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Letting only 3 goals in against Man City? Eesh, Lex must've been in really good form that day. But yeah, a million pounds for one measly game, that's the big leagues.
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Jul 10, 2020 10:11
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Some of these scorelines are pretty insane
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Jul 11, 2020 01:43
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This has got me re-reading the Wrexham FM2014 run by habeasdorkus. I wonder who our Meteor Mujkic is going to be?
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Jul 12, 2020 04:23
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PLUS ULTRA _______________ (31/1/2020) (Somewhere in London. A Welshman with dark spectacles pores over news reports, their words shining off of his laptop's screen. Chrissy hovers nearby.)  : Gunning for the playoffs, is he? He's doing a lot better than many of us expected. Most of our colleagues thought that he'd struggle to stay in the division this season, but look at him. Twenty games to play and they're nowhere near relegation.  : They can't keep it up.: Why do you say that?: Look at the way they play. They're a high-pressing side. That takes a lot of effort. With the fixture list being what it is, those players will tire out. Even when they're at full fitness, they can't beat the teams above them. Now, with fatigue setting in, they'll come back down to earth. Lose even one of their first eleven to wear-and-tear and their team loses much of its quality. The gap between their first and second elevens is massive.: So Berardi is praying for good luck on the injuries front. As I imagine all managers are. He's been quite lucky with injuries. Only Spurtworthy and Avals have missed games for them this season. Very good luck, that is. But luck can change. It can change very, very. quickly._______________ February (1/2/2020) Match Report: Braintree Town  The new formation is already paying dividends, with a complete performance from front to back giving us a win against a team we could only play to a draw earlier in the season. Our front three is arranged asymmetrically, with Causso Darame providing width on the right side as a Right Winger, his natural right foot on the outside to aid with whipping in crosses, and Oliver Goodsir on the left, his natural right foot on the inside to facilitate shots and through-ball opportunities for The Institute to feed off of. With Avals in the CDM Position, our defence has more security in front of it and have more license to bomb forward. Eaufort was the main beneficiary of this tactical change, grabbing two assists in this game to take him up to 6 for the season. The main focus of the team is transitioning of the ball from right to left. To do this, we enlist the mighty power of mathematics. On the right side, The Wall and Darame interchange in giving the team width, the two of them providing a short passing option for the other. On the right side of the midfield three, Shite is set as a mezzala, which is Italian for "half wing". A mezzala starts centrally and drifts wide into half-spaces to help the team in possession, pressing high and aiming to create through-ball chances or crossing opportunities as well as goalscoring opportunities for himself. With Shite as a right-sided mezzala, our right side is packed with players who can make a difference. Numerically, we have an advantage down the right flank, thus creating an 「overload」. 「Overloads」 happen when play is concentrated on one side of the pitch and the team in possession has more players in that region than the opposition. In our case, Darame, The Wall and Shite create a 3v2 versus the left sided winger and full back or even a 3v1 against an isolated full back, giving them superior numbers and a variety of options to make passes up the pitch. The opposition gets sucked into this region of the pitch to compensate, this action shifting their defence to our right, their left. This frees up Mondal or Goodsir on the left wing, who is left unmarked and can score an easy tap-in if the players on the ball can find him. Effective use of an「overload」 relies on quick transitions of play from the midfield to the wing to the other wing and is extremely difficult to defend against. Pep Guardiola, of Barcelona, Bayern Munich and now Man City fame, is an 「overload」 master, utilising bizarre formations and esoteric roles like inverted full backs and half wingers to deal real damage to teams he can pin back. Elsewhere, our overperformance this season has not gone unnoticed, with Ivan Avals in particular getting his fair share of attention. I'll need to tie him down to a new contract to fend off the circling vultures.  (4/2/2020) Match Report: Maidstone United  The Maidstone game ended up being a lot trickier than I'd anticipated, with the Stones showing real grit in keeping our attackers at bay. It took a superb solo strike from Shite to separate the two teams and give us a valuable 3 points. The distance between us and the team in 8th is up to 5 points. With the number of games running out, it's really up to us to stay in the playoff spots. (15/2/2020) Match Report: Crewe Alexandra  I was keen to get revenge on Crewe for the spanking they gave us earlier in the season and I was quite confident in our new formation being able to give them trouble. We did very well to fight back to 3-2 up, a late lapse in concentration the only thing that stopped us from grabbing a great victory. Still, we can take a lot of pride from this performance. (22/2/2020) Match Report: Leyton Orient  We stole two early goals in this game, giving me hope for an upset, by Leyton Orient showed enough of their quality to level the match, preying on our mistakes on the slowness of our centre-back. Despite the result, Lex was on top form, making a number of key saves, including a penalty from Macauley Bonne and showing a good range of passing in the game. Goodsir should perhaps have won it late, but that's football. Roy seems to be taking his coaching studies very, very seriously, taking it upon himself to get the National B License, which would make him the second most qualified coach in our set up if he passes the course.  Things are on the up all over the club, with Lili informing us of a couple of new faces in the youth set up. Ray Gritt looks like an interesting player, if one that plays in a position that we don't use at the moment. I'll be following his progress closely. Perhaps he can moulded into a mezzala or advanced playmaker on one of the wings.   Not to be outdone by Roy, The Institute is also taking up his coaching badges. I can only imagine what wisdom he's going to impart on the boys.  : The only hand you're allowed to use in the box is the Invisible Hand. Rumour has it that Igor Kriushenko is thinking about calling up Ivan Avals. If so, that'd make him the first-ever Exmouth player to get an international call-up and very possibly the only player in the Vanarama National to get a call-up this season.  March (14/3/2020) Match Report: Ebbsfleet United  Evidently Avals wanted some more time away from the pitch to get to know his new international teammates, getting sent off late in the second half in a frustrating 1-1 draw. Playing Avals higher up in the more advanced midfield position doesn't seem to have suited him. I think I'll keep him in the CDM slot from now on. (18/3/2020) Match Report: Harrogate Town  A Eaufort own goal lost the game for us but the left back didn't really do much wrong, just getting stuck in the wrong place at the wrong time. This does mean that Harrogate have done the double over us, a frustrating fact when one considers that George O'Neill left our outfit for Harrogate. I hate to prove doubters right but I didn't do much to prove to O'Neill that his was the wrong decision. At least Avals is having fun. He had a very solid debut in the middle of the park, contributing towards a 3-0 win over Estonia. Happy to be part of the international set up and the one at Plainmoor, Avals seems to be in very good spirits. We'll need him in such condition when he comes back. Our midfield looks a lot shakier with him gone.     (21/3/2020) Match Report: Hartlepool United  A nervy win made complicated by Pritchard's dynamite finishing. Hartlepool had a handle on our attack for most of the game, with two of our goals coming from Eaufort corners, the winner being a captain's goal from Knypersley to take us up to 4th place in the table. We look good value for our position in the table. We just need to hang on for a couple more games. With The Institute in full flow, we shouldn't have any issues outgunning whatever opposition stands in our way. Avals' Eurotrip is going rather well, grabbing a goal on just his second cap. He's a good lad, taking our congratulations graciously.     (31/3/2020) Match Report: Boreham Wood  I must admit, I'm not the biggest fan of these jammy wins of ours, but I'll take them. April (5/4/2020) Match Report: Gloucester City  Gloucester must be really tired of us bullying them. They tried really hard to take the game to us, knowing that our main threat was out, and really threatened to make the last 5 minutes of extra time really nervy, but the backup strikers were good enough to give us a 3 goal cushion and keep us safely in the playoff spots. Ivan's absolute piledriver from the edge of the box ended up being the winner, the Belarusian Busquets bringing his international form back to the south coast.  Our top scorer will be out for the rest of the season, including the playoffs, should we make them. Our place there is all but confirmed and it would take a monumental collapse for us to fall far enough down the table to lose out, but with our goalscoring talisman out, I'm a little nervous. (10/4/2020) Match Report: Solihull Moors  To was inches away from scoring a four minute hat-trick, denied by a fingertip save to keep his volley out. A third goal did come for us, with Oli Goodsir cutting inside and curling one in from the edge of the box. We look in very good form at the moment. It'd take something really daft happening for us to slip up now. (14/4/2020) Match Report: Eastleigh  An early Moistie sending off is pretty daft, yes. Longman scored a free header in the box to win the match for Eastleigh, the Spitfires man somehow left in acres of space due to a mix-up between Davies and Knypersley over who was going to head the ball out. I expect better communication from my senior centrebacks and I was not amused with our manner of conceding in this game. (18/4/2020) Match Report: Darlington  The scoreline says it all, really. This team is monstrously strong going forward but held together with gum and tissue paper at the back. A first senior hat-trick for Junior Mondal and goals galore after 80 minutes means the team won't be forgetting this one any time soon. This happens to be the highest-scoring game ever played by Exmouth and by any set of teams in the Vanarama National. 