Hangman

This is to be my first blog covering my experiences while playing FM 2008.
OVERVIEW
The game is patched to version 8.0.1 and I have England, Scotland, France, Germany, Italy and Spain as active playable leagues.
This is planned to be a career so I will start at a lower league English club and will attempt to work my way up to the pinnacle of the game by a combination of promotion and job advancement. I will consider the job done when I have won the premiership in England and the champion’s league. (Hopefully)

First Day
I have accepted the position as manager of Coca Cola League Two team Bury FC. Bury are a small town team struggling for survival in the shadow of local teams such as Man United, Man City etc.
My new Chairman’s expectations for the next two years are simply to consolidate Bury in League Two. I have been given a transfer budget of 10k and a wage budget of 12k per week.
My first impressions are that the next few months will be difficult as the squad is paper thin and doesn’t look good enough to survive this league.



I will report back with details of transfer activity and pre-season games later.

WozzaWolves

Good Luck For The Future Mate, Hope You Can Keep Them Up ;)

apthered

a good challenge, similar to my accrington one - make sure you get alex fernandez :)
good luck and hopefully you will get there in 5 years or so (thats my target)

Hangman

Pre Season
After assessing the squad I decided that I have just 12 players that are good enough.

I have relegated all other players to the reserves and put them up for sale. This has now left me with some serious holes in my squad. I am now searching the markets looking for good free transfer players. I have told the board that I expect to win promotion this year as it was the only way to get them to increase my wage budget which I will need if I am to sign enough quality players.

Pre-Season has been terrible
Bury 0 – 9 Man Utd
Fraserbourgh 3 – 2 Bury
Bury 0 – 5 Preston
Bury 0 – 6 Everton Reserves
Bury 0 – 4 Man City Reserves

The vast majority of the players I wanted to sign have refused to come to Bury and have gone elsewhere.

I need to keep positive. Pre-Season is over and now the real work begins.

apthered

too bad about the sad start to your season
here are some free or <5k players that i found very helpful for me in league 2 with just a 7k budget
alex fernandez (st)
owen price (amr,st)
scott donnelly (amrc)
sean evans (d/aml)
oscar carmelo sanchez (sw/dcalso there are mroe players that i cant remember off the top of my head but you can look in my accrington stanley thread (in my sig)
also, if you can, get tommy hoiland - he might not play well now but he is a wonderkid and will not coem to you late, only now
but good luck and hopefully the actual season will be better than the pre-season

Hangman

Thanks for the heads up on the players I already signed Fernandez & donnelly. I will see about the othersif they are still available.

August

Darlington 1 – 2 Bury (W)
First game of the season is away at Darlington.
I have 8 players making debuts and am expecting the first couple of months to be difficult while players bed in. We score early but are under the cosh for the rest of the first half conceding an equaliser in the 30th minute. The second half is even but we pinch a winner.

Burnley 5 – 0 Bury (L)
We have a league cup 1st round game on the Wednesday against coca-cola championship side Burnley. We started well and although we were conceding possession (which was to be expected) we were creating chances and nearly took the lead a couple of times. However soon the game was ruined by the referee. In the 40th minute Paul Morgan one of my centre halves was sent off and then 5 minutes later Ben Further the defensive replacement was also sent off.

I switched around the formation for the second half and we held out well until the 70th minute when we conceded the first goal. Because it was a cup game I committed more people forward, at this point the 11 v 9 really took effect and we collapsed to a 5-0 drubbing.

Rochdale 2 – 1 Bury (L)
Another good start we were dominating possession and making chances. We took the lead on the 17th minute. Then Rochdale started to play they equalised on 38 minutes and scored the winner on 57 minutes. The disappointing thing is the lack of chances we are creating. It could be back to the drawing board to tweak the tactic. (May be I ask for too much from these lower league players)

Bury 1 – 2 Shrewsbury (L)
Bad start to the game – we were 2-0 down after 33 minutes. We didn’t create anywhere near enough chances and only managed to pull back a goal after 88 minutes. In our defence I have two defenders out suspended, and a couple of new signings out with niggley injuries.

apthered

no problem
owen price is really good, i sold him 3rd season for 375k
unlucky about the results so far after a good start but in case you havent, then make sure you have a scout on next oppositon, highest stars possible for your coaches (in training) and use opposition instructions and player instructions
good luck

Hangman

September

Bury 0 – 0 Chester (D)
I’m still playing around with tactics trying to find the right balance for the players I have. This match was a little better it was fairly even but again neither team was creating much.

Bury 4 – 1 Chester (W) Johnstone Paint Trophy – Northern District 1st Round
With a little more tinkering and a couple of players back from suspension this was a much better performance. Four different scorers and a whole host of chances, now we just need to take this form into the next league game.

