[FM23] NK Dornava - youth only in Slovenia

[DaneBramage]

New laptop, new career. I lost my Swedish save with the demise of my old computer, but I enjoyed it enough to give youth only another go.

This time I'm off to Slovenia, and upgrading to FM23. I know FM24 is just on the horizon, but I'm unlikely to get it any time soon. I never played FM23 much, going back to FM20 instead, so I should put some time into it.

The Slovenian pyramid has three main levels, before breaking down into regional leagues from the fourth tier down. The Ptuj region goes down to level 6, so this seems like a good place to begin.

[DaneBramage]

I chose NK Dornava to manage, mainly because it's the easiest name in the division to type. Trying to remember Zgornja Polskava or Polskava avtop. Groblenik on a regular basis wouldn't have been fun.

According to the Club Info page they were formed in 1954, and the play at Igrisce Dornava. And that's about all the info there is. There's no player or competition history, and Google isn't finding much easier. So I can only assume they've never been up to much previously.

But there must be something about them, as the odds to get promoted are ridiculously short. I've suffered plenty of FM failures before, but screwing this up would probably be a new low. With expectations this higher the pressure will be on from the start.

In addition to the six Slovenian tiers, the top two divisions from each of the neighbouring nations and main countries around Europe have also been loaded.

Spoiler

 

Edited October 23, 2023 by DaneBramage

[DaneBramage]

NK Dornava

Finances

It goes without saying that there's not much money at this level of the game, so a bank balance of less than £10k was to be expected. We're an amateur club (along with every other side in this league) so nobody's being paid, but I'm sure we'll still lose money from travel expense, ground maintenance, etc.

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Facilities

Very much as you'd expect at this level. Upgrading them as soon as possible is a must.

Poor training facilities, poor youth facilities, basic academy coaching, limited youth recruitment.

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Senior Squad

As the only real player in the squad Kristijan Ratek appears to be the star. He's 36 though, so not someone I'll be able to rely on for long. There's not a lot of current ability in the squad, so it'll be a case of just going for it and seeing who stands out.

The lack of determination and ambition in the centre of defence is worrying, and the less said about the personalities of the strikers the better.

Spoiler

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Under 19s

A lot of potential apparently, though of course that means very little with this standard of player. And the lack of ambition makes me wonder how they even make it into training each session.

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Edited October 23, 2023 by DaneBramage

[Jimbokav1971]

New laptop? Surely time for FM24 too? 

[DaneBramage]

3 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

New laptop? Surely time for FM24 too? 

Probably not. I've never been in the habit of picking up the new one every year, and I think at this point the next one I buy will likely be the first with the WSL involved. I watch more women's football than men's these days, so that will be a big selling point for me.

Steam tells me that I've 'only' spent 400+ hours on FM23 compared to 2,700+ with FM20 so there's unfinished business with this version. Mainly that I don't think I've had a single proper long-term successful career with it.

[DaneBramage]

NK Dornava - February 2023

MNZ Ptuj 2. Class

See if you can spot the point where I got fed up with not winning games, and then switched to Instant Result?

Of course it's the big win over Zgornja Polskava, and we've been flying since. It's not that we were playing badly before that, it's just that we weren't scoring. And before I smashed the Berate Team button one time too many, I decided it was time to hand things over to the AssMan instead.

He clearly knows what he's doing as the goals have been flowing, in particular Darko Kolar has been filling his boots. Hat-tricks in successive games, and he's leading the way with 10 goals in 11 appearances.

Spoiler

The fixture schedule is as annoying at it looks. We generally only have one league game a month, and a few friendlies in between to keep fresh. We're currently partway through a two month break (though other teams have played in February), and our next match is on 11th March. We then have one more in April, before two more in May to finish off the season.

When I saw our odds at the start of the season were 79/1 on, I did wonder if it would be a walkover. Three draws in the first four games stopped that being the case, but we are now top and looking comfortable. I'd be annoyed if we dropped any more points. It would be fun to be the only team finishing with a positive goal difference too.

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Pokal Slovenije

I didn't expect much of a cup run, the win over Hotiza in the preliminary round was surprising. They're two divisions above us (though in a different region), but when the draw was announced the news story referred to us as the bigger team. We handled them with ease, I suppose maybe the difference between teams in the fourth, fifth, and sixth tiers isn't that distinct.

In the first round proper we drew Svoboda Ljubljana, from the third tier. There was a clear step up in class here, and going down to 10 men in the 30th minute didn't help. We certainly gave it a good fight, but it wasn't as close as the scoreline looks, we were just deadly with our striking. Our three goals came from 10 shots (three on target) and an xG of 1.07, while they managed 30 shots (10 on target) and an xG of 3.63.

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Goalkeepers

I'm stealing borrowing a gimmick from @Jimbokav1971 here and going for a goalscoring keeper.

Dario Polegek had a chance to open his account on the first day of the season, but had a penalty saved. He redeemed himself later on in the same game though, saving a penalty of his own at the other end.

