FC United: Onward to 2015

Good Afternoon (or evening for most of you) folks, and welcome back to Gigg Lane and our humble little FC United side. After a weekend of pizza and saving Tamriel (again), I’m back up an update to our story! This time we’ll go from October (since I forgot the screenshot last time) through the end of December as our plucky side attempt to make some noise in the Blue Square North. Let’s take a peak at how we did, shall we?

October:

Just the two league fixtures this month, and they were both scrappy one goal wins. We’re hardly an impressive side to watch at the moment, and we’re winning fixtures on pure grit and determination versus any kind of inherent skill. At this juncture, you could easily call us serious overachievers.

November:

Our busiest month yet, and I think we handled it fairly well. We began with a disappointingly dull draw against bottom-feeders Hednesford, before bouncing back with four straight wins. This was easily our most impressive stretch of the year, and I was especially proud of the lads for their resolute display against fellow promotion-contenders FC Halifax. We wrapped up the month with an expected loss to league leaders Stalybridge. I can’t even complain about this one, and we were outclassed in every way imaginable.

December:

Ugh! The most frustrating month of all time. We blew this month in every way imaginable. We gave up leads (Northwich, Nuneaton), we came back from behind (Mansfield), and we just plain didn’t show up to play (Workington). If anything positive can be gleaned from this, it’s the squad hates losing. Several times we looked completely beaten before either tying the game or going out ahead (only to later give it up). Ah well, four points is better than none, so I’ll suppose we’ll take it.

League Table, January 1st:

Despite our best efforts, we’ve somehow managed to stay in playoff contention. We’ve certainly had some help though, and most of the teams around us have been nearly as content to give up points as we have. Coincidentally, this is the most vulnerable Staylbridge has looked all season, and I’m beginning to wonder if they’re already out of gas. Be sure to keep an eye on Mansfield as well; they’re a team that has the potential to make a lot of noise come spring.

Player Ratings:

Go figure, my best player is hurt for the next 5 months. As you can tell, we’re a distinctly average side and we really have no business being where we are on the table. The closest thing we have to a stand out player is Sam Kamara, and if you’ll take a look at his stats, you’ll see that’s a rather depressing realization:

There’s absolutely nothing special about him to speak of, and my own staff only give him a star and a half. Still, who am I to argue with performance, and I have every intention of giving him his job back should he return by the end of the season.

Miscellaneous: 

We have a few other things going on that I’d like to share that don’t fall neatly into any particular category. Firstly, we’re still receiving these notices every 2-5 weeks:

They seem to be ranging from between £25-70k each time, and while I’m not complaining about the free money, I still don’t understand it. Thanks to the constant infusion of cash, we’re now approaching £500k in the bank. Sure, we’re sitting on £2.7 million (more or less) of loan debt, but we’ve been easily meeting our £18,500 per month payments, and we regularly turn a profit even without the board’s money. I’m going to have to chalk this up to being some kind of bug, where the game remains convinced we’re in a poor financial state despite us actually doing really well (I suspect it’s an algorithm that compares your club’s estimated value against its total liabilities). By comparison, I never saw a single injection (that I can remember) at Afan Lido, despite the fact that we spent large portions of my tenure deep in the red. Go figure…

Elsewhere, in preparation for our FC Halifax match (that we won), I was doing a little advanced scouting of their team. Somehow, someway, the managed to convince this guy to play for them:

Now that’s just straight up not fair. I can’t even convince an average League 2 player to join me on loan, but they’ve somehow managed to land Lee Novak from Premier League side Huddersfield (that’s right, the Terriers are a Premiership club this year). Mercifully (and stupidly), they didn’t play him against me, but it’s still wrong.

Lastly, there’s this:

While it may not seem like a huge deal on paper (it’s just one player), this is the third long term injury in a row. I suppose we’re due, as we’ve stayed relatively healthy all year, but it’s definitely starting to catch up to us in a big way. *sad face*

Bear Talk: 

Before we close the post, it’s time for another episode of Bear Talk.  In this edition, we’re going to talk about expectations. Given our relative success and our continued presence in the upper third of the table, thoughts of promotion might have begun dancing in heads. Well the Bear is here to kill those dancers. Promotion, frankly, isn’t going to happen. We’re a team that were expected to finish 18th out of 22, and just barely keep our heads above water. By some small miracle (likely having to do with a large fury predator inhabiting the locker room), the squad has gone out and overachieved the hell out of themselves.

Seriously though, you’ve seen the ratings. You’ve seen the stats of my «star» player, and some of the other signings I managed to bring in. This team is terrible! Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled we’re doing as well as we have, but any accomplishment beyond simply finishing in the playoffs is a sad delusion. Even so, a top 6 finish would be a monumental achievement for these players. It would give us an excellent  foundation on which to build for next season, and might even coax some more money out of the board (you know, for wages…).

I will, however, sabotage any attempted promotion. We’re simply not ready (We were absolutely wrecked in our FA Trophy match against last place BSP side Tamworth) for the next level, and we desperately need another season in the BSN to continue to build and prepare for the future. So with that, I bid you all a delightfully wonderful evening.

P.S. — 

The Skin: http://sortitoutsi.net/forum/topic/54624-fahrenheit/

The Club Logos: http://www.footballmanagerfanboys.net/discussion/topic/750-cts-carbon-logos/