4 goals past the 80th minute is likely some sort of record too. Losing 2 points in the 95th of 95 minutes was frustrating, but I was too amazed by the sheer number of goals to really be too upset. The draw against Darlington, the second last game of the season, confirmed our place in the playoffs. In the first round, the quarter-final, we'll be facing Crewe Alexandra. The last time we played them, we drew 3-3, a very late equaliser saving their skin. Before that, we lost handily. Based on simple progression, we should beat them this around... Or we would if The Institute hadn't broken his arm. While To is an excellent player, he doesn't have the pace of The Institute. His strength makes him an excellent outball, however. For the game against Crewe, he'll need a player close to him to move the ball along quickly. As such, I've instructed Mondal to sit narrower and tighter to his striker, essentially playing as a False Nine himself. While this sacrifices the width Mondal gives, it also allows us to replace the pace of our attack, which we'll need against Crewe.  (25/4/2020) Match Report: FC Halifax  Our last game of the season, an especially forgettable draw against FC Halifax. To and Mondal showed some promising interplay, their final balls not quite good enough to craft goalscoring opportunities, but their partnership looks like it might have some merit. If Mondal sharpens up his passing, we might have something good on our hands. May (6/5/2020) Match Report: Crewe Alexandra  A gritty, battling performance saw our entire back four pick up yellow cards, an aggressive approach that was rewarded with a convincing 3-1 win over Crewe. To ran like an animal all game, the spirit of the missing The Institute apparently being channelled into the Portuguese striker. Good centre forward play gave Mondal his chance to score, an official assist not given to To because of an intervention from the Crewe centreback, but I'll count it in my mind. The tactical change paid off, for this match at least. Next up are Grimsby, who have had the better of us both times we've played them this season. With nothing to lose and everything to gain, I'll have the team attack from the off in this game. We know they can score goals against us. With our attack, can they stop us from scoring against them?  (9/5/2020) Match Report: Grimsby Town  Evidently not. An Avals header and a Mondal banger set the stage for a breathtaking performance from To, grabbing a four-goal haul in the second half to send us to the Playoff Final. It was a truly astonishing offering from Resort Ronaldo, who has really stepped up to the plate when asked. Our vice-captain could barely walk when the game was done, To having been left on until extra time to complete his hat-trick. Subbing him off beforehand would have been cruel and there wasn't time to sub him off once extra time had gone into full swing. Six of the best set up a showdown against Harrogate Town. Once again, we face a club we couldn't beat in the regular season. It's going to be tough, they're going to be tough. But we didn't have this swagger in the regular season, this level of belief in our ability to score five if the opposition scores 4. The final showdown will be happening at Wembley, the national English stadium and the setting of every cup final in the English game. To an Englishman, playing at Wembley is an absolutely massive deal, to the point where supporters will sing "We're Going to Wembley" at any opportunity they can get. Our pre-eminent Englishman is out for a while and will have to do with a seat in the stands. A Portuguese steps to take his place, his countryman to the right, an Englishman to his left. This is the first final the club has ever gotten to, one no one expected us to reach, never mind win. That game at Wembley will be #100 for Gio. The stars are aligning for us. Is this our moment?   (15/5/2020) Match Report: Harrogate Town   You bet it is. Harrogate fought tooth and nail for the chance to go up to League Two, pegging back Causso's early lashed effort with a bullet header from Knowles. Every shot we made was countered, almost bettered, by Harrogate, Lex having to be on his toes all game. The game looked destined for extra time, and perhaps a penalty shootout beyond that, when a through ball was captured by Mondal and he drove into the box. The Harrogate right back brought him down at the edge of the area, on the wrong side of the line by a matter of centimetres. "Penalty!" says the ref. With all of our regular takers out of the side, an unexpected figure stepped up to take the spot-kick. _______________ (The crowd watches on with bated breath. A strange figure wakes up to the penalty spot and carefully places the ball down. He locks eyes with the opposition keeper and takes a deep breath in. ) : Belshaw has saved four penalties this season. This youth player has never taken one in senior football and now he's stepping up to take one in the biggest game of his life. Why does he look so confident? : I'm Ziltoid. I don't give a poo poo._______________ Ziltoid converted the penalty with ease, sending Belshaw the wrong way, and with so little time left in the game after it, won us promotion into League Two. Simon Weaver, the man in the opposite dugout, was extremely gracious in defeat, noting that we fully deserved our late winner.  _______________ (A hotel lobby in Torquay. Gio stands near to the door, his eyes focussed intensely on his cellphone. A tap on the shoulder breaks his concentration and a couple of blinks reveal the shape of Riyad Hakimi standing in front of him.)  : When I hired you, I told that I planned to turn this club into a professional outfit within five years. You've walked into the place and done that job in just two. Well done, Mr Berardi. I'm very pleased.   : (Distractedly) Oh, yeah... Good to hear.: Something on your mind, Mr Berardi?: No, no, I'm just.., My phone has been buzzing all morning. I'm getting all sorts of messages.: Job offers?: Yeah, how'd you know?: You've brought a little south-coast club with financial troubles from the National South to League Two. Achievements like that breed demand. Clubs are always on the lookout for miracle workers. I wouldn't blame you if you left.: You wouldn't?: No. You can certainly earn a lot more than the one thousand pounds per week I'm about to offer you.: (chuckling) This is certainly an interesting way of negotiating a contract extension, I'll give you that.: What's your answer, Mr Berardi?: Yeah, why not? I'll take it. We've come this far already. Let's keep going.: That's good to hear. : It would only be fair to you if you could see where we're going.: Where's that?: Home, Mr Berardi. We're going home. _______________ The media saw fit to label us as the biggest overachievers in the FA Cup, seeing as we made it all the way to the 3rd round. That's a warning shot to the rest of League Two about how dangerous we could be, despite our financial and reputation disadvantages compared to those other clubs.  At the end of season awards, The Institute held onto his crown as the fans' player of the season, while Afolabi predictably got labelled the signing of the season. Forest Green's loanee Mondal got recognition as our best young player while Tribune's long-range chip against Chelmsford got our goal of the season.   The step up to the next division didn't slow down The Institute in the slightest as he grabbed another golden boot. He even missed the last six or so games and therefore might have even gotten a couple more goals in those matches. Still, a win is a win, and I'm sure The Institute will be pleased.  Our Monster sponsorship has finally kicked in, meaning we have more money to spend on players and facilities next season.  The media continued to give plaudits to Gio, even giving him the Manager of the Year award over the actual championship-winning manager.   The u18s will see our captain coaching them from next season forward, giving Roy something to do, as his game time will be a fair bit lower next season compared to this one. He's been a loyal servant and a good captain, but he's been exposed at this level, so we desperately need an upgrade. He can play cup games and slot in when we need defensive assurance.  We're in the big leagues now and that means big bucks. Just playing in the division is going to earn us nearly 300k.  _______________ Final Third Summary: League Position: 6th (Promoted via Playoffs) FA Cup: Eliminated by Manchester City FA Trophy: Eliminated by Chelmsford Wins: 26 Draws: 10 Losses: 9 Win Percentage (League): 55% (55%) Top Goalscorer: The Institute (33) Top Playmaker: Brian Eaufort (16) Best Average Rating; The Institute (7.51/10) Most Yellow Cards: Moistie (11) Most Red Cards: Moistie (3) _______________ And so our second season ends with us making it into the Football League, with a place in League Two beckoning for the 20/21 Season and Gio having succeeded at Mr Hakimi's 5 year professional status challenge. It's going to be a big step up but we've got enough heart to fight for our right to stay in that division. The off-season has started, meaning that we have time to think about things. Two important details must be decided: 1) What is the name of our new stadium? 2) What are we using our City-sanctioned oil money on? Youth facilities? Training facilities? Players? Drugs? GruntMountain fucked around with this message at 13:26 on Jul 13, 2020 |
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Jul 12, 2020 16:31
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1.) We're the excavators. We work in The Quarry. 2.) The only good use for that money is to give the institute more money. Or hire Karl Marx.
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Jul 12, 2020 21:27
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1) the Quarry for the Excavators is only appropriate, or perhaps the Big Dig? 2) Players!
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Jul 13, 2020 00:17
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1. The Quarry is good, but so would be The Pit. 2. Spend it on training facilities and a youth program. We absolutely cannot sustain the pace we've been going at, and an investment is after a windfall like this is a good idea.