Since then he's been more successful with four goals in ten games, two coming from the spot and two from free-kicks.

Spoiler

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Youth Preview

For what it's worth, bright things are currently expected from the upcoming batch.

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Edited October 24, 2023 by DaneBramage

[DaneBramage]

NK Dornava - 2023 Youth Intake

A golden generation!

 - Stayed the same as the preview.

Five elite talents, and 11 top talents.

Of course, that's probably all nonsense. At this level they're all rubbish anyway, and with everyone showing as 5.0 PA it's impossible to spot if anyone may be better than anyone else.

No one can play until they're 17 so they won't make any appearances over the end of the season, it won't be until next year that they can be involved.

23e Dominique Burgher is the one that's caught my eye, though that's just because of the Jamaican second nationality.

Everyone has been 'signed', though since we're currently an amateur club and contracts aren't worth the paper they're written on, it's more like we're just asking their mums to bring them along again next week.

[DaneBramage]

NK Dornava - May 2023

MNZ Ptuj 2. Class

Three more big wins, and one underwhelming draw. 

I tried rotating the team a bit and give a few Under 19s some gametime, but probably weakened the side too much against Leskovec. Annoyingly it means we drew both games with them, the only side we didn't beat at least once this year. 

Easy.

To be honest I probably could have given my laptop to my niece and told her to keep pressing continue for a few hours and ended up with much the same outcome.

We won a whopping £862 for achieving promotion from the sixth tier.

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Goalkeepers

Dario Polegek scored another penalty, making it a total of five goals for the season.

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[DaneBramage]

NK Dornava - 2022/23 Season Review

History, Finances, and Facilities

Promotion secured at the first attempt, lovely stuff.

I've asked four times for upgrades to the facilities, and been knocked back four times. I thought after promotion was assured they'd change their minds, but nope, nothing. Apparently they're 'already good enough for a club our size'. 

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Squad Stats

A whole lot of great performances here.

Darko Kolar is obviously the star man, top goalscorer, top creator, and highest rating.

A shoutout to Alen Struna, making the most of his one silver star with eight goals in just eight hours.

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[DaneBramage]

NK Dornava - 2023 Pre-Season

Finances and Facilities

We're rich!

  

Relatively speaking, anyway. Definitely a lot more money than expected for this level, but I'll happily take it.

I'd been trying throughout the summer break to get our facilities upgraded without any luck, but on the eve of the season a first improvement was finally approved.

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Departures

As an amateur club there's not much we can do if other teams come in for our players, apart from ask them to stay and hope for the best.

For the most part we managed to keep everyone, losing just left-back Kristijan Ratek. I was fine with him leaving, he was the only real player in the squad but at 37 years old his time was running out and he'd have been taken out of the starting line-up this year anyway.

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Job Interviews

I was in demand with seven different clubs inviting me to an interview. Most were from the fourth and fifth tiers, but the most high profile was Svoboda Ljubljana in the third tier.

Spoiler

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Edited October 26, 2023 by DaneBramage

[DaneBramage]

NK Dornava - November 2023

MNZ Ptuj 1. Class

We're smashing our way through the league again, battering (nearly) everybody who steps into our path.

The one exception was against Trzec, and I can't really say we deserved any more, it was a pretty even tie. I'll put it down to it being the first game of the session today, and RNG not favouring me.

23e Dominique Burgher is the first of our graduates to turn 17, and he was thrown straight into the first-team against Makole Bar Miha. He responded with a goal on his debut.

Darko Kolar is continuing his goalscoring form with 10 goals so far, averaging a strike every 50 minutes.

With eight teams in this division we have two extra games this year, and that in part is why the opening of the season has been busier than last year.

However, it is also because there's a massive winter break - it's now four months until we play again.

When the campaign resumes in March we have six games remaining.

It would take a full-on collapse to not get promoted.

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Pokal Slovenije

Idrija are in the fourth tier, but we really should have won this game. We had far more possession, shots, and xG, but just couldn't get the ball in the net. It looked like we'd be dropping out at the first time of asking, but a penalty deep into stoppage-time put the ball back in our court. It just delayed the pain though. We didn't make the most of our second chance and lost 5-4 in the shootout.

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Goalkeepers

Dario Polegek is in decent scoring form with three goals from nine games, made up of two penalties and a free-kick.

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[DaneBramage]

NK Dornava - March 2024

Facilities

After a bit of prodding I managed to get another upgrade approved. Still at a very low level, but it's a start.

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Departures

During the four month break our starting goalie was stolen away. For some reason Dario Polegek thought dropping down a division was a good idea. He ended his career here with eight goals in 23 games (and 10 clean sheets).

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Goalkeepers

We're now left with a selection of young keepers.

All pretty similar in terms of PA and CA, so it will be 23a Nemanja Jeric getting the nod. Not just because he's one of my academy graduates, but also for being a couple of inches taller.

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Youth Preview

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[DaneBramage]

NK Dornava - 2024 Youth Intake

A golden generation!

