When They Kick At Your Front Door: A Brixton FC Story (FM18) - Page 2 (2024)

BrixtonFC

Join Date: Sep 2023

March 2018

The winner takes it all

Yeah! An excellent training report! I’m especially pleased to see Smith do well as I think he’s going to be a force for us for a good while.

Financial Matters
A slight improvement in our finances; we lost around £9,000 less in February.

Southern Counties East
vs. Glebe, 3 March 2018

Formation: 4-4-2 Standard (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MR, MC r, MC l, ML, ST r, ST l)
Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll,

,

,

, Smith,

,

, Macey
Subs: Webb, Clark, Day,

,

, Nixon, McAdam,

,

, Taylor,

, Cullen

In 17’ Pearson receives a long pass from Maguire off to the right of goal and has enough space to cross to the far post where his bestie is charging but instead of going for glory he nods it to Benny to his right who seals the deal. Between 31’ and 34’ Benny and Eddie have opportunities but are off the mark on long-range shots. Just after 40’ Benny receives a long boot forward by Pearson, he takes it to the endline, draws the opposition leaving Barlow alone at the far post to put in the low cross. Eddie is rocking it 6.4 style so I give him a pep-talk, let’s see if it works.

It took him 5 minutes and 20 second but Eddie makes it three. He and Benny had a fast break courtesy of Shady and with the option to shoot or pass he shot and it went right through the goalies legs. Rae was needing match fitness so I swap him in for Benny at 60’. Just before 78’ another hoof-it-forward sees Eddie on a one-on-one and he gets a brace. At 88’ Glebe almost get one in off a corner but luckily the defense is doing wonderful today and clear the ball upfield.

POM: Eddie Macey (2 goals)

Huzzah! We have a cleansheet again! In setting up this game I realized that I had been using the Spade since mid-December. Not a good idea.

The Week Between
Let us look at our finances on a per-game basis.

From the Glebe match we made £6,718. Match day income was £5,379 plus gate receipts of £1,659. Match day expenses were £320. Ah, but let us look at how much we paid in player salaries. For bonuses (goals, assists, clean sheets, appearance, etc.) we spent £1,250 and for salaries, for the whole team, is £8,589. So essentially we lose £3,121 ever week. More on weeks when we don’t play at home. Less when we have a game mid-week at home. We gotta increase ticket prices to at least £6 in the off-season.
Because of Parker’s injury I’m bringing up left DC Martin Duggan as I’m going to use Clark as the second DR until the end of the season.

On 6 March I get an email from Rutherford about player development. He believes DM Tasos Noulas can be much better than Connor Smith. I find that surprising. I’m also highly skeptical. Only time will tell.

Southern Counties East
at Rochester United, 10 March 2018

Formation: 4-4-2 Standard
Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Pearson,

,

, Duckett,

,

Subs: Webb, Clark, Day, Duggan, Jefcoate, Jones,

,

, Martin,

,

, Cullen

Just over 5’ in and our first corner sees a Duckett-Carroll-Spearing combo give us an early lead. On the restart Rochester try to stab our gut but Smith kicks the ball out to Pearson on the right wing and his long pass finds O’Donnell who sinks it from 7 yards out. Just before the 18th minute Maguire finds himself way too far forward, ends up with the ball at the endline and crosses it perfectly to Benny at the near post. Of course Benny has to hit the near post just for sh*ts and giggles and the rebound comes right back to him and this time he got his act together and put us in a commanding lead. And. O’Donnell had a chance of a third but his header bounces off the underside of the crossbar and he fouls a defender trying to get to the rebound. Our inability to keep cleansheets rears its ugly head when Macey can’t make anything of being oddly alone to the goalie’s right. He fumbles around with the ball when a defender charges and kicks the ball way deep into our territory and Carroll let’s their striker pass him by and Chicken Legg just watches the ball go on by. But then 15 seconds after the restart Duckett sends in a prayer and Benny is able to outrun the opposition, one-timing the ball right under the goalie. He has his hat trick and will come off at half for Kemar’s debut. But not satisfied, Barlow times a perfect pass with a Benny run and he has four.

At 50’ Duckett gets pushed down in the box during a Pearson cross and he sinks the penalty. At 60’ I bring on some players who just need some match time. During the 73’ Maguire sends in another prayer and Kemar can’t beat the goalie one-on-one and sends the ball high and to the outside.
After the match I tell the lads that they did well and I was happy with their performance. Kemar, who squeaked out a 6.3 rating, was delighted. Nobody else had any kind of response. Jesus, kid, you need a lesson.