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Jul 13, 2020 00:55
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I like The Quarry. I'd say ensure our long-term success. Training facilities and a good youth program do that sort of thing.
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Jul 14, 2020 15:34
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THE BEST DEFENSE IS A GOOD OFFENSE _______________ (Plainmoor, Torquay. Riyad Hakimi sits solemnly behind a table, fielding media questions on his lonesome.) : According to reports coming out of your club, this is the last season you're going to be playing at Plainmoor and that work has begun on a new stadium back home in Exmouth. Can you confirm or deny these reports?: I can definitely confirm them. We're looking to bring the club back to the supporters. That's why we've started the planning phase for our new home.: How far along are these plans?: At the preliminary stage. Though we've had... suggestions, we haven't even decided on a name yet, much less dimensions and placement. Right now, however, we need to be focussing on next season, on the league. If we bring something good back from our adventures in Torquay, I think it will bode well for the tenure of our new stadium._______________ August Preseason started later and lasted a bit shorter this year compared to last, so the boys seem a bit happier and don't appear to have lost any of their fitness. Now fully settled into the idea of playing a staggered 4-3-3, the lads brought up the fact that our depth in midfield is a bit thin. Indeed, with only 2 players to a position and a couple of them being deputies in others, we needed more bodies in that part of the pitch. The yearly youth release, in which the big clubs let go of their youngsters who they think won't make it at the club, provided us with an opportunity to pick up some bargain buys for absolutely free. First up, Charlie McCann, released from the Manchester United academy. Excellent mental stats, good tackling, work rate and stamina mean that he'll slot right in in that ball-winning midfield role. His finishing leaves a bit to be desired and his determination could be better, but this looks a good acquisition for us. He can also play left wing, which is a nice bonus.  Next, Tyrese Fornah, from the Brighton and Hove Albion academy. Again, excellent mental stats, good fitness, and a respectable score for long shots. He'll make a good attacking mezzala if we can improve his dribbling and crossing. He's happy to play in the ball-winning role as well, should we need him to, but pre-season has me liking the way he does his advanced midfield duties.  We got Warren Clarke on loan from Sheffield Wednesday. Despite his young age, he's already a good player for this division. Two-footed, an adept finisher and a guy with a very good head on his shoulders, he'll be our starting left wing, the inside forward from the tactical discussion in the last post, meaning that he'll be chipping in with goals to take the sole burden off of our starting striker. He wants to leave Wednesday so, if he does well, I may want to make his deal a permanent one.  This season, we'll be competing on four fronts. The double-whammy of the league and the FA Cup is something we're used to, but the addition of the League Cup due to our place in the Football League is something new. Adding to that is the Checkatrade Trophy, a competition in which the u23s of some of the bigger clubs compete against some of the smaller teams. Our Checkatrade group is fairly tough, with a strong Forest Green side, a good Northampton side filling out a group with us and a hugely impressive Chelsea academy side. All four clubs play a round-robin group stage to determine which two of the four make it through to the next round.  Before we do any sort of cup runs, we need to get some confidence in the league. A game against Swindon introduces us to the Football League. Fingers crossed, we'll have a good time. (1/8/2020) Match Report: Swindon Town  An Avals banger and a truly unfortunate Keston Davies own goal meant that our first professional game ended in a draw. We looked good value for the result and either team could have taken the match. That bodes well for the future. (5/8/2020) Match Report: Crawley Town  The match was a lot more even than the scoreline suggests, it's just that Crawley took their chances and we didn't. We started well, but couldn't turn that momentum into anything. Numerous chances to make it 2-2 were thrown away, our pressure serving as a wakeup call to Crawley. Hopefully we'll have a more composed performance next time out. (8/8/2020) Match Report: Notts County  Domination. The top team in the division didn't have a sniff as we won by a scoreline that flattered Notts County more than anything. Causso Darame took his goal on his weak foot very well and it was a calm performance all around. (12/8/20) Match Report: AFC Wimbledon (League Cup)  Not our best. We couldn't really get going and Wimbledon deserved their win. New centreback signing Joseph Joseph had a tough time of things, his senior partner Davies looking more assured, though that's not saying much. In our camp, our players are getting more attention for their overachievement last season. Bristol Rovers dropped a 15k bid for Lex Metzger, which I dismissed out of hand. Lex was... less than happy about this.  _______________  : I'm disappointed that you rejected the bid from Bristol Rovers.: You're too important to this club, so I had to reject the bid. You're staying put, for now at least.: At this stage in my career, I need to be playing in the Championship and it's just not realistic that I'll get a chance to do that with Exmouth. I want you to accept the next bid from Bristol.: Not a chance. You're staying and that's final.: I'm not happy about this.: Alright, look... I'm prepared to offer you a new contract...: I can't believe you think throwing money at this issue is going to fix anything. I'm really disappointed with how you've handled this entire exchange.: Lex... _______________ (15/8/20) Match Report: Accrington Stanley  A very positive performance. Though we lost the battle for possession, we were efficient with the ball when we got it and our defence looked very assured when Accrington did make their way forward. (22/8/2020) Match Report: Leyton Orient  Our old friends Leyton Orient looked like they were going to be on the losing side for most of the game, but the most bizarre of equalisers came late when Lex kicked the ball into Joseph's head and it bounced into Ben Wilson's path. Now, Lex, you may be upset that I didn't let you go to Bristol, but that's no reason to take it out on poor Joseph. (29/8/2020) Match Report: Carlisle United  This is the flip side of our attacking style of play. When it doesn't click, the opposition can just bulldoze right through us. We sat at 2-2 at one point and couldn't thread our passes together after that, meaning that Carlisle had mistakes to pick up on and could charge through on goal. A penalty given away and a garbage take on the ball spelled a bad day at the office for The Wall. September (5/9/2020) Match Report: Bury  With Avals gone on international duty, we had to stick his backup Jones in defensive midfield. While Jones is sturdy, he doesn't have Avals' passing ability, misplaced efforts putting us under pressure a couple of times. The new signings Clarke and Fornah had great games, Fornah grabbing a double in a good example of how a mezzala should operate. We've changed as a team. At the beginning, most of our chances were created on the counter, utlising the pace of The Institute and Darame. We aren't so one-dimensional these days, with Clarke's opener showing good build-up and excellent possession. (12/9/2020) Match Report: Cheltenham Town  A good attacking display from the boys, our inside forward Clarke doing well in that left wing slot. The Wall had a brilliant game down the right as well and could perhaps had make a case for getting the Man of the Match award himself. The fact that our wide players are doing well is very pleasing to me; it shows that our switches in play are working well and our midfield distribution has so far been excellent. With performances like that, perhaps we do have a chance of making the Championship soon, huh, Lex?  Elsewhere, Afolabi came back from a weekend out with an unfortunate injury. He's a young man and he's allowed to make mistakes, but he does need to be more careful. Given that he's only going to be out for 3-4 days, he's probably been taking his meds, which is good at least.  (19/9/2020) Match Report: AFC Wimbledon  I do wish we could have had this performance in the cup. We might have taken the tie to extra time or penalties in that case. Oh well, a point in the league is still appreciated and I'll never not celebrate a late goal to grab a point. The Institute may as well have scored with the very last kick of the game. (26/9/2020) Match Report: Oldham Athletic  We won out in a game of few chances, To's goal from a Tribune through-ball enough to get us the 3 points. With The Institute still looking a bit rusty following last season's long-term injury, it's good to see that To is happy to chip in with a goal or two here and there. We'll need that sort of quality squad depth this season. We've done very poorly in the cups so far with Exmouth and I'm desperate to challenge for one soon. To do that, we need good performances from our whole squad, not just the first eleven. (29/9/2020) Match Report: Wycombe Wanderers  Early in the second half, we looked like we might throw this one away, but late goals from To and Fornah clinched it for us. It's a really encouraging sign that we can grab late goals, showing that our concentration and fitness levels are sky-high. The league took notice of our good form during the month of September. Fornah claimed Player and Young Player of the month, with Clarke running him close for the former, while the league couldn't name a better coach than Berardi for the month.    Be happy being yourself, Roy. You don't need to be Gio to be cool.  