 - Stayed the same as the preview.

Seven elite talents and nine top talents.

With everyone's PA rated at 5.0 stars it's hard to really pick out if anyone actually has any potential. So the standout is 24f Andraz Cukjati based on his 2.5 CA.

For a second year in a row a goalkeeper is apparently the highest rated PA. Though I've always been of the opinion that players with the same PA stars aren't ranked individually. I think 5.0 star players are just grouped together, and not necessarily listed as the best 5.0 player, then the second best 5.0 player, and so on.

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[DaneBramage]

NK Dornava - June 2024

MNZ Ptuj 1. Class

Lots of the 2023 youth intake have now turned 17 and are available for selection, and several of them have been filtered into the starting line-up over the final games of the season. Results have stayed strong, but performances did drop a bit. We stopped smashing everyone in our path, and although we carried on winning regularly, we were conceding more and the winning margins weren't as high.

Goalkeeper 23a Nemanja Jeric scored from the spot on his debut, and 23e Dominique Burgher picked up a first assist on the final day.

Easy, again. 

£2.15k prize money for winning the division, and adding a second trophy to the cabinet.

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Goalkeepers

23a Nemanja Jeric was thrown straight into the first-team and was a bit expensive at first, conceding two goals in each of his first three games.

His form improved and he responded with a couple of clean sheets, and he also scored two penalties and a free-kick.

Spoiler

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[DaneBramage]

NK Dornava - 2023/34 Season Review

History, Finances, and Facilities

Back-to-back promotions, lovely stuff.

Nearly £30k profit, and a couple of upgrades too. Lots to be happy with this season.

Next season we'll be up in the fourth tier, and after steamrolling through these first two years that might be where the challenge begins. 

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Squad Stats

Lots of good performances again, with Darko Kolar the standout performer again. Over the two years he has a total of 33 goals in 29 games.

The main creator was Matija Kovacevic with nine assists coming from midfield.

It's perhaps a little disappointing that nobody else offered a high individual tally, but that's a minor quibble as contributions were split around the team instead.

The stats suggest that Bojan Panic should have seen more gametime, but he was the first victim of an academy player coming through in his position.

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[DaneBramage]

NK Dornava - September 2024

Finances and Facilities

Once promotion was confirmed the board announced we would be becoming a semi-pro side. 

The news item said that we'd be able to offer contracts to players now, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I can't offer contracts to the senior players, but a bunch of the youth players have automatically been put on to £25 per week. So I'm not really sure how it works.

We've received our annual sponsorship payment of £52k so we've now got more than £70k in the bank, but any requests for upgrades were denied.

We made almost £30k profit last year, I assume it won't be as much this time due to the wages we're paying, but this will be offset somewhat due to the additional games and larger attendances.

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Departures

No one of note left, just a few squad players who weren't involved much. Makes the team selection screen easier without them clogging it up, and also opens the door for more places on the bench for academy players.

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MNZ Ptuj Super Liga

An unbeaten start to the season, and nine points from a possible 15.

I'll take it, but at the same time it could easily have been both a lot better and a lot worse.

Against Boc we had an xG of 2.65 from 21 shots (five on target), and against Grajena it was much the same story, xG of 3.02 from 24 shots (six on target), including a missed penalty. We should have won both those games.

At the same time though, we only grabbed a point from each of the Grajena and Stojnci games due to equalisers in stoppage-time. We did well to avoid a pair of losses there (which would have been my first in the league).

I'm glad we're now playing in a league with more teams and more games so our schedule is more consistent. There's still an obscene four month winter break, but other than that I don't think we ever go more than a week without a game.

It looks like we'll be in the mix this year, though a third successive promotion might not be on the cards. Top spot isn't automatically promoted, there seems to be some sort of play-off system with the winners of seven regional divisions aiming for four promotion places.

Either way, relegation shouldn't be a possibility.

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Pokal Slovenije

Very frustrating. We smashed Gerecja Vas just a few days before we did the same to them in the league, but then got eliminated by a Cerkvenjak side a tier below us (although in a different region).

I can't even blame a rotated side, it was mostly full-strength and should have been enough to get the win.

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Goalkeepers

23a Nemaja Jeric missed a penalty against Grajena which could have seen us take the win, but he's scored two more penalties since.

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[DaneBramage]

NK Dornava - October 2024

MNZ Ptuj Super Liga

I don't know what I did, but I think I've offended the FM Gods.

After 32 league games unbeaten we've collapsed and lost three in a row. The Zavrc game was pretty even, a low quality affair, and they just happened to get the only goal. But against both Podvinci and Ormoz we were awful and convincingly defeated.

Our previously reliable striker, Darko Kolar, has been absolutely terrible this year and can't hit a barndoor, and no one else is stepping up to provide the goals instead (though at least 23e Dominique Burgher had a good month).

38 minutes ago, DaneBramage said:

Either way, relegation shouldn't be a possibility.

Did I speak too soon? We still have a six point margin above last place, but our form stinks.

