between “loving the club” and “selling the club.” I think we’ve had three such cycles, and then it ends with him saying that there is no way he’s selling. We’ll see.

Looking ahead, we’ve got a big month next month, with a 2nd-Round FA Trophy Cup away match against Ebbsfleet, who sit in 1st Place in the National League. It is simply the worst possible draw to get. We’ll also end the month with a huge match against South Shields. Big times coming!

For more info and a look at January: Season 2 Episode 6
 

[Zilla Blitz]

Club

 

Season 2: January 2022
A Two-Horse Race

Manager Notes
We start the month out with a tight 1-0 win over Darlington, then follow that with an awful performance against a weak Telford United. We rebound strongly, however, as we beat National League leader Ebbsfleet 2-1 in the FA Trophy Cup to send us on to the 3rd round. We win again after that against Stourbridge.

You’d think with all the winning we’d be pulling away from South Shields, but they just refuse to lose. By the end of the month they trail us by only 3 points, although we have a game in hand. We square off against them to end the month in what turns out to be an epic battle. Down 1-0, we storm back to tie then win on a 95th-minute daisy cutter from our right winger, Shionobare. The huge win puts our lead back to 6 points with a match in hand and 13 matches to go.

I’d like to feel more comfortable with this lead, but it seems as if South Shields is going to keep this interesting. I have a sense they aren’t done yet. We’ll need to keep winning to see this out.

For more info and an early look at February: Season 2 Episode 7
 

Edited January 3, 2020 by Zilla Blitz

[Zilla Blitz]

Club

 

Season 2: February 2022
Still a Two-Horse Race

Manager Notes
We continue our strong play, picking up 4 wins against just 1 draw during the month. Despite our success, South Shields wins all their matches and actually close on us. With 8 matches left for each of us, we hold a 7-point edge. The pressure is starting to mount, and we can feel South Shields right on our heels, just waiting for us to slip up.

We also have good success in the FA Trophy Cup, picking up a strong 3-0 win over National League opponent Yeovil Town, then pulling away from 4th-place Alfreton town with 3 goals in extra time to win 5-2 in a wild match. The wins see us through to the semi-final, against Braintree (National South) next month. A win in the two-legged playoff would get us a trip to Wembley for the final.

Looking ahead, it looks as if we can’t afford to drop points if we’re going to keep South Shields away from us. The only loss they have since January is against us last month, and they are blowing opponents off the pitch. Onward!

March's Double-Header Episode is up on YouTube

[Nobby_McDonald]

Nailing it Zilla.

[Zilla Blitz]

3 minutes ago, Nobby_McDonald said:

Nailing it Zilla.

Thanks! This might be the best season I've ever had in any version of FM ... so far. Just have to see it through. Not done yet...

[Zilla Blitz]

Club

 

Season 2: March 2022
On the Cusp of a Championship

Manager Notes
We slip off our pace, as we draw two league matches in the first half of the month that we should have won. Lucky us, though, as South Shields has a worse month. They even lose a match, only their second loss in 2022. Our two wins and two losses coupled with South Shields’ mortality stretches our lead to 10 points. It’d take an epic fail to blow this now, as all we have to do is win one of our last 4 matches. We stand on the doorstep of the title!

In other unexpected and good news, we beat Braintree in both legs of the FA Trophy Cup Semi-Final as well, so we’re heading to Wembley in mid-May to play in the final against Halifax Town!

All in all, March is simply a fantastic month! Now to April to try to wrap this up…

First April Match is  up on YouTube
 

Edited January 6, 2020 by Zilla Blitz

[Zilla Blitz]

 

Club

 

Season 2: April 2022
Championes!

Manager Notes
Chester rudely delays our championship celebration by crushing us 3-0 at home to start the month. I’m starting to get nervous that we’ll bottle this by losing our last four matches, but we rebound for a convincing 2-0 win against Bradford PA to clinch the Vanarama National North title. Champions! Woot!

