Part 9: Chapter the Eighth: Slip and slide.
Chapter the Eighth: Slip and slide.November 21, 2013-December 31, 2013
Our field is in bad shape, a result of playing in an unrenovated century old stadium. This makes it harder for players to find their footing, affecting their ability to play certain ways, and increases the chance of injury.
The board agrees to relay the field, but they won't be doing so until next June. We'll be forced to muddle through the Tackleford Marsh until then.
At Stockport, November 23, 2013
Skrill North
Anth Hotte gets clattered in the 19th minute and has to come out. We don't have anyone who can play left back on the bench, so someone is going to have to be out of position for the majority of the game. Callum Woods has a rating of “unconvincing” there, which is still better than any other substitute. I had forgotten how irritating having only 5 bench spots was, once we get to League Two we'll have 7 and we won't have to worry about injuries forcing us to play people out of position. Ally McLaren continues his run of goalscoring with his third of the season on a corner in the 26th minute, but at halftime things are level. Only 30 seconds into the second half, though, Andrew Carr earns his second yellow card and sent off. Giving up hope at winning the game, I park the bus and we escape with a draw. We remain in second place, but are now 4 back of Altrincham.
Stockport 1-1 Tackleford City
One of our Under-21 players asks to speak with me, specifically about letting him out on loan to another club. Our training facilities and especially coaches are light-years ahead of whatever team would take him, so I refuse. He whinges. Tough shit, kid.
Players will want to slack off on their training if they have certain stats that indicate laziness or if you've simply scheduled a fuckton of training to do. When that happens it's good to check if they're just being a git and either adjust the amount of training they're doing or tell them personally to step it up.
vs. AFC Telford, November 30, 2013
Skrill North
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Colin Standing has a Jekyll and Hyde start to the match, scoring on another perfect throw-in by Edwards in the 4th minute but also picking up his fifth yellow card of the season ten minutes later. Earning five yellow cards before January means that he'll be suspended for the next game. Edwards later closes the scoring with a goal of his own off a corner in the second half, and all four of our goals come from defensive minded players. It's the first game all year where the entire team has played well, rather than having some players give sub-par performances while their teammates carry the side to victory. No one finishes with a rating below 7, and Sam Edwards wins Player of the Match with a 9.1 rating.
Tackleford City 4-0 AFC Telford
Edwards has been nothing short of excellent this year. He's been everything you could want offensively in a fullback, while not making too many mistakes on defense. His throw-ins have been remarkable. I've never scored goals from them as often as I am this season, a fact I attribute both to Edward's world-class talent in that area and the fact that defenders in this league couldn't mark even if you taped them to their man.
Despite having an undefeated team, I've never won the Coach of the Month award. I've only been near the top of the ballot once, coming in 3rd for October. It's because I'm American, isn't it? You Brits just can't stand that not only did we surpass you to become the most important country in the world, but we're going to become better at soccer, huh?
The Ballon d'Or award shortlist is announced. This is what
Here's next years modifications to the tax brackets in England! Didn't I tell you this was the best spreadsheet simulator ever? I love this game.
I wonder how far down the pitch quality can go? “Horrible?” “Abominable?” “Peat Bog?”
vs. Gainsborough, December 3, 2012
Skrill North
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Alex Hester bags a brace, and Rosetti finally finds the net again after going 480 minutes since his last goal. Rosetti adds two assists to his total, and it looks like he's finally snapped out of his bad run of form.
Tackleford City 3-1 Gainsborough
It's always nice to set records.
Christiano Ronaldo has become Ricardo Lobo. I am going to send his agents an email with this screenshot telling them that he should change his name in real life. He'd go from primadonna to EL LOBO in an instant!
The World Cup draw for 2014 occurs, and both England and the USA have chances to get to the knockout stage. England has the easier group, playing against Italy, Peru, and Costa Rica, while the USA faces Uruguay, Russia, and Ghana. America will obviously be knocked out by Ghana for the third straight World Cup, while England will advance to the quarterfinals where they will lose on penalty kicks. There actually doesn't seem to be a group of death, though anyone could come out of Group G, which contains Mexico, Holland, Egypt, and Bosnia. If the USA gets that group in the real draw happening in two weeks I'll be pretty happy, it's not the nightmare Brazil, USA, France, Italy draw that this simulation website gave me.
I sent my best scout to watch Neil Smith for 3 matches last month, so I could get the most complete scout report possible. Smith is transfer listed at Bradford, and he can be had for a bargain price of zero pounds, so I pick him up. He's a good defensive midfielder and will rotate with Johnston, who has proven that he's both injury prone and doesn't have enough stamina to play multiple games a week. He arrives immediately, as we're not bound by the transfer windows that the upper divisions are.
Worcester is still in the FA Trophy hunt, so a game that was originally scheduled between us for December 10th has now been moved twice. When we play Gloucester on the 21st, it will have been close to three weeks since our last match. To keep match fitness up, I have the first team play the reserves.
This turns out to have been an unwise decision, as Hester is now out until mid-April and had been a vital part of our offense.
Just let me play another game, damnit!
Great. We now have 3 games in a single week, after going over three weeks without a single game. This is some serious bullshit, schedulers. You wouldn't do this to Sir Alex Ferguson. Well, you would, but he'd call it bullroar too, and he had a much bigger microphone than the phone number of one dude at the Non-League Paper.
vs. Colwyn Bay, December 26, 2013
Skrill North
Happy Boxing Day everyone! Say hello to that old humbug Ebenezer Scrooge. Tackleford City FC gives its fans the gift of a solid victory. Bobby Oriogun fills in capably for the injured Hester, collecting a brace of goals, while the victory is marred only by a penalty given to Colwyn Bay after we were already up 2-0.
Tackleford City 3-1 Colwyn Bay
vs. Brackley Town, December 28, 2013
Skrill North
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This match is a tough ask for us. I don't want to use many of our first team players because of fatigue after the last game, but at the same time I'm concerned that it leaves us with a very weakened squad. As such, I modify our tactics so that we don't push quite as high up the field and play slightly more defensively. The changes work like a charm, and we win 3-0 for the second time against Brackley. Neil Smith seals the game in the second half with a goal in his debut, and half of the opposition's shots came from long range, indicating that we were able to prevent them from getting good looks inside our penalty area.
Tackleford City 3-0 Brackley
Well, so much for worrying about playing 3 games in 6 days. It's New Years Eve, and we're going to party like it's almost 2014!
I worried about the effects of a long layoff in the middle of December, but I clearly shouldn't have been. The team played just as well at the end of the month as they had been before the impromptu break. We're still 8 points back of Altrincham, who've been even hotter than us, but we have played two fewer games so if we win out we'll only be 2 points off their lead. We still have a game against them in mid-March, which could be Lower League Gotterdammerung if we're still neck and neck at the top of the table.