October (4/10/2020) Match Report: Chesterfield  A glanced header from Davies and good awareness from Eaufort to convert after an error from the goalie gave us the win this game. We were lucky that the defence stepped up to score as the attack was a bit weak this game. An off-game like this is acceptable when other parts of the team can bail you out. (6/10/2020) Match Report: Northampton Town (Checkatrade Trophy)  Dropped points here would have meant that we might have been cut adrift after an early season loss against the Chelsea youngsters. Up stepped Mr Reliable, The Institute, to give us the win and a chance to go through to the next round with a win against Forest Green Rovers. It'll be an all-or-nothing, winner-takes-all match between us and Forest Green, who we share League Two with. We'll have a practice run against them at the end of October. If we can get a good result there, I'm confident we can kickstart our cup run. The hectic schedule is taking its toll on our players. Our entire first-choice right flank pulled up lame during the game against Northampton, neither of those injuries looking like ones that are going to be short-term. Oliver and Robert are good deputies, but there's unfortunately still a dropoff in quality.   (17/10/2020) Match Report: Port Vale  A battling performance, too battling for the referee as our fighting spirit saw us pick up six yellow cards. I'd thought we'd lost it with The Institute's sending off, by To was on hand to steal it at the death, sending us up into the playoff places.  (20/10/2020) Match Report: Yeovil Town  Yeovil did very well to nullify our attack, reducing our output to an Afolabi goal off of a McCann setpiece. Our midfielders seemed to have trouble linking up with the attack, with To especially poor in connecting with his teammates. The game exposed To's lack of pace compared to The Institute or Afolabi, meaning the Yeovil centrebacks could contest a competition of pure strength, the defenders winning out this time. (24/10/2020) Match Report: Cambridge United  Gio went to Cambridge and promptly got schooled, the United players letting us having the ball but making sure we couldn't do much with it by setting up an effective low block. One shot on target is simply not good enough and we'll need to sharpen up. Of course, the universe decided to throw Exmouth a curveball. Not to be outdone by our right side, our left side picked up a pair of injuries as we go into crunch time for the season, a Eaufort in good form and a hungry Afolabi falling victim to a tight schedule.   (30/10/2020) Match Report: Forest Green Rovers  The only vegan football club in England gobbled up all of the free chances we decided to give them, Shite's sending off being the pivotal moment in the game. A man down and outplayed for the majority of the game, we can take heart in the fact that we still made them work, 4-3 a respectable scoreline given the circumstances. We definitely have reason to confident ahead of our cup tie against them.   We don't really look out of place in the division, which is obviously nice to see. Our late form is a bit troubling but we've definitely got the personnel to turn it around. We're the third top scorers in the league but we only have the 14th best defence. Perhaps a dip into the January market could help with that. _______________ First Third Summary: League Position: 7th FA Cup: Not started yet Carabao Cup: Eliminated by AFC Wimbledon Checkatrade Trophy: 3rd Place in the group with 1 game to play Wins: 9 Draws: 5 Losses: 7 Win Percentage (League): 43% (47%) Top Goalscorer: The Institute (7) Top Playmaker: The Wall (6) Best Average Rating; Warren Clarke (7.29/10) Most Yellow Cards: Charlie McCann (6) Most Red Cards: The Institute and Shite (1) Injuries: Jonathan Afolabi (6 weeks), Brian Eaufort (6 weeks), The Wall (2 weeks) Transfers IN: Joseph Joseph (Free Agent, CB), Tyrese Fornah (Free Agent, CM), Charlie McCann (Free Agent, CM), Warren Clarke (Loan, Sheffield Wednesday, LW) Transfers OUT: Paul Paulson (Loan, Truro, VNS) Next Opponent: Braintree Town at home in the FA Cup GruntMountain fucked around with this message at 11:13 on Jul 19, 2020 |
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Jul 15, 2020 10:12
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Oof, I wanted Lex to be happy with the Excavators. Silly boy wanting to go to other places.
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Jul 17, 2020 16:20
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ONLY THE RESULTS MATTER _______________ (Las Vegas, Nevada. An older gentleman sits at a slightly tilted table, his eyes fixed on a set of four balls carefully balanced on the tabletop. The table shifts and one of the balls drops to into the man's waiting hand. In his motion to catch the ball, he accidentally tips the table, sending the other three spheres clattering across the tiled floor. Another man looks on inscrutably. The older man looks up with an almost-embarrassed grin)  : Ah, Riyad. How's life been treating you?: Well, for the most part.: Good to hear. As for me, well... I'm sure you've heard the news.: I have. I thought I'd be hearing it from you, not from the Chronicle.: Huh. Must have slipped my mind.: Clearly.: Anyway, how are the Excavators coming along? You guys are still in the Conference leagues, right?: We're challenging for promotion into League One.:Well, I'll be damned! That Giovanni knows what he's doing, then.: Gio.: Whatever.: ...: Your boys are good, then? I guess I'll have a chance to see just how good they are soon enough. A lot of them are my signings, right? Ronnie, Lex and Ziltoid are still there, right?: Correct. The rest of the team is Gio's own. Our core identity is... somewhat different to what it was during your tenure.: Hmmm... This should be interesting. I wonder if the league is ready for ol' Clark to get back in the saddle. _______________ You don't need me to tell you that we've been overachieving as a side for a little while now, with good bargain buys and moments of magic keeping us aloft in this division. The game has a fairly obvious way of showing the degree to which one is overachieving relative to the strength of their squad. This comes in the form of the Star Rating System, rated from 5 gold stars to 0 silver stars, with the latter being barely able to kick a ball and the former being rated as 'star quality' for the division. The Star Ratings are entirely relative, being affected both by the quality of players in the division and by players in the squad. Let's have a look at what our one of starting elevens looks like relative to the rest of League Two.  Our best players are Avals and Fornah in midfield, and JoJo and Collins in defence. The rest of the guys are 2.5 and 3 stars, meaning they are just about average compared to the rest of the league. Average with pockets of high quality makes for a good upper-midtable side, not the promotion-chasers we've turned out to be. This also shows why we've really struggled against several of the teams above us. They've had the quality to put us to the sword, overwhelming and outplaying us to the point where even a solid system won't really help to get a result. Going back to star quality for a second, we can see hear that the player somewhat unsuited to their roles, the players with the orange semi-circles, have a lower star rating. They haven't magically become worse players, they're just playing in a way that means that their talents, the qualities that potentially make them 4 and 5 star players, aren't being utilised. Similarly, if we were to bring in a world-beater of some sort, all of the others Star Ratings will drop. Again, this isn't because they've become worse players, quite the opposite, as a better teammate would make them better. It merely means that this extremely good player has shifted what the average quality in the league and team is and the rating relative to the average has been adjusted accordingly.  Let's talk about Avals for a second. I jokingly called him Belarusian Busquets an update or two ago, but he's legitimately been our most important player and integral to the way our game is being played. The CDM, or central defensive midfield, slot is extremely important due to its role in the phases of transition in the game. The way we're moving the ball about moves the ball from the goalkeeper, Lex, to either of our centre backs or one of our full backs. If the full backs are picked out, they'll move the ball in different ways. Tribune, being our first-choice left wingback, will aggressively progress with the ball, driving forward using his pace and ball control. This forces the play upwards, with Avals dictating the depth of our line. He won't be too far behind wherever Tribune is, forcing the midfielders ahead of him to push forwards and engage with the opposition in their half. If the right back, The Wall, is picked out, then he'll act a touch more defensively as a full back rather than a wing back. He'll play a ball down the line to Darame or into midfield to Fornah. In this passing passage, the ball can very easily be lost due to a stray pass or a misjudged effort. For this reason, Avals hangs back, waiting to snuff out any counterattacking ambitions the opposition might have. He instructs the midfield to have a standard or deep line here so that we aren't caught out. Another strength of his is his passing. I've trained him to have the 'Likes To Switch Flanks' Player Trait, which means that, if the pass is on, he'll hit a long diagonal to one of the wingers, whichever one is free. This causes a very quick transition and causes panic in the offense. If Darame is picked out, To and Clarke will rush forward into the box to try and get on the end of a quick cross. If Clarke is picked out, he'll offer a pass inside to Fornah, who'll have a crack himself or play it back to Clarke for a goalscoring opportunity. If the ball is being moved around in the opposition box, Avals will allow himself to surge forward to offer another body in attack, ready to drive into the box or hit a long shot from outside of it. Avals frequently has the highest passing numbers and highest passing rate in each game, showing how important he is to our style of play. November (7/11/2020) Match Report: Braintree Town (FA Cup)  A real back-and-forth game saw Braintree manage to salvage a draw and take this tie back to their stadium for a replay. In truth, we were quite sloppy, missing all sorts of passes that really should have been handled better, and perhaps we should even have lost. We'll have to do a professional job at Cressing Road to make it through to the next round of the FA Cup. Our recent performances have gotten Moistie a call-up to the New Zealand set-up, taking our tally of internationals to 2, both of them happening to be our defensive midfielders. Given his work-rate, desire and the weakness of the competition in his region, I have faith that he'll have a good international career if he keeps getting caps.  