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Goalkeepers

23a Nemanja Jeric scored a penalty to make it three for the season, at a success rate of 75%.

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[DaneBramage]

NK Dornava - November 2024

MNZ Ptuj Super Liga

To stop our losing streak I put the AssMan in charge of team selection for the final few games before the winter break. This choice paid off immediately with Bostjan Kralj finding a stoppage-time winner at Gorisnica. We probably just about deserved the win.

We didn't deserve anything against Bukovci though, and it was a disappointing home loss, at which I threw a strop and gave up for the day.

Loaded the save back up this afternoon and struggling Boc were the ideal opposition. We hammered them, Mitja Korosec providing the spark with the opening goal and a couple of assists.

Any worries caused by our poor October can probably be put to one side for now. I'm back in the mind that we won't be pulled into a relegation fight.

Promotion is off the cards too, so as long as we don't come 12th it really doesn't matter where we end up.

We're averaging roughly three academy starters per game (40 combined starts in 14 matches, including the cup), so we have a bit of freedom to increase that over the second half of the season.

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Goalkeepers

23a Nemanja Jeric is our joint-second highest scorer at present, adding a penalty and an assist this month to make it five for the season so far.

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Finances and Facilities

Our financial situation is still comfortable, with just over £54k in the bank.

A couple of requests were granted, as our junior coaching was improved and we're allowed to hire another coach.

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[DaneBramage]

NK Dornava - 2025 Youth Intake

A golden generation!

16 elite talents.

Oh my! This is quite the intake. Obviously they're not actually good, but for this much CA to be on show already plenty of these players could make an impact on the team straight away.

Apart from the fact that we can only start players 17 or older, so they'll have to wait for now. But I'm excited to end this season and start having them available next year.

In the tryout match they smashed our Under 19s 8-1.

We don't use a DMC or AMC, so I'll have to have a think about where 25a Aljosa Gulic and 25c Marko Vodopivec will fit in.

Spoiler

Spoiler

Here's 25b Primoz Repas, and how he looks compared to my current starting left-winger. He'll be a big improvement. His physicals aren't quite as good, but if you ignore the natural fitness it's a lot closer.

Spoiler

Our first-team has had its CA re-assessed following the new arrivals, and it's pretty extreme.

Only six players now have a CA above 1.0 stars, and only one higher than 2.5.

Edited November 1, 2023 by DaneBramage

[DaneBramage]

NK Dornava - April 2025

MNZ Ptuj Super Liga

Very inconsistent, very frustrating.

Thrashing Grajena was obviously the highlight, Darko Kolar finally getting his act together and scoring a brace. Shame he went back to being a donkey again immediately afterwards.

The nadir was the loss to Zavrc. 23n Gasper Kozel scoring his first goal for the club was a plus, but losing after leading 2-0 at the break is infuriating.

We look pretty much nailed on for a midtable finish, either 5th or 6th.

We play Gorisnica on the penultimate day, though with the stakes being this low I wouldn't go as far as calling it a potential six-pointer.

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Goalkeepers

23a Nemanja Jeric added three more penalties this period. He now has eight goals for the season, and is our joint-top scorer. That's quite the damning indictment of our forwards.

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[DaneBramage]

NK Dornava - May 2025

MNZ Ptuj Super Liga

A truly pathetic way to end the season.

In mitigation, it was a tough run with these four teams being the sides that placed 2nd-5th in the table, but only one point from this is weak.

23a Nemanja Jeric may not have scored this month, but he did save two penalties.

We ended up in 6th place, as expected at the start of the month.

The gap to Gorisnica tells the story though. From a one point deficit with hopes of 5th, we finished nine points down on them.

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[DaneBramage]

NK Dornava - 2024/25 Season Review

History, Finances, and Facilities

A good season as we survived with ease.

We made a profit and improved our junior coaching, and with the supposed quality of the 2025 youth intake I'm looking forward to next season.

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Squad Stats

Performances were generally down this year, and we scored fewer goals despite now playing more games. Nobody reached double figures, and goalie 23a Nemanja Jeric was joint-top scorer with eight goals (made up of seven penalties and one free-kick).

When the class of 25 start becoming available next year lots of these players will likely start being replaced.

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[DaneBramage]

NK Dornava - September 2025

MNZ Ptuj Super Liga

We continued as we left off, starting the season really poorly. Not just results, but performances too. We weren't too bad at the back and a couple of clean sheets allowed us to scrape a couple of draws, but just one goal from the first four games showed how ineffective we were going the other way and really limited how many points we could pick up. 

The draw with Markovci made it ten league games without a win, and things were getting pretty miserable. The team wanted a meeting about the poor atmosphere, and then got unhappy when I said they needed to improve results to make that happen.

Nonetheless, it happened next time out. 25o Gabor Kabole made his debut in defence, and in his 17th appearance, striker 23o Darko Irgolic finally scored his first goal for the club.

We were bottom of the table after four games, but at least we have a first win on the board now.

