Vauxhall FM 2011 Story: Rough Autumn In The Lower Leagues

Hello folks and welcome to a new episode of the freshly-started Vauxhall Motors FM 2011 story. We had a busy pre-season despite the fact that we had no money at all to spend on transfers. Twelve players joined the club during the summer but there still was a lot of work to do in order to make a professional club out of what I found there. This update will quickly go through the first three months of the season, three months that brought in another 10 new players and a new assistant manager to the club!

But before going into the transfer activity I would like you to see how we did in the competitive games. I will not describe each game individually like I used to do before because there isn’t much to describe to be honest. I don’t remember how the bottom league games looked like in FM 2010, maybe I was more enthusiastic back then, but FM 2011 really shows how poor these semi-professional teams are. Most games were full of rough tackles, lots of fouls and only a few rare moments of actual football. In fact, what I’ve seen in large parts of these games so far vaguely resembles to football.

Anyway, here’s how we did. We started with a tough home game against promotion contenders Telford but we managed to clinch a 1-1 draw after a fairly scrappy game. Things went a bit better in the second match against Worcester, we had a great first half and got a two-goal lead at the break. Then we lived a real nightmare after the break but you’ll see more about that later. We got a goalless draw in the first away game of the season and then extended our unbeaten run to four games by beating Guiseley 1-0 at home. The next away game ended our unbeaten run, Workington beat us 2-1 and we couldn’t really complain about that defeat.

Back to that Worcester game… The referee showed no less than nine yellow cards and that’s less than I’ve seen in other games! We were 2-0 up after the initial 13 minutes of the game, things were going well as our opponents were not doing much to fight back. Despite that they scored two goals without even getting a single shot on target! How can that happen? Watch the highlights and see for yourself!

September started with a good 2-2 away draw and then the best match of our season so far, the 4-0 home victory over Harrogate. Then we got a deserved beating at high-flying Blyth Spartans and edged past non-league side Marine in the FA Cup qualifying.

That game with Harrogate was quite pleasing as I got to see glimpses of the way I want this team to be playing. We were 2-0 up at the break but we missed quite a few chances either side of the interval. Ryan Carolan bagged a brace for us, his first goals for the club. It’s true that Harrogate were down to 10 men after the break but we played better during the first half. Since it was our best game of the season so far I guess you should watch the highlights in the video below :)

October was quite chilly for us as we recorded our first home defeat at the hands of Boston United and another two straight defeats, one in the FA Cup to Blue Square Premier side Altrincham and one in the league to mid-table side Gainsborough. We grabbed two clean sheet wins though and I was quite pleased with that. We also had a quite spectacular FA Cup game against poor non-league side Colwyn Bay, a game which saw Ryan Carolan hitting the net no less than four times. And only one of those goals was a corner kick header!

The game against Hinckley saw two of the new signings stepping into the spotlight, midfielder Shane Williams and striker John Kennedy. We had an one man advantage in the second half again but we totally deserved to win this one. Enjoy the two goals in the video :)

We didn’t have a great start but not a terrible one either, we were in 11th place at the end of October. However, our team has «work in progress» written all over it and we should be happy to remain around the middle of the table until December. I expect things to improve from January once the team will start to gel but we might be too far from promotion then. So far we’ve been quite a peaceful team: four wins, four draws and four losses :)

And now, the new transfers that came in gradually since September. Go to the next page to see the new transfers.

First I had to get a new assistant manager and I’m pleased to say that I found quite a good one compared to the clueless guy I found at the club. With his help we managed to find quite a few good transfer targets so I couldn’t resist the temptation :)

I brought in another 10 new players added to the 12 that came in during the summer. Lots of people left the club, as you can see the list doesn’t even fit into one screen :)

I have 25 men in my squad now, it’s quite numerous but I felt that I had to get more players since injuries are extremely frequent. We even have a player with a broken foot, he’ll be out for quite a few months.

Now let’s see the 10 new players one by one. First, my new goalkeeper. He is a young Scottish goalie named James Gilpin, not a great keeper but surely a lot better than the one I had before. And his wage is lower too ;)

I also managed to bring in a backup goalie, 19-year old Alex Mitchell. He has some talent and hopefully he can improve and grab a place in the first team.

Chris Pendleton joined us as a centre back but he can also provide cover on the flanks. He has good speed and that could make him an important first team player.

Luke Garton will be a backup for the right back position, he’s still quite young and my assistant believes that he can make some progress.

Luca Coleman-Carr will probably be my first choice left back, he has decent attributes overall and I hope he will be a reliable player.

Michael Abnett should be my new first choice right back but he can also provide cover as a right midfielder. He has very good speed at this level and great determination, I hope nobody will get past him on his flank.

Midfielder Shane Williams is the most exciting prospect of the whole bunch, he is only 18 years old and he already has very good physical attributes. My assistant believes that he could be a good League Two midfielder in the future so I hope that he will be playing in League Two along with the team in a few years :)

Hi fellow Welshman Leigh Smith is supposed to be a good prospect but for now he will be a backup for the left winger role.

Stefan Connor is a skillful striker that I was pleased to bring at the club but unfortunately he got injured right away. He should be back on the pitch in November and I hope to see him bagging a few goals.

Last but not least a new striker with a famous name: John Kennedy. He has already scored a goal for us and I hope there’s more to come from him since he has good finishing and composure.

A quick look at the facts shows us that our team is the youngest in the league with an average age of 20 and also the team with the lowest wages averaging 110 pounds per week. In fact, my weekly wage bill is now lower than it was at the end of August because the new youngsters that were brought in required lower wages than the fringe players I released from the club.

As things stand right now we only have three players left out of the initial squad but they might be leaving in January ;) I will continue to look for opportunities on the transfer market as the squad still needs some improvements but there won’t be any more massive signings. Now we’ll have to focus on blending the team but I surely hope we’ll get some good results in the process. Thanks a lot for reading, I might revert to the familiar game by game description style in the next post.