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Post by coffers on Mar 8, 2006 8:22:05 GMT
As I said Sonic, I do have a striker on loan for a season, he started badly but seems to be finding his feet now. I'll have a quick search around to see if there are any fantastic midfielders and defenders available for loan as my remaining transfer budget is nowhere near enough to get the type of player I need.
August ended with a 2-1 defeat at Manchester United, we managed to draw the first half 0-0, but soon after the break an ugly scouse dwarf somehow managed to out jump my 6ft 2in goalie and head in an opener. Switching to direct passing and adding width got us an equaliser but United score the winner 15 minutes from time. Overall they hammered us and should have scored more.
One of our D/DM/LC's got the young player of the month award. Sky Train came second in the goal of the month competition with a curling long range effort against Villa. It's internationals week now, so next is a Venezuelan game or two before the Middlesbrough match.
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Post by coffers on Mar 8, 2006 15:26:01 GMT
September starts with an International, Venezuela payed Columbia at home and managed a 1-1 draw, which I thought was a decent result. Columbia bossed the first half but we came back well and could have pulled off a shock win if lady luck had shined upon us. Back to the league with Preston and Middlesbrough were tonked at the Riverside 4-1, the press claimed that they were unlucky. :humb: Middlesbrough scored first after 8 minutes so I swapped our tactics and as a result Nugent got a hat-trick and the on-loan striker got the other one. The next week Portsmouth were put to the sword, two goals by Nugent eased us to a 2-0 win, it could have been more but we missed a late penalty. Newcastle are still pointless and after 7 games the EPL table looks like this: ![](http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/5972/prestonleague7vr.jpg) I've praised Boro's McClaren and he thinks we can be friends, but I've slagged off Fat Sam saying football can do without managers like him, so he hate's my guts. ![](http://www.geocities.com/jacquesdebohun/smilies/grin.gif) Meanwhile in Iceland, Fjonir won the Icelandic Cup Final 2-1 against KR, they went out of the LAC at the 3rd QUalifying round losing 4-1 against Ajax. In the Euro Cup 1st Round 1st leg at home they beat Udinese 2-1 and still have the second leg to come. They won the League with a game to spare: ![](http://img359.imageshack.us/img359/3730/fjolnir10ql.jpg)
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Post by coffers on Mar 8, 2006 17:50:29 GMT
September isn't quite over yet but our winning run continues with a 3-0 home win over Championship Millwall in the League Cup 2nd Round, we are drawn at home to Crewe in the next round, so a good cup run is possible.
Next up in the EPL we travel to local rivals Blackburn and Mark Hughes is taunted by me, only for Blackburn to open the scoring early on. Unfortunately for them I immediately change tactics and we sort of storm to a 5-3 win which puts us into second place in the league. The game was littered with great strikes and mistakes galour, but is was really enjoyable to watch. It kept the board happy, oh and after yet another defeat Newcastle have sacked Harry Redknapp, just before I was intending to taunt him. Gary Megson is favourite to take the vacant post.
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Post by Sonic on Mar 8, 2006 21:39:49 GMT
Well done on the taunts there my good Sir :humb: ![:D](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/grin.png) And also on the very impressive start to the season. Though, I should have 'impressive' changed to 'expected' start to the season, natch :checkit: You've definitely created an exciting team to watch, I'd pay money to see that amount of goals shifted into the oppositions net. I think your GD is going to haunt you at some point, though getting decent defenders in your first season of the Prem is asking a bit. I've taken over Charlton who almost got relegated out of the Coca-Cola division, though I'm thinking of not bothering with them and continuing on to the end of the month, when the season officially finishes and then leaving.
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Post by coffers on Mar 9, 2006 8:31:18 GMT
The televised match at home to Arsenal was a great disappointment as we deservedly went down 3-1, we were 2-0 down after only 4 minutes and I was dreading another tonking like the one Arsenal gave Fjolnir, but either they eased up or a change of paying style plus a lot of lady luck stemmed the tide a bit and we drew the other 86 minutes 1-1. :humb:
Then came another defeat this time at Everton, we led 1-0 at the break, but in the second half Everton tore us apart and we had no answers to their play, they ran out 2-1 winners, scoring the last 4 minutes from time.
So we were on a mini-plummet, but that was halted on a trip to newly promoted Birmingham where we rubbed Steve Bruce's nose in his own dirt and ran out 2-0 winners, missing a penalty in the process.
The wobble has left us in 7th place with 19 points, 4 points behind leaders Liverpool and 3 behind second placed Arsenal. Newcastle are still pointless after 11 games, former Newcastle legend Quasimodo is currently in charge.
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Post by Moo on Mar 9, 2006 12:57:33 GMT
:moop:
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Post by coffers on Mar 9, 2006 13:44:13 GMT
Midweek League Cup action allowed us to chalk up another win, this time at home to Crewe we strolled to a 2-0 win.