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Pokal Slovenije

We had the xG and the possession, but not the goals. Another early exit from the cup.

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[DaneBramage]

NK Dornava - November 2025

MNZ Ptuj Super Liga

The win at the end of September was a false dawn, as we've been absolutely rancid since then. I mentioned that our defence had been decent, but that's completely fallen apart and we're conceding by the bucketload.

There was one great game when everything came together against Zavrc and three academy players scored, but other than that it's been completely dreadful. It seems like they're actively trying to get me fired.

Back to the bottom of the table.

We have a four month break now, which is such a pain. And I've just noticed there's only ten teams in the league compared to 12 last year. I guess there's something wacky going on in how the rules have been set up for the regional divisions in this mod.

It's difficult to see where are next points are coming from.

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[DaneBramage]

NK Dornava - 2026 Youth Intake

A golden generation!

I've named the players based on potential, but I think the accuracy of that is even more in doubt when everyone is listed as 5.0 stars, and really CA is more important now so I've sorted them in that order. 

There's a lot of CA on show too, though not as much as last year. Still plenty of players who should get a chance when they turn 17, though some of the personalities are disappointing.

36c Ruben Magalhaes is immediately ranked as our second best player, but as he's only just turned 15 it will be nearly two years before I can select him. Hopefully he'll learn to cross in that time.

Spoiler

 

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Edited November 7, 2023 by DaneBramage

[DaneBramage]

NK Dornava - May 2026

MNZ Ptuj Super Liga

After how poor we were towards the tail end of 2025, I wasn't expecting much from the second half of the season. But it actually turned into a great run of form. 

It could have been the break that rejuvenated the players, or smashing a few rubbish teams in friendlies, or a few more 2025 academy graduates making their way into the team, but suddenly we were winning games again.

We limited Hajdina to an xG of just 0.1, and although we probably should have scored more, grabbing just the one was enough. We were losing to Markovci, but only for a few minutes. We won a penalty which saw them reduced to ten men, and after we scored from the spot it all went our way, and we got a second before half-time for the win.

We then battered Gorisnica with style, 25i Aljosa Curk getting a perfect 10/10 rating for his four goal showing. Beating Ormoz was a bit of a treat, as that was their only loss of the season.

The win over Bukovci was a smash and grab, we scored from just 0.23 xG and 23a Nemanja Jeric in goal was man of the match.

Blimey, wasn't expecting this a few months ago. We hauled our way up the table to finish in 4th place. A long way behind 2nd and 3rd, let alone the runaway winners, but at least we were best of the rest.

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Goalkeepers

23a Nemanja Jeric had a great few weeks in March and April, scoring three penalties in four games. His overall career record is 14 goals from 49 games.

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Edited November 8, 2023 by DaneBramage

[DaneBramage]

NK Dornava - 2025/26 Season Review

History, Finances, and Facilities

The board rejected any requests for upgrades during the season, but did concede that they'd improve the junior coaching if I committed to playing youth players throughout the year. Obviously that objective was easily met, so the improvement was applied at the end of the season.

The first half of the season had me worried that we'd be in a relegation battle, the big improvement after the winter break saw us surge up the table and actually finish higher than we did last year.

We've made a profit again this campaign. Still no luck getting anywhere in the cup though. Could really use getting through another round or two for a small reputation boost.

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Squad Stats

23a Nemanja Jeric took the fan's player of the season award for a second time.

We played 19 games over the season, and only eight players started at least half of these matches. There was a lot of upheaval and rotation while we were struggling, and then replacements when the 2025 academy graduates started coming through.

25i Aljosa Curk made the biggest impression of the debutants, finishing as our top scorer with seven goals. Assists were spread throughout the squad, nobody managing more than three, but 25b Primoz Repas reached this tally in just seven games. 

Our starting XI over the final few games of the season consisted of four original players, two 2023 graduates, one 2024 graduate, and four 2025 graduates.

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Edited November 8, 2023 by DaneBramage

[DaneBramage]

NK Dornava - September 2026

MNZ Ptuj Super Liga

We've made a flying start to the season with only two points dropped so far. All of our 2025 graduates are available now and it makes for a much stronger squad, especially in attack. 

The original players aren't getting much of a look in now, there have been several games where our entire starting line-up has been made up of youth players and that will only happen more and more going forward.

I don't think I've shown my tactic yet, so I'll drop that in here. It's nothing special, just a bog standard 4-4-2 from the tactic creator, with a few slight tweaks.

Spoiler

This is encouraging. We could well be in the mix this year.

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Pokal Slovenije

Our two cup ties were against sides at the same level as us, but in different regions.

We got through the prelim round easily enough, but then fell at the first round again. The Peca game was closer than the scoreline indicates, but they were clinical up front and we were not. Their goalie was also man of the match.

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Goalkeepers

23a Nemanja Jeric is off the mark with his first penalty of the season.

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Edited November 8, 2023 by DaneBramage

[DaneBramage]

Ignore.