We ride that high to two more wins to end the month, and end the season in first place by 12 points. We’re going up!

We still have a bit of work left to do this season, as we’ll prepare for the FA Trophy Cup Final next month against Halifax Town. Then it’ll be all hands on deck as we prepare this ship to sail up a league. Really excited for the next season! 

For more...
Championship Clincher Episode
FA Trophy Cup Final Episode

 

 

Edited January 8, 2020 by Zilla Blitz

[Zilla Blitz]

Club

Season 2 Summary 2021-22
Season Review | Table | Manager Profile

Season Notes
Nuneaton Town’s board challenged the team to make the playoffs, but the team exceeded expectations in every way. New signings blended well with returning players, and victories came in bunches. In the second month, Nuneaton reached first place, which it held for the remainder of the campaign. By the end, the team set league records for wins and points, and topped the campaign off with a surprising FA Trophy Cup win to earn the double.

Now new challenges await, as the club must navigate the tricky waters of promotion, and will go from big fish in a little pond to little fish in a big pond. Onward to Season 3! 

Year-by-Year Results
 

Season	     Club            Division	     Position	Champions League    Notes	
2020-21	     Nuneaton Town   National North  7th        -                   Lost in 1st Round of Playoffs
2021-22      Nuneaton Town   National North  1st        -                   Promoted, Won FA Trophy Cup

For More Details:
Season Wrap Up Episode

Edited January 10, 2020 by Zilla Blitz

[Zilla Blitz]

Club

 

Season 3: Summer Preseason 2022
Big Fish to Little Fish

Because of our participation in the FA Trophy Cup Final in mid-May, we get a late start on our offseason, and with promotion right in front of us, the offseason is doubly challenging. We have a lot of work to do to make the jump to the next level.

As a general thought, we’re hoping to re-sign the top half of our team and not carry the bottom half of the team with us. We did well enough in the FA Trophy Cup against National League teams that it makes me think our better players can play up a level. If we can surround them with some improvements, I’m hopeful that we’ll have enough about us to stay up next year. The board lets us know that the expectations are to stay up and no more.

It’s not until mid-June that things start to take shape. We manager to re-sign most of our targets, but we lose our promising right back to a team from Ghana. By the time we hit the end of June, we’ve got most of a team together. In late June and July we add a dozen or so free agents, a few of them Premier League washouts. By the time we get to the start of the season, we’re largely in good shape.

We could use improvements at left back, keeper, central defender, and striker, but we’ve got enough about us as is that the media rankings at the start of the year have us listed as contenders for first place, which makes me wonder what kind of drugs the media take. It’s with decided confusion that we enter the season with a media prediction of first and board expectations of avoiding last. We’ll see where this goes!

Season 3 Opening Episode is Up on YouTube.
 

Edited January 14, 2020 by Zilla Blitz

[Zilla Blitz]

Club

 

Season 3: August 2022
A Red Hot Start

Manager Notes
After an initial speed bump, we roar out of the gate in our inaugural season in the National League. We end the month with six wins and a draw, good enough to see us top of the table. Things are clicking at both ends of the pitch. On offense, our #1 striker, Yassine En-Nayeh, racks up 8 goals in the 7 matches. On defense, once we switch in our new keeper, we shut teams down, picking up four clean sheets over the time span. The results are good enough that I pick up the Manager of the Month award as well.

Acquisition-wise, we spend the month combing the loan market and pick up a half dozen players who should help fill positions of relative weakness. To prevent the team from falling into rebellion, we loan out a half dozen of our weaker players to offset the additions.

I’m somewhat at a loss to explain things, as a good portion of our team is the same from our previous year in the National North. The additions we’ve brought in are surely helping, but maybe there just isn’t that much of a difference between the National North and the National League?

In any case, we’ll enjoy the ride while it lasts!

Season 3 Episode 2 is up on YouTube.
 

Edited January 16, 2020 by Zilla Blitz

[Nobby_McDonald]

You're nailing it Zilla.