Our rapid rise up the divisions has not gone unnoticed. Any of our players could have been the subject of the conversation, but vice-captain To took the journalists' focus. I've been happy with To's willingness to sit on the bench for most of the season and really take his chances when he gets given them. With The Institute turning 34 soon and Ronnie not quite ready to take the next step up, To is going to become our starting striker soon.  (10/11/2020) Match Report: Forest Green Rovers (Checkatrade Trophy)  A game of little real quality saw us grab all three points against Forest Green and gives us the chance to square off against League One side Luton Town. (14/11/2020) Match Report: Northampton Town  A Clarke injury forced us to sub in somewhat untested winger Grant Beeney for the game, Beeney struggling to impress. Conversely, JoJo had a great game at the back and really should have scored off of Darame's corner to open the scoring. Darame was happy to do the job himself, grabbing a vital 3 points in a nervy game that the boys had trouble really getting into. (18/11/2020) Match Report: Braintree Town (FA Cup Replay)  An unacceptably poor performance from the boys, switching off to let Amaluzor score not once but twice to take the game to extra-time and then penalties, which we lost 5-4. Braintree are a team we should be putting away with ease and the fact that we couldn't even do a professional job here with the squad we have is very concerning. We'll have to wait until next season to get a chance at competing for the FA Cup again. Next up on the agenda, the battle of the old against the new. Our next game back in the league is against Plymouth Argyle and against Exmouth legend, Clark Zybourne. _______________ (Home Park, Plymouth. The crowd cheers as the Argyle players make their way onto the pitch, their travelling Exmouth rivals flanking them to more muted applause.) : So we finally meet, Giovanni.: Oh, just Gio is fine. It's an honour to meet you, Clark. The boys only have good things to say about you.: As expected. Don't go expecting an easy ride now, after your flattery or because of some sentimental attachment to your club. I'm here to win and you're standing in the way of that. Only the results matter, so go ahead and get ready for the longest 90 minutes of your life._______________ (21/11/2020) Match Report: Plymouth Argyle  Our forwards had a really tough time dealing with Zybourne's flat 4-4-2 sticking two banks of 4 ahead of the keeper. The front three really struggled to get anything done between them, the Argyle defenders making life difficult. Eventually, a The Institute flick-on to Fornah allowed the latter to hit a 25-yard rocket into the Argyle net early in the second half to win us the game. Plymouth stepped up their game after the opener, forcing Lex into a number of excellent saves. JoJo again had an amazing game, refusing to let the opposition past him. This time, at least, the points belong to Gio but it could easily have been a different story had Lameiras put his header away and squared to his striker instead of hitting the side-netting. (24/11/2020) Match Report: Morecambe  Despite The Institute's return to goalscoring form, we didn't have it in us to reward his efforts with a win. JoJo tried to be sneaky early in the first half but his push on Cranston was spotted by the referee, who had no choice but to signal for a penalty. With the game roughly even across the board, we could have taken it with a bit more composure. To make matters worse, Brexit has finally happened and its effects on football have been announced. While it'll be no different for signing British players, getting anyone else in will be a whole lot harder with these new rules.   The tried-and-tested tactic of poaching foreign wonderkids has become a little bit more difficult with these rules falling into place. Any quality foreigners we pick up might have to be those already at English clubs. (28/11/2020) Match Report: Tranmere Rovers  Shifting him further forward to account for Fornah's through injury absence gave Avals the license to bomb forward and plunder a pair of goals to win us the game, a header and a scrappy set-piece finish adding to his tally for the season. Despite what their goal might suggest, we had a handle on Tranmere for most of the game and had the professionalism required to see out the result. Avals' great performances during November saw him duly rewarded by the FA, our CDM going from strength to strength.  December (5/12/2020) Match Report: Stevenage  The town of many Stevens put up a good fight but ultimately lost out to a good showing in front of goal by The Institute. A slight modification to the tactic shifted Shite closer to the strikers in the hope that he'd have more of an influence on the ball. The experiment failed for the most part, with Shite flitting in and out of the game. Needing to be carried defensively, he didn't seem terribly suited to this role. (9/12/2020) Match Report: Luton Town (Checkatrade Trophy)  Again, we suffered cup heartbreak on penalties, this time against a superior side in Luton Town. We can't be too disheartened by the performance but the fact that we're out of all of the cups at this early stage is rather upsetting. We seem to have some sort of cup hoodoo about us, cursed to never progress after the hitting the proverbial jackpot against Man City. Now, we have to focus on the league, where we find ourselves in 6th place after a good early-season showing. The same cannot be said for Plymouth, who have found themselves relegated as early as December. Zybourne did what he could but even he could not save the sinking ship. He'll stay on, for now, as Argyle fight for their pride more than anything. I was quite impressed by Ruben Lameiras, the Portuguese right winger, when he played against us. With Plymouth relegated, maybe he'll like to jump ship in Janua...   Oh well. Our search for a competent back up for Darame goes on. (13/12/2020) Match Report: Newport County  Our wins are getting narrower and narrower as our opponents ramp up in quality. We look fairly comfortable against Newport aside from a moment where Davies hit a backpass past JoJo and the opposition striker latched onto it. Luckily for us, he hit the side-netting, sparing our blushes. Darame stepped up after we missed out on Lameiras, apparently spurred on by our interest in other right wingers. (19/12/2020) Match Report: Swindon Town  JoJo appears to be struggling for fitness, as his performances recently really haven't been up to standard. Given that his replacements are a struggling Jones, an aging Knypersley, and Rob Case, I really need to dip into the market to get him a replacement or a partner to ease the burden on him. (25/12/2020) Match Report: Crawley Town  I hope Crawley are on the naughty list for next year for their refusal to hand us any Christmas presents. With Ray Gritt performing well with the u18's, I decided to go back to the 4-2-3-1 formation to get the boys familiar with it so he can slot in when the time is right. Shite struggled again while the defence did well, taking advantage of the protecting midfielders ahead of them. JoJo vindicated himself with a match-winning performance, scoring an opener the keeper had no chance of getting. Ollie Palmer made us nervous late on, but JoJo's defending was as good as his attacking and we managed to hold on. (29/12/2020) Match Report: Accrington Stanley  Giving up a 3-0 lead is unacceptably poor and really shows off the difference in quality between Keston Davies and Joey Jones, with Jones at fault for two of the goals. We struggled to anything with our possession while Accrington were furious in recycling and reusing theirs. A lesson to take to heart and a tough result to swallow, this is a result everyone will want to move on from. January As promised, I got someone in at the back during January, grabbing Hull City's young centreback Reuben Collins to help us look better in defence. (2/1/2021) Match Report: Leyton Orient  Poor. Just poor all around. Leyton Orient have turned in a bogey team for us, being able to, for whatever reason, avoid defeat whenever we face them. I hope the boys hate them as much as I do. (9/1/2021) Match Report: Notts County  A routine win made complicated by a needless sending off. The formation finally clicked, with Shite finding himself free in the box while the Notts County defense busied themselves with our forwards. (16/1/2021) Match Report: Rochdale  The Dale put up an excellent fight, really reducing the chances our wingers could get to scraps. An early second half goal from McCann promised a bit more fight in the second period but Vincent put the game to bed with a powerful header off of a corner. (23/1/2021) Match Report: Carlisle United  Again, Carlisle brought their A-game against an Exmouth side trying to eke out a trio of vital points, their attack really unlucky to be limited to a late Hope goal. Lex was in imperious form and will be devastated at letting that late shot trickle in. (30/1/2021) Match Report: Bury  Bury put us through the wringer, 8 shots on target to 2 showing the level of control they had over the game. A late chance to equalise went begging for Clarke, whose mid-season form has turned towards the concerning. We'll have to rectify that soon. Despite our recent wobbles, we've been doing quite well, climbing two positions from our last check-in. We look good value for our position there and will likely make the play-offs at this rate. That makes me slightly worried. Every time we've come up against one of the superior teams in the league, we've been walloped. If we get into the play-offs, I don't really fancy our chances to progress from there. Still, just staying afloat in League Two would be a vast improvement on the media prediction, which has us ending up dead last in the league. With our safety from relegation confirmed with that point against Carlisle, the absolute lowest we'll drop is League Two.  _______________ Second Third Summary: League Position: 5th FA Cup: Eliminated by Braintree Town Carabao Cup: Eliminated by AFC Wimbledon Checkatrade Trophy: Eliminated by Luton Wins: 17 Draws: 9 Losses: 11 Win Percentage (League): 41% (48%) Top Goalscorer: The Institute (14) Top Playmaker: The Institute and Causso Darame (7) Best Average Rating; The Institute (7.14/10) Most Yellow Cards: Charlie McCann (11) Most Red Cards: The Institute, Shite, Moistie, Causso Darame (1) Injuries: Transfers IN: Reuben Collins (Loan, Hull City, CB) Transfers OUT: Next Opponent: Cheltenham Town in League Two GruntMountain fucked around with this message at 22:41 on Jul 23, 2020 |
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Jul 21, 2020 13:42
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Your MVP demands more money!