Edited November 8, 2023 by DaneBramage

[DaneBramage]

NK Dornava - November 2026

Facilities

While we were doing well a couple of requests were put in. One was rejected, but our junior coaching was improved.

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MNZ Ptuj Super Liga

The good times continued, with just one big misstep.

We're scoring plenty of goals, with 25h Aleksandar Cerar in particular hitting a purple patch.

We hit a roadblock in the form of Bukovci though. The first-half was pretty even, but after the break they showed their superiority and picked up all three points in a dominating performance.

Spoiler

Looking strong in second place. The loss to Bukovci is the difference maker at the moment.

They're clearly the strongest team in the division. They have a striker with 21 goals already, and have finished in the top three each of the last four years. In one of these years they topped the table, but missed out on promotion through the play-offs.

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[DaneBramage]

NK Dornava - 2027 Youth Intake

The improvements made to our junior coaching are really taking effect now, as again the new batch of players outclasses anything that has come before. 

27a Borut Rozman is instantly rated as the best player at the club, and the next seven players listed below are also all in the top ten.

The players already at the club have had their CA stars re-assessed accordingly, and only three of them remained at 2.5 stars or above (4.5 for 25a Aljosa Gulic, 2.5 for 25c Marko Vodopivec and Matjaz Igerc).

No second nationalities is a bit boring though.

Spoiler

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[DaneBramage]

NK Dornava - May 2027

The draw against Grajena was hugely frustrating. Although a 93rd minute equaliser looks like a moral victory, only drawing a home tie with the team bottom of the table is not good enough. We were this close to a classic FMing, as our xG was 2.69 compared to their 0.16.

Annoyingly, we made the same mistake against Markovci, this time 1.97 xG to 0.25. And we completed the hat-trick of crap results with a 2-0 loss to Apace, which again went against the xG, though not as extreme (our 0.98 to their 0.42).

The loss to Apace ended our title hopes and Bukovci tied up the league with three games to play. Coincidentally our next game was hosting them, and with the pressure off we picked up the victory. Beating the champions is obviously an achievement, but it also added a bit of salt to the wound of the previous month. If we hadn't screwed up March and April we could have taken the title fight to the wire, but it wasn't to be.

We won our final two games to end the season on a high, but also with a tinge of regret.

Bukovci were just too strong for us. Although we had a very good season, one I am very happy with, we couldn't keep up with them. Their main striker ended up with 31 goals, averaging a strike every 44 minutes.

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Goalkeeper

23a Nemanja Jeric scored a penalty, just his second goal of the season. He now has a 93.33% accuracy rate from 15 attempts.

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[DaneBramage]

NK Dornava - 2026/27 Season Review

History, Finances, and Facilities

I made the usual requests at the end of the season, but the board are firmly refusing to improve our youth recruitment. Our junior coaching got another bump though, and I think it is now the third best in the country, behind only the big boys of Domzale and Olimpija Ljubljana. For reference, both of those teams are in the top division and Domzale have just been crowned champions, while we're in the fourth tier.

We set a new record high league position, and made another small profit.

The cup performance, or lack thereof, was a disappointment again though.

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Squad Stats

23a Nemanja Jeric had his lowest scoring season with just two penalty goals. But in terms of doing his actual job, he had his best season with seven clean sheets, conceding only 21 times in 20 games. He was the fan's player of the season for a third time in a row.

Top scorer was 25h Aleksandar Cerar with 13 goals, while 25a Aljosa Gulic and 25f Aleksandar Ernisa were the top creators with seven assists each.

There are only two original players left in the squad now. Peter Stancic is our back-up left-back, and Matjaz Igerc is the third-choice central midfielder. 

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Edited November 9, 2023 by DaneBramage

[DaneBramage]

NK Dornava - September 2027

MNZ Ptuj Super Liga

Excellent stuff. Four big wins and a draw.

It could have been ever better too, but unfortunately we missed a penalty against Ormoz. They were relegated back into this division this year, so I'll still take a point against them as a decent result.

Let's hope we can keep this up. 

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Pokal Slovenije

We're going on a cup run!

Or beating our previous best at least, as we've made it into the second round for the first time. The starting line-up for each of these games was entirely rotated (apart from the goalie) to rest the first-choice team for the league, and it shows how far we've grown already that the second string were good enough.

I was especially pleased with the victory over Interblock Ljubljana as they're in the league above us, albeit struggling at the bottom.

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Goalkeepers

23a Nemanja Jeric has already beaten his tally from last year with three goals so far, including our first goal of the season with a free-kick on the opening day. He did miss a penalty against Ormoz though.

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[DaneBramage]

NK Dornava - November 2027

Facilities

A message popped up that the board were happy with our performances this season, so while they were in a good mood I got our junior coaching upgraded again.

Still no movement on the youth recruitment though.

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MNZ Ptuj Super Liga

The goals started to slow down and while we pulled out a couple more wins, the complacency led to an atrocious hammering at home by Gorisnica.

