Hey guys, welcome back to my Queens Park story. After an extremely busy pre season, the season was about to get underway and I was looking forward to see how’d we do this campaign. As you know, were an amateur club and this may cause complications throughout my reign here . None of my staff or players are on a contract so there free to move whenever they want. Were ambitious but unless we can become a professional club soon and tie people down to long term contracts, progress may be slow. Anyway I was looking forward to the challenge of trying to dismantle Rangers and Celtics dominance in Scottish football. Let’s see how we faired in August, the first month of the new season.
August fixtures:
We got off to a good start, two wins, a draw and a loss. We’ve had some injury problems, and consequently I’ve had to change my tactics completely around which didn’t help.
Versus Annan (away) 7/8/10 @ 15:00
My first game in charge was against Annan, a team to predicated to finish four places below us in 8th spot. I was precautious in the build up to this game, thus I decided to go with a counter 4-4-2 tactic. I was without Ahmed Said, my best striker. He was ruled out with a short term injury. We began well, in under 5 minutes we were already in the lead. Lawrence played a through ball to Gavin, who played it into the path of McWalter who found himself with space and slotted past the keeper. That was his first goal for his new club. We were 2-0 up just 8 minutes later. A Danny Murphy free kick was headed in by Rezgane. 4 minutes later Annan were don to 10 men and we scored our 3rd goal. There player was sent off for a terrible two footed challenge and Gavin scored after a great through ball from Webster. We were 3-0 up and had a man advantage after just 17 minutes, I couldn’t have wished for a better debut game. However after wasting numerous good chances, Annan a scored short while after the interval. There was no late comeback though as we held on for a 3-1 win. The downside was that both my left wingers were injured. Dave O’Conner was ruled out for 3 weeks whilst Aziz Mady-Mogne picked up an injury and is out for 3 weeks as well.
ps I’ve having some difficulty adding my video’s onto my post thus if you having trouble viewing the video’s just click on the arrow beside the number 240p and then click on 360p to improve the quality of the video. Note that you can only do this whilst the video is playing. Hopefully I can sort out my problem soon.
Versus Arbroath (home) 14/8/10 @ 15:00
Arbroath are predicated to finish in first position thus I wanted to beat them and make us genuine title or play off contenders. From start to finish, we dominated. Due to my two left wingers being injured, I had to adapt a more central tactic. I used a 4-3-1-2 for this game and my risk paid dividends. We played through the middle and Arbroath couldn’t handle us. David Lee scored before half time, McWalter scored straight after and MacBeth wrapped up all 3 points. A great win for us which showed that we are no pushovers and not a much of amateurs to make up the numbers.
Versus Berwick 21/8/10 (home) @ 15:00
We tasted our first league defeat as Berwick came away with a 2-1 win. This was a game doomed from the beginning. Again, I had to use my central 4-3-1-22 tactic but Berwick used a defensive midfielder which totally wrecked my tactics. With no left wingers available, I had to option but to stick to my central tactic. We were rewarded a penalty in the 25th minute and Pinault confidently fired past the keeper. That was as good as it got, we didn’t create many good chances and two late goals from Berwick saw them pick up all 3 points. Their second goal was a tremendous individual effort. A damaging defeat, but I was tactically outclassed.
Versus Stranraer 28/8/10 (away) @ 15:00
In this particular game I watched on in horror as I saw chance by chance wasted. I chose a counter strategy and we dominated. However we only scored our first goal just after the interval, David Lee was played through and finished exceptionally. A defensive saw Stranraer equalize. Our right back failed to clear the ball and their striker was on song to stroke the ball in. 5 minutes later Ahmed Said restored our lead with a great individual finish. Uncertainty in my defense gifted Stranrare another disappointing goal. Chance after chance was wasted and the game finished 2-2. I couldn’t believe we didn’t win and I was livid with my defense.
Following a satisfactory start to the campaign, we currently lie in 3rd spot. Were three points behind the leaders East Stirlingshire but it’s extremely tight so anything can happen. I’m a bit worried with my defense though, were conceding to much. I’ll be in the market for a new center back for sure. My aim will be to remain in our play off spot and hopefully lead a consistent title charge.
I decided to totally revamp my staff. The board restricted us to 1 Assistant Manager, 1 Coach, 1 Scout, and 1 Physio. Therefore I released tons of staff members and bought in 4 new ones. Let me introduce them.