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Jul 21, 2020 18:24
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GOING FOR BROKE _______________  : Interesting club, that Exmouth is.: Yes. Quite. Have you come to me to discuss business or to compliment my workplace?: Rather insolent, is your response. : Mr Hutton, let's not dawdle. Do you wish to place a bid or not? I'm happy to hang onto the Excavators if you're afraid to throw your money at it.: Impatient, are we?: Of you, certainly.: To be made, is our decision.: Mhm.: Shortly, comes our response. Good day, Mr Hakimi._______________ February  The two most common top-level formations in the English game are 4-2-3-1 and variations of 4-3-3, like the 4-1-2-3 we see here. In both of those formations, the attacking force is made up of not two players, but a trident of tricksters. Just as we needed to balance our frontline when we were fielding To and The Institute week in, week out, we need to have it balanced when it's broken up into 3. In a two, you generally want to have a Supporter and a Finisher, To and The Institute respectively. The Finisher is the furthest forward in the lineup and is there to score goals and occasionally make them. The Supporter is slightly withdrawn compared to the Finisher and is there to create and score, though the latter isn't at the same level as that of the Finisher. The triple threat follows much of the same logic. It's generally suggested that your front 3 has no more than 2 attack roles and at least one support role. If there is no support role, your goalscorers don't have any supply to feed off of, and you don't score. If you have no attack roles, your suppliers have no one to feed, and you don't score. As was explained when I was discussing 「overloads」, our attack is biased towards the left and our support is biased towards the right, meaning that we're building our game around holding the ball on one side of the pitch before rapidly moving it over to the other. For this last stretch of the season, I've changed up the composition of the midfield. Previously, it was a broader V shape, with a Ball-Winning Midfielder (Defend) on the left and a Mezzala (Attack) on the right. Both of those midfielders vacate spaces, the BWM to chase down the ball when the opposition has it, the MEZ to affect the play, meaning that Avals was left entirely on his lonesome to prevent counterattacks. This essentially created a central overload whenever we lost possession, with the opposition having 2 or 3 players around Avals when they countered. Now, the left sided CM has been converted into a Deep-Lying Playmaker (Defend) and the right sided CM has been converted into a Mezzala (Support). A DLP is a defensive player who is allowed to have a more expressive range of passing. He generally isn't the one to make the pass before the goal (the assist) or even the pass before that, though he is certainly capable of it. He'll dictate the play from deep, holding his position and finding his midfield partners or hitting long passes to the wingers. The DLP will have a very low percentage of backpasses and will generally look for line-breaking passes when on Support and . This video about Michael Carrick should illustrate what a DLP is all about. A MEZ is, for the most part, a central midfielder who drifts wide, either as a shuttler or a supporter. In a midfield three, the best kind of balance is created when you have each of the shuttler, supporter and sitter. A MEZ on Attack is a supporter, being the assist-maker for the team and the man who creates the chances for the front three. He will leave his slot open in midfield to go and harass the opposition and dribble into space. A MEZ on Support is a shuttler, the man who links the midfield to the attack and then drops it off to the supporter or makes a through-ball. Shuttlers can be finishing players in the midfield 3, receiving the ball from the supporter, who is nominally the most attacking cog of the midfield machine but is not himself a finisher. With our MEZ on support, he won't rush forwards as much and will try to find Darame and The Wall on that right hand side, drifting inside for long shot opportunities when his part in the move is done. When the opposition enters his area, he will attempt to press them but will not actively chase them like an attacking MEZ might. This video will explain the varying uses, and definitions, of mezzalae. TL;DR, Shite's role is more defensive now, Fornah doesn't leave as much space when he rampages forward, Avals has more help, midfield is more stable now and we should stop leaking as many goals. Should being the important bit there. (6/2/2021) Match Report: Cheltenham Town  A clinical hattrick, including two from set-pieces absolutely smashed into the corner, from Causso Darame gave us a degree of comfort in this game, comfort that was erased just after half-time by a superbly rallied performance from Cheltenham. The complacency we displayed after half-time is most concerning and not something I want any repeats of. We allowed a low number of shots on target, just the three, which is already a sign of improvement. If we can limit the number of shots, we can limit the number of goals against (GA), which are the goals we concede. Our sturdier midfield seems to be working wonders. (13/2/2021) Match Report: AFC Wimbledon  A far-post tap-in from Kaja and a 30-yard bolt from the blue from central midfielder Hartigan let Wimbledon grabbed a deserved 3 points, allowing them to jump out of the relegation zone at least for the moment. A Fornah-less midfield struggled to impress, our link from midfield to attack all but absent. McCann is struggling to adapt to the DLP role, which is worrying. He's our 2nd best midfielder and if he's not performing, something is amiss. (20/2/2021) Match Report: Oldham Athletic  Fornah's return to the midfield prompted a man-of-the-match performance from the young Ghanaian, who is quickly becoming one of my favourite players. He and Darame combined extremely well down that right hand side, the two interchanging often to bait the left full back into charging forward and leaving space for the other to race into. A Darame cut-back allowed Fornah to score, a passing play that me feel all tingly inside. (20/2/2021) Match Report: Wycombe Wanderers  Wycombe Wanderers, who recently got promoted to the Championship for the first time ever IRL, let us have all of the possession and set up a very compact defence within their own box. Shite and Ziltoid put up some very impressive passing stats between them but struggled to find the forwards, the relative inexperience of Darame and Afolabi meaning that they didn't have the presence of mind to pull away into space. The wonderfully-named Odin Bailey punished us with a low drive into the bottom corner, Lex getting a hand to it but getting beaten for sheer power. A shame, as our keeper had a fine game otherwise. March (6/3/2021) Match Report: Chesterfield  Some early March Madness saw Chesterfield rip us to shreds for no real reason. No one really had a poor game and the goals weren't down to individual mistakes. Chesterfield just played a very good game against us and we paid the price. Onto the next one, I suppose. (9/3/2021) Match Report: Tranmere Rovers  Our first-choice eleven had a better time of a short 3 days later against Tranmere, The Institute putting in a vintage performance to grab himself a goal. He rushed through off of a McCann pass, skinned the defender and popped the ball over the keeper like he was some sort of discount Messi. Causso continued his fantastic recent form, weighing in with a goal and laying chances on for To and Clarke, who couldn't quite take advantage. Our vice-captain had a tough day at the office, being crowded out of the game by the opposition centre backs. (13/3/2021) Match Report: Port Vale  We registered 9 shots on target in a composed, controlling performance that saw JoJo profit off of a late corner. Recently, we've been doing our corners slightly differently. With 3 talls guys in the team, JoJo, Collins, and Avals, we can afford to make some efforts to take advantage of corners. In our new routine, the ball is whipped in towards the near post, where JoJo is lurking. He'll either head it in directly for a goal, as in this match, or he'll knock it on for Collins at the far post for a player waiting on the penalty spot, as with McCann's goal. Avals is standing on the keeper's toes, preventing him from jumping up and claiming the ball when it's played in. This part of the routine is very important, as otherwise Darame or Eaufort would just be passing the ball into the goalkeeper's waiting hands. Goodsir's goal went in off of a deflection from the Port Vale centre mid, proof that we didn't need to rely on set pieces to win the game. _______________  : I take it you've heard the news.: Yep. Who are the prospective buyers?: A consortium, or at least a representative thereof. Serving some shadowy council, probably. Given how many Saudi and Russian businessmen are