I changed formation a little, going from 4-4-2 to 4-5-1. In part just to mix things up, and also because 27a Borut Rozman had now turned 17 and was available for selection, and I needed to find a way to get both him and 25a Aljosa Gulic into the team (both 4.5 star CA players). This gave us our groove back and we ended 2027 with a pair of big victories.

That's a pretty nice gap to have going into the winter break. I just wish we could keep going. 

But as always, the four month break allows more players from the last youth intake to become old enough to play, so we should be even stronger when we return,

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Pokal Slovenije

We received a couple of generous draws in the cup, both opposition coming from the leagues below. 

The second string made easy work of this, though the game against Panonija did include a couple of first-team starters as it was our last match before the winter break, so I didn't need to worry about resting them.

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Goalkeepers

23a Nemanja Jeric added another penalty to make it 20 career goals to date.

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[DaneBramage]

NK Dornava - April 2028

Pokal Slovenije

We managed a second cupset this season, knocking out Smartno from the third tier. They're struggling to stay out of the relegation area, but if they were hoping for a better time of it in the cup we were having none of that and battered them.

That put us into the quarter-finals, and at this point only the big boys were left. All possible opponents were from the 1. SNL, so it was almost inevitable that our cup run was over. We didn't stand a chance against Bravo, but I don't think we were embarrassed in defeat. 

We received £10k in prize money for reaching this stage.

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[DaneBramage]

NK Dornava - 2028 Youth Intake

Another excellent intake! They just keep coming.

Our junior coaching is topped out now, so I guess this is pretty much the ceiling for now (until our reputation improves). So potentially future intakes won't immediately look better than the last each time.

28a Sasa Pirc is rated the best player at the club on arrival, and does look like a good player. In fact, the top nine players from this group are now rated the best nine players at the club.

The previous highest rated player, 27a Borut Rozman, had a CA which varied between 4.5 and 5.0 over the last few months. It's now been re-assessed to 2.5 stars.

There's one new nationality, a Ukrainian.

In the tryout match they beat the Under 19s 7-0.

Spoiler

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Edited November 10, 2023 by DaneBramage

[DaneBramage]

NK Dornava - May 2028

MNZ Ptuj Super Liga

Boom!

Goals, goals, goals, and wins, wins, wins. Seven in a row to be precise.

The title was sewn up with three games to and though we still won those final games even when the pressure was off, we made hard work of it.

Champions!

But that's not it. We now go into some sort of play-off system, which I'm not sure I fully understand yet. Fingers crossed.

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Goalkeepers

A penalty from 23a Nemanja Jeric made it five goals for the season.

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[DaneBramage]

NK Dornava - June 2028

The play-off system is actually pretty simple. There are three promotion spots available, but seven divisions at this level.

Two teams play each other so one is eliminated (though don't ask me how those two were chosen), leaving six teams. They then split into three games, and the winners go up.

Promotion Play-Off Final

We were forced into a couple of changes, as our first-choice left-winger was suspended for accumulated bookings, and the right-sided centre-back wasn't fully fit after taking a knock in the final game of the regular season. 25c Marko Vodovipec was fit again though to take his spot as the ball-winning midfielder.

Any worries we might have had about the team possibly being a little incohesive were swiftly put to rest as we took the lead in less than 120 seconds through a sweet strike from 25a Aljosa Gulic. We dominated the game from that point onwards, and his second goal half an hour later firmly put us in command. He then clinched his hat-trick after the break, and two late goals capped off the rout.

Promotion! And we received just under £16k in prize money.

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[Sizeman21]

Nice promotion with Dornava.  

[DaneBramage]

NK Dornava - 2027/28 Season Review

History, Finances, and Facilities

Everything's continuing to go the right way. A sixth straight season of improved league position, bank balance, and facilities. And finally a cup run too.

I'm sure next season will be more difficult when we reach the third tier. 

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Squad Stats

25a Aljosa Gulic was named our fan's player of the season. After being re-deployed from an MC to AMC position his performances really improved, and he ended up as our top scorer with 16 goals.

25h Aleksandar Cerar finished just behind him with 15 goals, and as all of these came in the league he was crowned the MNZ Ptuj Super Liga top scorer. Both wingers reached double figures for assists.

The 2027 youth intake made a real impression this year, our first-choice line-up is now made up of one player from the 2023 batch, five from 2025, and five from 2027.

Spoiler

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[DaneBramage]

On 11/11/2023 at 07:10, Sizeman21 said:

Nice promotion with Dornava.  

Thanks! I'm really enjoying this so far.

Admittedly it has been a bit easier than expected, but I guess that's part of the experience of using created databases. The lower leagues might not be fully fleshed out, and you can take advantage of that by being the only team improving their facilities. 

[DaneBramage]

NK Dornava - July 2028

Departures

Well, this is a bit of a bummer. We'd stayed off the radar of the bigger clubs previously, but now we've got their attention. And as we hadn't been able to offer contracts, all of our players were free to be stolen.