Notts County 4 – 1 Bury (L)
With a couple of key players missing I was still optimistic as we faced the current league leaders. We started well and took the lead after 5 minutes, we were creating chances at last and I thought it was only a matter of time till we scored again. Then my defence self destructed. We conceded 4 goals between 27th and 39th minutes. I made a substitution as well as a few changes and the second half was much better but we couldn’t make the break through.




Bury 0 – 2 Accrington (L)
An even first half gave me some confidence that we could nick all the points. It seems we can’t keep up the current performances for 90 minutes as we conceded 2 quick goals to move down to 23rd position.

Bury 2 – 3 Grimsby (L)
I can’t seem to buy a win at the moment. Again we started well and took a 2 goal lead. Grimsby pulled one back just before half time but we went in at the break 2-1 up. After an encouraging team talk we came out pushing for more goals but we threw away the game with two goalkeeping errors. We pushed for an equaliser but couldn’t get the goal. So far Fernandez hasn’t settled and I am considering dropping him to the bench for a couple of games.

Bury 2 – 2 Wycombe (D)
We got off to a terrible start and were 0-2 down after 5 minutes. We dug in and pulled a goal back on the stroke of half time. I told the team I expected more from them and we came out pushing for a goal. On 60 mins I brought on Fernandez but we still couldn’t find the equalizer. I pushed us to all out attack for the final 10 minutes and Fernandez grabbed the equaliser on the 87th minute. Hopefully the beginning of a turnaround at Gigg Lane.

Currently in 22nd place in League Two.

Hangman

October

Rotherham 2 – 1 Bury (L)
The first game in October is an important one away at Rotherham who are just 2 places above us in the league. I decided to keep the team the same after the good performance against Wycombe. Unusually for us we are off to a slow start and Rotherham take the lead due to another goalkeeping error. We fight back and go in at the break 1 -1. The team is playing well so I encourage them that we can win this game. We were just about having the better of the second half but the clock was ticking down and I was going to settle for a point when in the 88th minute they scored a fortunate deflected goal. We went all out attack but didn’t have enough time……. Damn the luck goes against you when you are at the bottom. I can see improvements but we need to start picking up points quickly.

Barnet 0 – 0 Bury (D)
Every away point counts and this was well earned. We defended well for a change and could have nicked the win.

Bury 1 – 0 Rochdale (W) - Johnstone Paint Trophy – Northern District 2nd Round
With the stress of the league out of the way we played well but it did look like a stalemate until Fernandez popped up with a 30 yard strike.

Bury 3 – 1 Morecambe (W)
This was a real 6 pointer as the bottom two met for the first time. I’m starting to feel more confident about the rest of the season as the players are settling and we are more comfortable with the formation. I still feel we need a couple more players but hopefully this can kick start our league form.

Chesterfield 3 – 2 Bury (L)
The first half Chesterfield out classed us as their striker Ward scored a hat-trick. I told the players that we should just go for it as we had nothing to lose and the second half was totally different. We pulled back 2 goals and deserved to get a point out of the game.

Bury 1 – 1 Lincoln (D)
Another 6 pointer which we dominated but couldn’t turn our domination into goals.

October was a much better month for us, picking up 5 points and also getting through to the quarter finals of the Johnstone Paint Trophy. Hopefully this is the beginning of our climb up the table.

Currently in 20th Place in League Two

Hangman

November

The target for November has got to be to move up the league. To do this we need to focus on winning our home games. We have six games this month (2 cup games) with 2 home and 2 away league games the target this month must be for 7 points.

MK Dons 1 – 2 Bury (W)
A great start to the month with 3 away points. We dominated the game till the final 30 minutes when it got a little hairy, but we hung on in there to take all the points.

Bury 3 – 2 Wrexham (W)
Two wins on the trot for the first time, have we turned the corner???
Again we dominated the first 60-70 minutes but ended up defending for our lives to secure the 3 points. If only we could put away a higher percentage of our chances we would be much higher up the league.

Bury 2 – 0 Tranmere (W) FA Cup 1st Round
League one tranmere came to Gigg lane huge favourites. By varying the play we kept them guessing and they couldn’t keep up with our high tempo game. November so far is going like a dream…… let’s just hope I don’t wake up to soon.

Bury 0 – 3 Crewe (L) Johnstone Paint Trophy – Northern District ¼ Final
Out played and out classed. The winning streak had to end sooner or later and to take heart I would rather get points in the league than win a meaningless trophy. Let hope we can bounce back after this defeat.