POM: Ben O’Donnell (4 goals, 2 key passes, 2 chances created)

Even though his Happiness is Perfect I still have a talk with Kemar. He acknowledges he sucked and promised to do better. His happiness did not drop.

The Days Between
Having elevated Duggan (temporarily) and Kirkpatrick (permanently) to the Senior team I wanted to check Dynamics to see what effect this had. I am shocked to see that everyone but Duggan in the Core Social Group. I guess Nixon moved up and Kirkpatrick was a natural to fit. This is cool. Macey and Day have not seen any increase of late though.

In FA Cup news, League One club Bury weren’t satisfied taking down Liverpool, they’ve now notched their belt again taking down Chelsea. Bury scored in 70’ and Chelsea had a man sent off at 81’ so the victory seems fair and square. Bury isn’t even top of their league, they are 8th!

Up next is the return of the Leathernecks. No, not the U.S. Marines, but English football club Corinithian. Mmm...sexy leather...

I am switching things up again to get players some Match Fitness and rest some important starters for the upcoming FA Vase Quarter Final.

Southern Counties East
vs. Corinthian, 14 March 2018

Formation: 4-4-2 Standard
Starting XI: Webb, Clark, Day, Duggan, Jefcoate, Jones,

,

, Martin,

, Kirkpatrick
Subs: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Pearson,

,

, Duckett,

In the 7th minute Taylor get us ahead after we had some fancy passing off a free kick and Martin sends in a good cross. 8 minutes later Kemar shows what he can do as a Deep Lying Forward, sending a carpet level cross that bounces off Taylor’s foot for a slow-mo goal. Spot on 24’ Kemar gets his first career goal after a Martin cross pinballs off a falling Taylor. Almost 3 minutes latter Kirkpatrick feeds Taylor for his hat trick. Holy crap! A fourth from Taylor though he was offsides. I guess this low in the pyramid the refs aren’t that good either. A B.S. penalty in the 37’ is Corinithian’s only hope. Which really pisses off Kemar and Paul with the first one repeating that super low cross to Taylor for his fifth FIFTH!!! goal of the first half.

At the half I take off Taylor, move Kemar over to the Advanced Forward and bring on Rae. A little jealousy must be in the air as Kemar nets his brace courtesy of Rae. And then he gets his hat trick. In the 68th the lads were patiently probing and Donaldson found Kemar all by his lonesome in the middle of the arc and his shot was soft but too high in the corner for the GK to have a chance. Just before 80’ we get a make up call from the ref and Jefcoate gets his second penalty shot of the season.

POM: Paul Taylor (5 goals, 1 key pass) And a perfect 10.0 rating!!!

(A couple of days after the match I was looking at Kemar’s Player Card to see what it was taking him so long to recover from the match and I noticed that he has the “Places Shots” trait. That would explain his “soft shot” to get his hat trick. I wasn’t able to figure out the fitness mystery though. His Stamina is 12 and his Natural Fitness is 14. Maybe because he’s only 15?)

The Days Between
The scouting report for Hampton & Richmond comes in and actually we have very comparable squads. I’m not worried about this match now.

Kind of annoyed that we are only drawing 919 spectators to a semi-final match in a cup. C’mon!

FA Vase Quarter Final
vs. Hampton & Richmond, 17 March 2018

Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c)
Starting XI: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod,

,

, Pearson,

,

,

Subs: Webb, Clark, Day, Duggan, Jefcoate,

,

, Jones,

,

,

, Taylor

Well it didn’t take long for the Macey to Pearson to O’Donnell triad to work, just 80 seconds. The rest of the half is barren excitement as we trade opportunities and Macey again shows his lack of Composure when he’s alone. Oddly though, when he’s in heavy traffic he sinks, like he did at 41:25.

Just before the half Duckett gets a bruised foot and I swap him out at the half for Martin. After 10 minutes I have to bring off Barlow who has a strained knee and right off the restart Macey feeds Benny at the top of the box and we have a comfortable lead. At 65’ I swap out all the Smith, O’Donnell, and Macey, and nothing at all happens for the rest of the match. A comfortable win and we are onto the Semi-finals! Unfortunately we will face a Conference South team as they all won. Dreaded Dartford is in that group. Le sigh.

POM: Ben O’Donnell (2 goals, 5 key passes, 2 chances created)

Of note, Barlow had 10 key passes. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that many for any player before.