Injuries are hampering us badly at the moment so the fringe players are getting their chances, unfortunately it meant that a strong Manchester City side came calling and dumped on us on our own patch 2-1. We scored in the last four minutes and I gave the team a roasting after the match. The old fashioned type, not the type players indulge in, in hotel rooms.
This was not the time to be visiting Chelsea at The Bridge, and so it proved, despite battling hard to a 0-0 half time draw, we eventually succumbed to a 2-0 defeat and morale is plummeting faster than Mooski, not to mention our standing in the league; we're currently 11th after 13 games. :moop: Nearly all the other teams have played 14 games.
Newcastle are still bottom, they finally managed points via a win in their 14th game against Fat Sam's side Bolton. They beat them 2-1 at home, mind Boro had hammered the Skunks 3-0 the previous week at the Riverside.
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Post by coffers on Mar 9, 2006 14:54:55 GMT
The rot was stopped with a 3-1 home win over West Ham, Pardew was taunted, and Moo will be happy as Newcastle strung a 2nd win together with the first, 3-2 at Portsmouth. Now we have an International week break and time for the players coming back from injury to recouperate. There are only 3 out now, one is out for another 6 months, he's my best right back, the other 2 are fringe players anyway.
I''ve booked my table at Fat Sam's hamburger shack, AKA The Reebok, for our next outing and it's televised, as is the home game against Norwich the following week.
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Post by Sonic on Mar 9, 2006 22:27:01 GMT
Televised taunting of Fat Sam during the match :thumb:
I think the injuries are a tad over the top, as they seem to happen when your doing well.
Consolidation it is this season by the look of things.
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Post by coffers on Mar 9, 2006 23:38:57 GMT
The turn around against West Ham gave us a boost going into the Bolton game so I told the press that Bolton would be relegated under the stewardship of the Fat one. It obviously had an effect on the players as within 8 minutes of the start Bolton were down to 10 men when Vaz Te elbowed one of our DC's it was curtains for Bolton as we romped to a 6-0 win on their patch, we even bossed the game when we were unfairly reduced to 10 men on the 50 minute mark. I'm loving it. Norwich visited us next and Stu will be more than happy with the result as we took them apart on TV for a 4-2 win, much to the surprise of the commentator who expected a 0-0 draw. A visit to struggling Newcastle came hot on the heels of our three match winning run and Moo will be unhappy to hear that we stretched the run to four, with a 5-1 destruction of the skunks, who still only have 6 points out of 18 games. Meanwhile the table looks like this: ![](http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/101/prestonleague3hw.jpg) We entertain 3rd placed Palace next in the League Cup.
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Post by Sonic on Mar 10, 2006 4:33:34 GMT
Now that's what I call reversing a form slump.
Big Sam's going to get relegated, do-dah, do-dah, Big Sam's going to get you relegated do-da-do-da-day :cab:
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Post by coffers on Mar 10, 2006 8:38:18 GMT
I should have added that down in our youth squad, we have a 16yo striker who plays regularly in the reserves who is being touted as the next Michael Owen on a regular basis. He's ot some damned fine stats for his age. I think I might try him out, in the first team, in the 3rd round of the FA cup when we play L2 Darlington at their white elephant stadium. The last game played last night was a home game against Crystal Palace, they were reduced to 10 men after only 18 minutes but played well in a spirited performance, we finally ran out 2-1 winners. We missed another penalty and palace took the lead 2 minutes before half time, we grabbed the equaliser seconds before the half ended. The winner was scored in the last 10 minutes when the game looked like going to extra time. It was a cracking cup tie but wemade hard work of it against the 10 men. Palace have assembled a decent squad to gether and have topped their group in the EURO Cup thingie. One mad result during the course of the nights play was Chelsea hammering Deracon of Hungary 13-0 in the home leg of their group game in the Champions League. They had previously beaten the Hungarians 8-0 away from home. It made me feel that the 6-0 humping by Arsenal, when I was at Fjolnir wasn't so bad after all. ![](http://www.geocities.com/jacquesdebohun/smilies/grin.gif)
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Post by coffers on Mar 10, 2006 13:37:09 GMT
Lunch break update:
After the jubilation of progressing to the QF's of the League Cup at the expense of palace we travelled to Tottenham and got duly whumped 4-2, but followed that up with a 3-2 home win against Charlton.
The trip to Liverpool filled me with a bit of trepidation given our up and down form, the trepidation was well founded as Cisse tore the pantfish off us and we went down with a wimper, 3-0, it could have been far worse.