Mansfield 1 – 0 Bury (L)
On paper this looked a close game and that is how it turned out. We managed to nullify their main striker and caused a few problems of our own. Our only decent left back got injured (hopefully not for too long) but it looked like the game was drifting to a 0-0 draw. Unfortunately they grabbed a goal on the counter attack.

Bury 0 – 4 Peterborough (L)
Peterborough are the current league leaders and they definitely looked the part in the first half. It didn’t help that we have 4 key players missing today. In the second half we did show a lot better but by then the damage had already been done.

November started very well as we picked up 6 points from the first two games as well as beating League One team Tranmere. However the final three games didn’t go according to plan and we missed out on our monthly target by 1 point.

17 games in and we are 18th in League Two on 16 points only 9 points from the play offs.

WozzaWolves

Some good results this month, good luck for the rest of the season!

Graham FM

good luck for the rest of the season m8 ;)

Hangman

December

December is a busy month with 6 league games and 1 FA cup game. The league is the main focus and with 3 home and 3 away games my target is 10 points.


Bury 1 – 1 Shrewsbury (D) – FA Cup 2nd Round
We went into this game full of confidence but the first half was all Shrewsbury and we went in 0-1 down. After questioning the team’s passion we sent them out and we played much better and we eventually equalised. The down side is now we have another game in December, but hopefully we will have some key players back from injury.

Brentford 4 – 4 Bury (D)
What a game. 0-1, 1-1, 1-2, 2-2, 3-2,4-2, 4-3, 4-4 at 4-2 down I thought the game was all over but we switched play around and confused the Brentford defence and pulled back two quick goals. Even though Brentford are below us in the league I still see this as a point won as we were away.

Bury 3 – 1 Hereford (W)
I decided to make some tactical changes before this game and what a difference. We created so many chances, it was only some poor finishing that stopped this from being a huge score. I must keep my head out of the clouds because I know FM has a habit of coming back for revenge…….

Shrewsbury 4 – 0 Bury (L) – FA Cup 2nd Round Replay
The difference in this game was the Shrewsbury striker Stuart Nicholson who grabbed a hat-trick. Although we deserved to lose the score line did not reflect the balance of play. We wouldn’t have played a big team in the 3rd round anyway so maybe this year it might be positive to remove the distraction.

Macclesfield 2 – 1 Bury (L)
I hoped to take something from this game but it was not to be. We went behind to a soft goal and just as we battled back to level terms we gave away another goal.

Bury 1 – 1 Stockport (D)
A competitive local derby, we took the lead and continued to press for another goal. Unfortunately
Stockport nicked a goal and we couldn’t turn the pressure into a goal.

Dagenham & Redbridge 2 – 2 Bury (D)
What a game. We were 2-0 down within the first 20 minutes and I was pulling my hair out. Instead of going more defensive I pushed up one of my defenders into a more attacking role and what a difference it made. We quickly turned the game around in the second half and if we are being honest fully deserved to take all three points.

Bury 3 – 1 Rochdale (W)
A good performance, against local rivals.

December was an OK month achieving 9 points but we have not managed to move up the table as we are still in 18th place. The transfer window is about to re-open so I can look around for some free transfers or loan players which could help us kick on for the second half of the season.

WozzaWolves

A Good Month There :D

Try And Get Kevin O'Connor On Loan From Wolves And Zoltan Stieber On Loan From Aston Villa

Good Luck!...

walkinshaw

hows fernandez going for u mate?


Good job by the way keep it up

Cheers Liveru

Hangman

Fernandez is going great so far scored 22 in 31 appearances.

Starting at a lower division club is more fun than I thought. I don't automatically win games and my heart is in my mouth right up to the final whistle.

Hangman

January

Players in
Stephen Glesson on loan from Wolves
Owen Price for £20k from Queen of the South
Also I have the transfer arranged for the 1st Feb for Deividas Cesnauskis on a free transfer from Hearts

January was a yoyo month started badly was great in the middle and ended badly.

Shrewsbury 2 - 0 Bury (L)
Bury 2 - 1 Bradford (W)
Bury 3 - 1 Darlington (W)
Chester 0 - 2 Bury (W)
Bury 2 - 4 Notts County (L)
Accrington 2 - 1 Bury (L)

Total points for January 9
Current position 17th

WozzaWolves

Gleeson is a great player, a decent month there mate :D

apthered

well its good that youre climbing up the table :)
and i heard that cesnauskis is an amazing player, hopefully he might get you to a playoff spot

walkinshaw

Can't go wrong with Cesnauskis mate he will rip it up for you on the wings. I've had him since leageu 2 and he still doign good in the prem

Cheers Liveru