The Week Between
Oh praise Cthulhu, we get to host Poole Town, 20th in Conference South, and don’t have to travel to Dartford. Excellent.

On 22 March, our Tactics Coach, Defending Coach, and Attacking Coach bag the Continental Pro Licenses. Excellent, Smithers. They are all currently 4 stars rated, hopefully now they’ll creep up higher.

Southern Counties East
at Cray Valley, 25 March 2018

Formation: Spade
Starting XI: Legg,

,

,

,

,

,

,

,

,

,

Subs: Webb,

,

,

,

,

,

,

,

,

,

,

The scoring starts just after 5’ with another Macey goal amidst heavy traffic. The ball ping-ponged for a few seconds and I couldn’t quite track its course. Benny gets us number two right at 18’ from some fancy traffic negotiation. And spot on 31’ heavy traffic deflects a Barlow long-range shot right to a free Duckett at the left post and we get our third. Four minutes later Cray get FMed when one of their DCs slide-tackles Macey and the ball goes to Pearson who does not miss.

At the half I swap out everyone but Chick Legg and switch us to 4-4-2 Standard. I wasn’t hoping to score but Martin sends in a long shot from the left flank and totally surprises the goalie in the 57th. And at 67’ Rae gets in on things. After that I switch everything I can to a defensive posture just to see the match out without any injuries.
It was good to see that no player had multiple goals. Spread the love around a little, you know.

POM: Ben O’Donnell (1 goal, 1 key pass)

The Week Between
On 27 March another player development email comes in from my AssMan. This time I learn that James Jefcoate has the potential to be “League Two talent”.

On 29 March no less than 13 teams came looking to sign or take on trial Brian Carey, an Irish midfielder I signed back in late October to round out the U18 squad. I accepted the offers and by the afternoon he is gone. The next day another player, Aidan Collins, also a late October Irish find, draws interest from two clubs and I accept an offer. I make no money off these transaction but that is alright as they weren’t in my plans.
Also on the 30th two teams came sniffing around a left-footed Central Defender, Rory Collopy, but I need him for U18 DC depth so I say no.
Just before the U18 match on the 30th Alex Rae injured himself in training. A pulled calf muscle will keep him out 2-4 weeks. Kemar will get Rae’s minutes.

The Collins saga continues into the 31st as do more rumors about Collopy. C’mon, dudes, I’ve got a match to win!

Said win against Deal will see us winning the league. Despite that I’m going to start the Second XI as a lot of the players are losing match sharpness now that we are down to one match per week. Now we’re down to only 888 sold tickets. We gotta turn the beat around.

Southern Counties East
vs. Deal, 31 March 2018

Formation: Spade
Starting XI: Webb, Clark, Day, Duggan, Jefcoate, Nixon, McAdam, Jones, Taylor, Martin, Rae, Kirkpatrick
Subs: Legg, Maguire, Spearing, Carroll, Al-Ziod, Barlow, Smith, Pearson, O'Donnell, Duckett, Macey

The lads are a bit nervous. Despite dominating possession and a lot of activity in Deal’s third we just can’t accurate shots off. That is until 13’ when Martin leads a counter-attack down the left side and launches an early cross in hopes of catching out the goalie. The goalie was partially caught off guard and can’t control a bounce and the deflection goes right to Kemar and he doesn’t miss the wide-open net. Ten minutes later Kemar gets his second when an attack on the right flank see Day overlapping Jones and Day’s cross is perfect to the near post area where Kemar’s right foot eases my concerns. Afterwards Martin develops a case of the complacencies and I have to give a stern talk at half to not let your guard down.

The lads channel the spirit of Chuck Woolery and score in two and two, this time it’s Clark and his big foot sending in a cross to the far post where it meets Kemar’s big head, earning him his second hat trick of his 3-game career. At 70’ I throttle things back and decide to let the starters stay in for the full match. I hope this doesn’t affect morale.

POM: Kemar Kirkpatrick (3 goals)

Turns out I need not worry as everyone’s Morale is now Perfect.

In Summary
What a wonderful month! We won the league; there was never any doubt about that really. Our prize youth turns out to be fan-damn-tastic! In a weird development, teams way down the pyramid came looking for our players. None offered money so it wasn’t that hard to say no except the two I didn’t see having a future here.

Now I gotta think about the rest of the season. We have eight league matches to go and at least two cup matches. I’m normally inclined to give some of the U18s game time but I’m torn on whether to do that or not. Only time will tell.

__________________
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