Nobby_McDonald

Surely part of getting the new match engine right is for there to be differences between the men and women where there should be.

Stoke City play in the National League North, the third tier of the women's game which was won by Newcastle United last season, the only professional team at that level. Stoke turned semi professional at the start of last season. I agree with it being physical and very competitive. At senior level, you only have to blow on the men and they roll about as if they have broken a leg. The women don't do any of that and they don't hold back on each other. The under 11s grassroots team my daughter plays for, they all love playing, they all get stuck in and they don't play act either. You know when the girls are hurt, they cry. Any other time they pick themselves up and get on with it. Also, two seasons ago there were 16 teams in two divisions in this age group (then under 9s) in the Staffordshire Girls League. This season there are 30 teams in three divisions. As you said, the women and girls game is exploding. My daughter also plays for Stoke City Girls under 10s and the ability and commitment of the girls there is great to see. Women can now get a proper career in football. It wasn't too long ago they couldn't, at least in this country. Girls now want to be the next Mary Earps, Leah Williamson, Ellen White et al. And they can. Long may it continue.

I was going to, thanks mainly to my daughter who really, really enjoys her football. Then I found out there will be no international management in the game, so managing the Lionesses at some point won't be an option, which I was keen to do after the home Euros and the World Cup. Then FM24 became free on Epic, so I got that, my first version since FM18. So it's looking increasingly unlikely I'll even get FM25. If the women's game goes down to the third tier in England on FM25 then I might still do so, as it will include my local team Stoke City Women.

It only took you six and a half years.

Non league leagues are the hardest. In the majority of the cases only champions and playoff winners go up. Saying that though if you can build a really strong team then you can climb two or three leagues pretty quickly