throwing money at football clubs, I wouldn't be surprised if this takeover had some sort of political backing behind it. We'll have to see which set of patriots you'll be working for at the end of the season.: La-li-lu-le-lo?: Not those Patriots.: Oh...: You sound disappointed.: So, if this takeover goes through, what happens to you?: I step down. I go back to being Riyad Hakim, hotel magnate, rather than Riyad Hakimi, Exmouth Chairman. It'll signal the end of the beginning, as it were. Clark and I will both be gone, that dawn era for the Excavators becoming part of the history books rather than the chapter we're reading right now.: I see.: Still, there is a lot of uncertainty around the club's status at the moment. The takeover might not go through at all. We'll have to wait. Wait and see. _______________ (20/3/2021) Match Report: Yeovil Town  Bad Luck Beeney strikes, putting up a good performance but ending up on the end of a defeat yet again. The game could have gone either way, with Yeovil getting the better of things through a confident finish from young striker Aaron Kuhl and a vicious long shot from midfielder Scott High. Beeney's volley off of a well-worked corner proved to be nothing more than consolation. Away on international duty while we played Yeovil, Moistie grabbed his first New Zealand goal in only his second appearance. He'll have to bring that form back for us. We'll need some of his steel.  (27/3/2021) Match Report: Cambridge United)  A superb solo goal by McCann and another corner conversion from JoJo got us a needed 3 points against a good Cambridge United side, who will feel like the result was a little undeserved. For once, it was our side who took their chances when presented, converting 2 of the 3 shots that we managed to put on target. Our possession told and the boys'll be happy with wins like this. We'll have a bit of a selection issue going into the game against Forest Green. Case did his thing in training, tackling hard, and somehow managed to put Shite out for two whole weeks.  Interestingly, Junior Mondal, who we had on loan last season, has voiced his support for us. Do remember that Mondal, a youth player, was contracted to Forest Green at the time. Apparently, our club had such a strong impression on him that he's rooting for us against his old club, Forest Green. Perhaps it's just his love of JoJo that has convinced him to throw his lot in with us.  April (2/4/2021) Match Report: Forest Green Rovers  A poor first half performance meant all of the pre-match cheering ending up being for naught as Forest Green ran home with all 3 points. In truth, we never really had a chance to turn it around even with our first choice. Forest Green just had way too much quality for us to handle. Off the field, takeover talk is progressing well.  With the promise of more money once some shady capitalists take over, Lex put pen to paper and put to bed all of this nonsense about him leaving. Given his excellent recent performances, it would be daft to let him go now.   (5/4/2021) Match Report: Northampton Town  The game against Northampton was about as even as even gets, a perfect match up of patient possession against charging counterattacks. In this game, the counterattacking side came out on top, Charlie Adams latching onto a stray pass by Avals and hitting it past a helpless Lex. There were some positives to be taken from this performance for sure but it's still 3 points dropped. To aid with boosting our firepower, I managed to convince former Tottenham youngster Matt West to join us on a free transfer. Already playing at a League One level and with a good deal of improvement in his future, he'll be a good acquisition for next season. Also released in the yearly youth releases was Graham Rushton, a very high quality centre back, and Kyle Armstrong, another left winger, both comfortably League One quality. Should we get promoted this season, they'll slot right in to next year's starting eleven.  ... I don't know what to think anymore. These journalists need to talk to each other to get their stories straight.   Back on the pitch, our promotion run-in is looking fairly straightforward, with a game against Morecambe being the only one I really expect us to lose. Currently in fourth, we'll get a place in the play-offs if we win even 1 of our last four. We have every chance of fighting for a place in League One. That said, whenever we've come up against a big boy in this league, we've been smashed, so I half expect us to get beaten at the first hurdle if we get into those play-off places. Oh well, let's just take them as they come.  (10/4/2021) Match Report: Plymouth Argyle  Berardi's Boys did the double over Clark's Clan, a result that saw us rise into 3rd following Swindon's loss against Leyton Orient, us and Forest Green moving up into the automatic promotion places. A To poke and a McCann screamer saw us over the line and will give the boys a lot of confidence as we enter crunch time. Our investment in youngsters like Fornah is paying off on the pitch, Tyrese being re-assessed as being able to become a solid League One level player, previously only thought to be able to hack it at League Two level. His 4-star rating for the team but apparent ability to only play at Vanarama National level shows the weakness of the league this season, most of the players there being barely any better than non-professionals.  William Draper's bid for Exmouth ownership had finally fallen through, meaning Mr Hakimi will remain the chairman for now. Perhaps William's brother, Don, will be making a bid next.   (17/4/2021) Match Report: Morecambe  The man I was so complimentary about earlier ending up costing us the points this time out, a hard shot into his midsection bouncing into the net. Still, we expected to lose this game, so I can't be too upset about losing points here, but given how even the game was otherwise, I can't help but feel a little disappointed. On to the next one. (24/4/2021) Match Report: Stevenage  A good professional performance and a good enough showing from the midfield that it allowed Afolabi to break his goal drought for this part of the season. To starred in a good win while Lex had a busy day at the back yet again, equal to all of the shots to keep his clean sheet intact. (30/4/2021) Match Report: Newport County  A right wing masterclass saw us grab a win on the last day of the season, a day which saw Swindon Town fail to win at Tranmere. That means that we've only gone and done it again.    3 years, 3 seasons, 3 promotions under Berardi. Those are unbelievable numbers, each of those promotions being performed when we were far from favourites in the league. In fact, we were predicted to finish dead last this season. Instead, we've gone on and been the 3rd best team in the league and we've jumping straight up into League One, bypassing the play-offs entirely. The Institute extended his streak of getting Player of the Year, while Fornah went and got the YPOTY. Causso's thunderbolt freekick against Cheltenham was declared Goal of the Season and who else but JoJo was going to be our signing of the season?   At the end of this season, we'll be saying goodbye to a couple of our old guard. Robert Bass, concerned that he wasn't up to the standard that the rest of the team was putting up, handed in a transfer request. Joey Jones and Oliver Goodsir, hungry for game time, also left once their contracts ran out. Rob Case, unable to break into the team again, announced his retirement from the game.   ...  ... Nah. Promotion into League One means that I'm finally free of Leyton Orient. I can't wait to draw them in the cup next year.   _______________ Final Third Summary: League Position: 3rd FA Cup: Eliminated by Braintree Town Carabao Cup: Eliminated by AFC Wimbledon Checkatrade Trophy: Eliminated by Luton Wins: 25 Draws: 9 Losses: 18 Win Percentage (League): 47% (52%) Top Goalscorer: The Institute (15) Top Playmaker: Causso Darame (13) Best Average Rating; The Institute (7.06/10) Most Yellow Cards: Charlie McCann (11) Most Red Cards: The Institute, Shite, Moistie, Causso Darame (1) GruntMountain fucked around with this message at 01:16 on Jul 26, 2020 |
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Jul 25, 2020 16:42
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Congratulations, well done!
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Jul 25, 2020 17:17
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Oof, the next season is going to be a harsh one. Well-deserved, though. I hope Lex keeps being great where he is.
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Jul 25, 2020 20:09
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Shites been so Shite he's not even on your team of the year anymore. Congrats on the triple promotion.
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Jul 29, 2020 15:31
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This has been an amazing run, and I am thoroughly expecting for Exmouth to eat poo poo next season. But who knows?