First up is Gary Lewin, the English national team physio on FM11. I still can’t believe he agreed to join us :-D
Adam Walsh will be my new assistant manager. This regen was appointed because he has good man management skills, high attributes of level of discipline, motivation, and determination.
Ali Stewart is my new coach. His mental attributes are just magnificent. All he lacks is level of discipline but I can overlook that due to his other attributes.
Regen Niall Topley will be my new scout. I signed him because of his high attributes of judging player potential and ability.
Unfortunately my board won’t allow me to appoint any more staff. This is a shame but I’ll persuade them to allow to me to appoint a goalkeeping coach and maybe a first team coach or a youth team coach. I need another scout as well, one isn’t enough. My squad stats are as followed.
We’ll play just 3 fixtures in September so my next post will be relatively small.
Well that’s it for today’s post folks, my next post should be ready in a day or two. Thanks for reading. Sears
Birdy
21 января, 2011 at 23:17
Hey Sears
Great work and good luck for September lets hope you can win the league :D
Sears
21 января, 2011 at 23:24
Thanks Birdy. I hope I can win the league, the sooner I get outta these lower leagues the better. Anyway my main aim is a play off spot. Though hopefully we can string together a impressive winning sequence and lead a proper consistent title charge. Time will tell my friend :-)
Arjuna
22 января, 2011 at 01:17
You’re doing well sears, and you look good for at least a play-off place, but you may even be able to get the title
Sears
22 января, 2011 at 11:37
Thanks Arunja. I hope your right!
Lye Kuek Hin
22 января, 2011 at 01:23
Hi Sears,
A fairly good start. When your club is amateur, things really get tough. I think you are well prepared for long term since you choose them as the club to manage. Hopefully things will go well for you and i hope to see a great finish. Good luck.
Sears
22 января, 2011 at 11:39
I think your right about things getting tough. None of my players are on a contract thus there all free to leave at the end of season which would mean I’d have to rebuild my team from scratch. Thanks Lye
Wazz
22 января, 2011 at 05:35
You need to get out of this league quick Sears and I think you can do it. Good luck for September!
:)
Sears
22 января, 2011 at 11:40
Thanks Wazz. I 100% agree with you!
Darren Smith
22 января, 2011 at 10:32
Hey Sears, well done on a good start to the season and a great post. Its a shame your struggling with injuries, I guess lower league football will always provide such issues. You seem to have a good game plan though and seem to have spent a lot of time with the clubs structure. Your new coaches for instance will make a huge improvement and its the little things that count. I really hope you can go up this season and lose your amateur status. Good luck mate.
Sears
22 января, 2011 at 11:43
Cheers Darren. I signed another left winger but in my next game he got injured again ha. I think FM doesn’t want me playing with wingers!! Anyway I’m happy with my new coaches, I’m going try ask my board to allow me to sign a few more. I’ve got to lose my amateur status quickly or else progrees will be slow.
kevin
22 января, 2011 at 10:51
Hi Sears
Very good start and a good idea to replace your staff who all look quite decent actually. Lets hope they help your drive the team to success!!
Sears
22 января, 2011 at 11:44
Thanks Kevin. My new staff are superb for this level of soccer, or I hope so anyway :-)
Laxeyman
22 января, 2011 at 11:14
Good start Sears, it looks like you’ve got a decent chance of getting promotion this season, particularly if you can get in another centre back and your players back from injury. Gary Lewin is a massive name to be joining your club, and the other staff look pretty good too. Good luck for next month.
Sears
22 января, 2011 at 11:48
Yeah we do need another center back but I can’t find anyone. I’ll continue to look and scout other nations. I’m very pleased with my new staff, especially since Lewin joined. It’s just unbelievable!! Thanks Laxeyman.
ps how are you doing in your Droyslden game? Sorry if I got the spelling wrong
Johnny Karp
22 января, 2011 at 14:09
Not a bad start there, well done!
Sears
22 января, 2011 at 14:26
Thanks Johnny
Ana Garcia
23 января, 2011 at 14:01
Not a bad start!
I agree with everyone else in that you really have to turn professional as soon as you can, just to keep your players!!
Good luck Sears! :)
Sears
23 января, 2011 at 18:13
Thanks Ana!
peter a
1 марта, 2011 at 15:18
having a crack with queens also, went up through play offs 1st season currently top of D2 and got to final of league challenge cup only to lose to motrose (D1.)
got to big names in on the way, gifton noel williams, lee hendrie, oliver lee, richard smallwood to name but a few.
its a pretty fun game to be fair but can queens ever turn pro? does anybody know?