Tivvy18

December 2023 As expected we lost in the FA Cup but managed to beat National League Maidenhead on penalties in the FA Trophy. A 4-0 thrashing of top of the table Weston-super-Mare and a game where nobody wanted to defend against Havant & Waterlooville set up a happy Christmas. We have an immediate chance to avenge the Boxing Day loss to Torquay as we play them in the return fixture on New Years Day. This time with our full strength squad. As we head into 2024 (which I will most likely forget to put much as I do IRL) we are flirting with the play off spots. It's very close though and results going the wrong way can see us falling down to 12th. There's still a long way to go but it looks like in our first season we can look up rather than down.

Youth Intake Preview It's that fun time of year where we get the preview for the youth intake. Anticipation building. Will we get a bumper crop in a key position? Will we get a gem that will either lead us to glory or can sell for loads of money? The item appears in the inbox... Reality hits. I know this doesn't necessarily reflect who will actually appear in April but if the best you can say is "probably not up to scratch" then I've not got much hope that I'm going to be pleasantly surprised. What I am actually hoping is that by writing this the game will be like "AHA! Ye of little faith! Behold a god amongst men!" but I may be deluding myself just a bit.

November 2023 The month of death came and I'm quite happy with the 10 points and two cup wins. Only three more matches before we don't play on a Tuesday and then soon after it's Christmas. Blackpool at home is coming up in the FA Cup 2nd Round which I feel is likely to be the end of our run this season. I'm still having to heavily rotate the squad but with early results we are definitely looking up rather than down.

October 2023 September ended up being a record breaking month for us, at least in the terms of the game, and we were immediately brought back down with a loss to Worthing. I'll take 9 points from the five league games we played which has seen us pull away from a relegation fight and in the early picture for the play offs. A wild second half of extra time saw us beat National League Ebbsfleet to set up up an away tie at National League Woking in the FA Cup 1st Round, which we start the month off with. November has seven matches waiting for us which is going to test the depth of our squad. Fortunately I've been able to add a couple of squad players to help with this. I'm not going to pretend they are that exciting but being able to actually rotate the defence has helped no end. I've also signed six youth players who are currently sat in a never ending cycle of playing the same four teams in the under 21s, three of which I didn't realise play in the same position . I'll post them if they even end up making the step up.

September 2023 I changed one role and this has been the result: a month unbeaten and no goals conceded. Two wins in the cup and we've managed to shoot up the table. It was as simple as turning the Segundo Valente into a DM on support. The leading strikers are still not scoring as much as I would like but Harvey in the AM slot is making up for it. We can now start to sign players and I think the important thing at the moment is to get players to pad out the squad. I'm not so concerned up front but the defence is a struggle to rotate and with a two games a week every week in November I don't think the squad as it is would be able to cope. The scouts haven't been finding anyone at the moment so I've relied on asking the chairman for some suggestions and I'm currently trialling all of the names he has come up with. Fingers crossed there may be a few decent additions amongst them.

August 2023 Things haven't started off very well at all. We've given ourselves far too much to do in matches when we concede and once we let one in it seems a few more follow in quick succession. I'll give it a few more matches with a few tweaks but I may need to have a big rethink of tactics if September doesn't look a bit better.

July 2023 Not the most spectacular of preseasons but I'll take being undefeated. Worryingly the lack of squad depth was on display by the end as I don't have enough cover in certain positions (particularly the centre of defence).

The Journey Begins... I can't remember when I started doing it but I very rarely ever play with the first transfer window enabled. This save is not one of the times I make an exception so the squad that we start with will hopefully see us through until we can. It's a bit short on numbers so I've promoted the only member of our u21 side - Obed Yeboah - to make up some numbers up front. It's going to require having some players play out of position when it comes down to rotation but I'll be playing in 4-4-1-1 sort of shape. I'm fairly certain that this is our strongest squad and they will be the ones starting the season as our first XI. The board's ambitions for the next five years is to become a top half National League South side so hopefully they will be patient with things. The new stadium is in the planning permission stage so I don't know how long that will take to progress. As part of our quest to be the pride of the West Country, I'll be keeping track of all the teams and using this colourful table that I poured so much effort in to creating. I've gone by Wikipedia to see which clubs need to be included. If I've missed anyone they will appear in later tables as I update it. I was surprised to see there isn't anyone playing in the National League at the start.

I've had two previous attempts at a save with Truro back in FM20 and 21 as part of the Dafuge Challenge. As they start off the game in the National League South they obviously aren't eligible anymore so I thought I'd start a thread here instead. Why do I keep coming back to Truro when there are plenty of other teams to do a Dafuge save with? Apart from having some personal attachment to Truro , I like the idea of managing a team that is essentially representing Cornwall as a whole. There is also the added narrative that they aren't actually playing in Truro at the moment, as they have had to relocate to Plymouth Parkway after leaving their old home Treyew Road in 2020, so are in exile as well. Who doesn't love a good narrative when picking saves? With that, I've got three main aims for this save that I think naturally follow from each other and feed into this narrative: 1. Return to Cornwall. 2. Become the top side in the West Country. 3. Premier League and Champions League glory. How do we get there? I don't know. I'm not the greatest of tacticians and though I love the idea of developing youth I'm not great at that either. I'm also not the greatest at taking squads to the next level and end up plateauing at some point. Generally speaking I'm just not very good at the game. But it's not necessarily the destination that matters but the journey and as long as the trials and tribulations are enjoyable hopefully this save will be as well.