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Jul 29, 2020 16:48
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A SHREWD PIECE OF BUSINESS The step up into League One is going to be massive and I expect us to struggle, at least at the beginning. To try and counteract this, I've been very aggressive in the transfer market, bringing in no fewer than six new faces to populate the team. We're also now at a level where our potential transfers and opponents are well-known enough to have Wikipedia articles. From top of the pitch to the bottom, our new faces are: Englishman Matt West, left winger and our first-choice inside forward. Free Transfer from the Tottenham Hotspur academy, valued at 24K  Englishman Kyle Armstrong, left winger and our second-choice inside forward. I want to give Paul Paulson time in that left wing slot, so we'll be sending Armstrong out on loan to Grimsby, still stuck in the Vanarama National several years after losing to us in the play-offs. His absolutely electric pace means he should dominate at VNN level. Free Transfer, valued at 21K  Albanian Egli Kaja, who scored against us last season, right winger. He and Causso Darame will rotate a lot and Kaja's versatility might mean that Darame will play right and he'll play left to mix things up. 40k from AFC Wimbledon, valued at 93K. He is our new record signing, so no pressure, Egli.  Lebanese Khaled Mohssen, attacking midfielder. 11K from Hamburger SV in Germany, valued at 34K. We only got the lowdown on him because of a newly-hired scout, who happened to be at HSV last season. He and Shite will rotate often. Being a German-speaker, he'll at least have Lex to talk to.  Englishman Teddy Bloor, right back. Free Transfer, valued at 5.25K. He'll be used to give The Wall some needed rest.  Englishman Graham Rushton, centre back. Free Transfer from the Tottenham Hotspur academy, valued at 64K. His extremely impressive pace will make us more resistant to counters.  Nigerian Tunji Akinola, centre back. 20K from West Ham United, valued at 72K.  All in all, we've vastly underpaid on all of our transfer targets, saving us some cash for training facilities down the line. Should these players do anything of note and attract interest from other clubs, I'll be sure to rinse the buying clubs to expanded fees. We've just sold Charlie McCann, for instance, to Barnsley for 26K. His value is 23K and we bought for a minimal agent fee, so that goes down as a good piece of business, despite losing a good player. If it weren't for the release clause in his contract, I've have sold him for 40K.   Total Transfer Expenditure: -76K Total Transfer Income: +26K Net Transfer Impact: -50K That of course means that this has been our most free-spending transfer period yet, which is unsurprising, given that this is the highest division we've ever seen. Let's see if our new additions can get anything done in League One. August (1/8/2021) Match Report: Colchester United  A mixed bag for our new signings. Egli Kaja had a tough time on that right wing, not bringing his crossing boots to the match. Matt West, on the other hand, was fantastic on the left wing, latching onto a Mohssen through-ball for his first and tapping in a Bloor cross for his second. The addition of a very quick inside forward on that side has brought the desired tactical results that I'd envisioned. With such a good start, we can only hope that the boys take confidence from this and fight tooth and nail to stay in the division. We'll be back in the Checkatrade Trophy this season. Now being a League One level team, we're going to be among the stronger sides in the competition. While the FA Cup and Carabao Cup are going to be tough, we probably have a good chance of making it far into the Checkatrade Trophy.  (4/8/2021) Match Report: Port Vale  Early first and second half goals from Guy and Long respectively made this game into a nervy one very early on. However, a superb fightback was sparked by maiden goals by Khaled Mohssen and Graham Rushton before Matt West continued his exceptional early season form and grabbed the winner at the beginning of stoppage time. As usual, we look quite good going forward but for once we look quite comfortable at the back. Despite conceding two, our backline had a decent performance by my reckoning. Money well-spent, it would seem. Once Avals returns from his long-term injury, we should be conceding even fewer goals. All talks of a takeover have disappeared. We'll be sticking with our current chairman and board for now. There's a lot to be said for continuity in sports.  (7/8/2021) Match Report: Luton Town  Teddy Bloor's first goal for the club saw us over the line in a game we should perhaps have lost, given the amount of chances Luton made and wasted. An assured performance from Lex and Rushton in particular kept Luton at bay, while Bloor and Tribune dominated down the flanks. (11/8/2021) Match Report: Stevenage (Carabao Cup)  Conor Masterson's lack of experience cost us a place in the Second Round, his misjudging of the flight of the ball causing him to foul the Stevenage striker as he went to claim the ball. We didn't deserve to get back in the match after that, all of our shots being speculative efforts from outside the box or coming in the form of an unexplainable point-blank miss from West. (14/8/2021) Match Report: Peterborough United  An early goal for each side saw us share the spoils with Peterborough, a game neither of us can really complain about dropping points in. The game was about as even as even gets. (17/8/2021) Match Report: MK Dons  Egli Kaja got his first goal for the club but nothing else went right for us against a dominant Dons side. While they gave us chances, our forwards were wasteful, failing to profit off of some lax defending. (20/8/2021) Match Report: Walsall  A good performance by To wasn't enough to see us over the line against Walsall, a late, quickfire double from Alfie Bates grabbing all three points for the opposition. (27/8/2021) Match Report: Bristol Rovers  An excellent midfield performance saw us get the points while the second-choice attack floundered somewhat. The midfield three looked composed and in control all game, forcing Bristol Rovers to bypass them with a long ball to grab their goal. Comeback wins like this one are always nice to see and speak well of our mentality as a group. (31/8/2021) Match Report: Colchester United (Checkatrade Trophy)  After a good win against Colchester United on the opening day of the season, we had reason to confident of beating them again and ensuring our place in the next round of the Checkatrade Trophy as a result. On the day, however, it took goals from Matt West and late substitute Ziltoid to force the game to be decided by penalties, which we unfortunately lost. September (4/9/2021) Match Report: Scunthorpe  Despite being the weaker team on paper, Scunthorpe weren't going to lie down and submit, bringing their A-game against us. Two set-piece goals sank the Excavators, our team helpless to avoid defeat despite Kaja's efforts. (11/9/2021) Match Report: Bolton Wanderers  The 2nd-strongest team in the division showed us just why they are pegged as one of the frontrunners for the division title this year, utterly dominant in terms of attempts at goal. Mohssen and Davies did reasonably well despite the hammering but this is a game the lads will want to forget. (19/9/2021) Match Report: Mansfield Town  Nothing seemed to click in this match, no one being on the same wavelength. Mansfield took full advantage of that, pinning us in our own half for most of the match, meaning that, despite having an equal share of possession, we were on the back foot for most of the game. (25/9/2021) Match Report: Fleetwood Town  The team that were interested in Moistie two years ago didn't get a chance to see him action again but the rest of the team were happy to hammer them in his place. A clinical, fox-in-the-box-type performance in front of goal from Kaja got us the win. He seems to have trouble doing more than one aspect of his job at once. When he scores goals, he fails to cross. When he has assists, he fails to get a single shot on target. We'll have to train some consistency of output into him. (28/9/2021) Match Report: AFC Sunderland  The best team in the league let us have the ball but didn't let us do much with it, their solitary goal from Johnson flattering us more than anything. While every loss stings, we aren't being judged on losing games like this. October (2/10/2021) Match Report: Gillingham  Paul finally got his first goal for the club and it was enough to win the game against Gillingham. A game of little quality and a low number of chances was settled by that single goal, giving us a confidence boost in the form of three vital points. (5/10/2021) Match Report: Swindon Town  A good controlling performance put Swindon to the sword, Eaufort and West running riot down the left. A goal for Darame off of a Eaufort cross sealed the game late on. (16/10/2021) Match Report: Oxford United  An early Oxford goal threatened to turn the game into a desperate war of attrition but a late flurry of goals from both sides saw us on top come the final whistle, Kaja the architect of our comeback win. Crosses whipped in from the right are his bread and butter and he needs to keep contributing with them. (19/10/2021) [iMatch Report: Doncaster Rovers][/i]  Not our finest hour, a real hammering if we're honest. No one played well and Doncaster took full advantage of that fact. (23/10/2021) Match Report: Shrewsbury Town  Shrewsbury raced into a 3-0 lead in the first half, giving us a mountain to climb come the second half. We almost made it to the summit thanks to To and Kellett's goals but a late Matt West miss saw the draw slip out of our grasp. (30/10/2021) Match Report: Queens Park Rangers  A recall to the first team for Shite was rewarded with a commanding win over QPR, some early Moistie madness getting us on track for the win. Obafemi threatened late on but we held on to the win, something that should give us confidence. After a reasonable start, our form had gone to tatters. That doesn't bode well for the rest of the season, especially with how congested the table is. We need a good run of form if we're going to reach safety this season. Hopefully this win will kickstart that.  Elsewhere, our loanee is doing well. Armstrong was given the award for best player in the Vanarama National for the month of October  _______________ First Third Summary: League Position: 12th FA Cup: Not started Carabao Cup: Eliminated in the First Round by Stevenage Checkatrade Trophy: Group Stages Wins: 9 Draws: 1 Losses: 10 Win Percentage (League): 45% (53%) Top Goalscorer: Matt West (7) Top Playmaker: Egli Kaja and Matt West (5) Best Average Rating; Khaled Mohssen (7.16/10) Most Yellow Cards: Egli Kaja and Conor Masterson (4) Most Red Cards: N/A Injuries: Ivan Avals (3 months) Transfers IN: Conor Masterson (Loan, Liverpool, CB/DM), Tunji Akinola (20K, West Ham United, CB), Graham Rushton (Free, Tottenham Hotspur, CB), Teddy Bloor (Free Transfer, RB), Khaled Mohssen (11K, Hamburger SV, CM/CAM), Egli Kaja (40K, AFC Wimbledon, RW), Kyle Armstrong (Free Transfer, LW), Matt West (Free, Tottenham Hotspur, LW) Transfers OUT: Joseph Joseph (Free, Everton, CB), Charlie McCann (26k, Barnsley, CM) Next Opponent: Gillingham in the FA Cup First Round
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Aug 8, 2020 17:24
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Well, looks like Exmouth's finally found their level of competence. I expect a solidly mid-tier finish given this start, like I expected from the start. Still, goodness knows weirder things have happened in this, the beautiful game. I wish them all the best of luck except for Teddy Bloor and his barber.
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Aug 8, 2020 19:51
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