Clueless FC

November 2019 One thing you learn about the lower reaches of Scotland is that there are cup competitions, and quite a few of them. Our first match of the month was the first round of the Highland League cup, where we did well to come back from 2-0 down.  We also played the last half of extra time with 10 men after getting a red card and made it to penalties which turned out to be a step too far for us.  The plus side to this is that it's not a competition I, or the board, overly care about at this point. Next up was Rothes and this time it was us who let a 2-0 lead slip away.  But it was a very close match and both teams had chances to win, but a combination of wasteful shooting and two goalkeepers on fine form saw it end up level. The Strathspey Thistle match was surprisingly exciting despite there being no goals.  Pretty much end to end, but both teams put on a solid defensive display.  And it's a clean sheet, which always gives me som...

So, after what I had considered to be a successful pre-season, I was ready for the competitive games to begin. August 2019 According to the pre-season predictions, we had what would be considered to be the hardest start to the season, with Brora predicted to win the league.  We certainly didn't disgrace ourselves, especially as we found ourselves down to 10 men when our left-back got a straight red after only 11 minutes.    They were more organised and more clinical, but I was at least happy to get a goal especially playing the majority of the game a man down. Up next were Turriff United, this time one of the teams predicted to finish in the lower reaches of the table.  It was almost like the Brora match in reverse, with Turriff down to 10 men before the game hit the 15 minute mark.  It was largely plain sailing from there and we managed our first win and a clean sheet. Buckie Thistle was our toughest game yet.  They probably should have sco...

I had mentioned in the previous post that the squad had issues with quality and balance and that, if possible, I'd need to do a bit of Harry Redknapp style wheeling and dealing as I had no wage budget left to play with, and a severe shortage of players in wide positions. Well, it was more successful than I could have envisaged before I began and as you can see below, the pre-season was extremely busy in terms of transfers in and out. My first attempts at the outs were to get the players I deemed surplus out on transfers and whilst I was able to ship some out on permanent deals (even attracting a fee of £170 for one of them!), most of them are loan deals out. The good news from my point of view is that all but one of the players I've loaned out will actually be out of contract at the end of the season, so I'll be able to release them once the loans end so I won't find myself massively over the wage budget come the end of the season (and all of the loans...

The journey is underway! For the gameworld here, I've loaded Scotland (obviously), along with the rest of Britain and Ireland.  I've also loaded up Iceland and the Faroe Islands, in the hope that having these nations selected and leagues loaded will ultimately increase the pool of players I can potentially bring to the club. But, firstly, some thank you's! MozzaPlays ( https://twitter.com/MozzaPlays ) who has made the Scottish Pyramid database that has made this save possible. TheFMEditor85 ( https://twitter.com/TheFMEditor85 ), who made the extension to the Welsh leagues I've loaded. Timo from the Sports Interactive forum, who has made the Icelandic and Faroese leagues I've loaded. For this, I will be playing as my Scottish alter-ego Angus Connolly. The board have objectives which aren't terribly lofty at this point as you can see, with an expectation that we finish bottom of the league!  Well, that I can definitely do. The media how...