I'm not playing the challenge officially as I'm using a tier 10 English database and picked Bury first season, in tier 9. Apart from that I'm sticking to all of the rules.
It's like playing on easy mode, their facilities and attendances are surely unrealistic. They do so well on gates that the finances are crazily strong for the level, and the board insisted in going pro second season, after only one promotion to the 8th tier.
Because of all of this, the intakes are really strong and the players develop very fast because they are playing lots of games and training often because they are professional. I got back to back promotions straight to league One and will probably get promoted in my current season too, up to the Championship. This means the players keep improving because they are consistently playing at a higher level. In League One the stadium sells out every game so that's 11,000 odd.
I am enjoying the save, it's like a speed run but it's nowhere near as satisfying as playing with a more challenging team.