We now have a big gap to fill in midfield, as our two highest rated players were both signed away, to the 1. SNL and 2. SNL respectively. Both are on £100 a week.

We do now have the option of offering wages, but it came just too later for these two. 

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Facilities

With our junior coaching now topped-out I tried to improve the youth recruitment, but yet again it was turned down. I then went for a different approach, asking for the training facilities to be upgraded instead. Surprisingly this was accepted, and works are now in place to be completed by December.

Had I known the cost though, I probably wouldn't have gone for it. Our bank account has been emptied out. Hopefully it will prove to be a good investment.

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[DaneBramage]

NK Dornava - September 2028

International Recognition

28a Sasa Pirc won't be eligible to play for us until next season when he turns 17, but he's the first player from our academy to be called up to play for Slovenia U19.

He made his debut as a sub against Austria U19 (0-0), then scored on his full debut against Estonia U19 (2-0).

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3. SNL Vzhod

With 14 teams in the division we'll be playing 26 games this year, so it's our busiest league season yet. I'm glad to be playing more, though still annoyed by the four month gap between November and March.

Our first couple of months at this level have been a mixed bag. Just one point from the opening three games was rough, but we then turned it around with a four game unbeaten run, including a big victory over Sampion.

Our most recent games have been a pair of losses. The defeat to Ljutomer was fairly close, but we were well off the pace against Videm. In fairness, they're challenging near the top so I'll take not getting whooped as a (small) moral victory. No points for that though.

Given that we lost our two best players over the summer, I think this is a decent start.

The three wins so far show that we're able to compete at this level, but by no means do I think we're guaranteed safety this year. Both times we've lost this year it's then been followed up with a second loss, which is never a pattern you want to get into. I'd definitely like some more wins on the board before the winter break to ease those worries.

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Pokal Slovenije

No repeat of last year's heroics.

In fact, you could go as far as calling this a disgrace. The second-string humiliated themselves with this showing against a fourth tier side.

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Goalkeepers

23a Nemanja Jeric scored in back-to-back league games, including the decisive winning goal against Dravinja Kostroj. He now has a record of 20/22 from the spot.

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[roganp]

Just been catching up with the journey so far, seems like a fun save! Hopefully you can solidify yourself after promotion. Good luck for the rest of the season!

[DaneBramage]

NK Dornava - November 2028

3. SNL Vzhod

Yikes, this wasn't the form I wanted. 

Only once were we completely outclassed (hosting Odranci), the main problem was not concentrating until the final whistle. We dropped points against both Koroszka Dravograd and Sentjur by conceding in stoppage-time.

And I was really annoyed by not beating bottom of the table Smartno.

The media messages started piling in after the loss to Sentjur made it six games without a win. I switched back to the old faithful 4-4-2 for our final game of 2028, and an opening two minute blitz sent us on our way to a much needed victory.

I've just realised the board are expecting a top-half finish this year, which seems a bit ambitious to me. I think the issue is that in the season preview 28a Sasa Pirc and 28b Aleksandar Markic were listed as two of the best players in the division, making us look better than we currently are, but neither can actually play yet. At least the latter is 17 in January, so will be available for the second half of the season.

We're not in the top-half at the moment, but just below is keeping the board satisfied.

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Goalkeepers

23a Nemanja Jeric has been dropped after a couple of mistakes in recent games. 28o Zan Zizek is his replacement between the sticks, and he scored a penalty in his second game.

Spoiler

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International Recognition

28a Sasa Pirc has now made five more appearances for Slovenia U19, adding two more goals (record: 7 appearances, 3 goals).

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Edited November 14, 2023 by DaneBramage

[DaneBramage]

1 hour ago, roganp said:

Just been catching up with the journey so far, seems like a fun save! Hopefully you can solidify yourself after promotion. Good luck for the rest of the season!

Thanks! I thought you'd cursed me after the first few games of October, but a win before the winter break has me feeling better.

Six players from the 2028 youth intake will turn 17 before we return to action, then another two in March, so this should give us a boost for the rest of the season. At the very least it will be three of them straight into the starting line-up.

[Forest]

Oh dear, Bondarchuk mentality is a disaster 

[burakcakil]

Let's goo Dornava! I think this database is mine. Slovenian lower leagues have 4 month winter break. 

[DaneBramage]

On 14/11/2023 at 16:54, Forest said:

Oh dear, Bondarchuk mentality is a disaster 

Yeah, not great. But for my purposes right now it's not an issue. Apart from junior coaching, our facilities are awful. So no one really has any possibility of turning into an actually good player anyway. 

Just being good enough for right now is the priority, so CA trumps PA and personality heavily at this stage.

That being said he's left almost immediately, so his personality should be listed as scumbag traitor.

On 15/11/2023 at 19:36, burakcakil said:

Let's goo Dornava! I think this database is mine. Slovenian lower leagues have 4 month winter break. 

It is! 

This break is probably the busiest one I've had, plenty of our players are getting attention now so it's been a case of offering contracts and hoping for the best.