Still Championship outfit West Brom had to visit us next shirley we could do better at home in the Cup? Well we were down to one fit first team striker so the future Mr Owen (aged 16) was called on and promptly ran around a lot but didn't do much really. The game ended 0-0 after extra time and went to penalties. We missed our first, they scored. We then scored the next and they missed. We missed the next so did they. We then scored the rest and they messed the rest so we won 3-1 on penalties.
Crystal Palace visit next and we're knackered.
I made enquiries about buying our on loan striker, but Arsenal want £11.5M for him, some hope, so I enquired about BMX Flyer at Udinese, they bought him for £775k plus other fees and percentages, he's worth £3.5M but they want £9.5M. Nice little earner if you can get it. We can't even get close to that sort of fee yet.
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Post by Moo on Mar 10, 2006 15:57:26 GMT
The Toon are on their way down it seems, that's a shocking record.
Who is that hungarian team? I don't recognise the name. Do you mean Debrecen?
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Post by coffers on Mar 10, 2006 16:38:48 GMT
Debrecen, that's the one, I was typing it from memory and couldn't be bothered to go searching for the name, the score was right though. Don't despair Moo, The Toon have got 3 wins since my last update, but we are now nearly into 2009.
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Post by coffers on Mar 10, 2006 16:57:16 GMT
We might have been knackered after our cup exertions but Palace were bad and we hammered them 3-0, for the next fixture away to Villa I expected a hard game and got one but we still shut them out and scored 2 goals to record a nice win to end our league fixtures in 2008. We ended all our 2008 fixtures with an away friendly at Fjolnir which was drawn 1-1. We were dreadful but should have still won by a country mile. I've made some bids for some cheapish strikers as we are really struggling to put out two in every game. The stars of the future aren't really up to the Prmiership standard yet. Our Next game will be in 2009 at Darlington in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup. In the League Cup Semi Finals we play Everton, Liverpool play Middlesbrough in the other tie. The League after all teams have completed 22 fixtures: ![](http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/4659/prestonleague2js.jpg)
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Post by Sonic on Mar 12, 2006 23:21:32 GMT
Very nice work in getting Preston 3rd. The next Michael Owen? I had the next Ronaldo and he was immense for the half a season I could keep him for. I've had the next Emerson who never got close and in my new club, I've got hte next Jan Koller. He doesn't have the stats and I have a lot of strikers at the club, half of them have interest from overseas. I've moved to The Czech Republic, taking control of Slavia Prague via Nigeria, who I'm still in charge of, while beating the Czech Republic's national team just after I started. Actually, the first day :cab:
What's funny is that I signed an absolutely cracking Ass Man from Juventus. I was shocked that he came. If he leaves soon, we'll make a mint :checkit:
My old club, the exodus has just about finished and the brightest prospects went to a few very large clubs, but all went to the big leagues for about 3M pounds each. Bargins the lot. I'd have asked for a minimum of 5M pounds + % sell on clause and a fee after so many games.
It's funny, I've proved that I can win things, but no big league's top division teams wants to employ me. Could that be my Nationality? I'm Australian wiht a second nationality of Polish.
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Post by coffers on Mar 13, 2006 9:20:16 GMT
January was very very busy game wise, it started with a 3rd round FA Cup game at Darlington, with an eye to the League Cup semi final in mid-week I played a below strength side and nearly paid the price, as it was we managed a 1-1 draw and brought the L2 side back to Deepdale for a replay. A visit to Everton in for the 1st leg of the league cup was next on the agenda, they took us apart when we played them at Goodison earlier in the season, so I went ultra defensive and we came out of the game with a 1-0 win to take us into the second leg with high hopes. Next was a home visit by Manchester Utd and we managed to surprise them by beating them 2-1, it did help that they had a man sent off after 47 minutes, but we were leading 1-0 by that point. Darlington were then demolished 3-0 in the 3rd Round FA Cup replay. We meet Norwich at Carrow Road in the next round. The games are coming think and fast and players are going down like 9 pins, unfortunately we go down 1-0 at Fulham in the league but the teams below us don't do any better so we manage to keep a nice gap and hold on to 3rd place. The 2nd leg of the League Cup semi final is on us faster than a speeding bullet, Everton score early on to level the tie, but on lone striker bags a hat-trick and we storm to the League Cup final where we will meet Middlesbrough who beat Liverpool in the other Semi Final. On to Norwich in the FA Cup 4th round, there are no heroics this week and we are shown the door as far as the FA Cup is concerned, Norwich run out easy 2-0 winners. Next a dress rehearsal for the League Cup Final, a home game in the League against Middlesbrough, they score early doors, but on lone striker equalises on the stroke of half time and that's how it stays; a 1-1 draw. The board gave me £10M to spend on new players but I'm having trouble convincing players to join, in that I mean players who would improve the squad significantly, so have held back from spending much, apart from drafting in a couple of cheap strikers to help overcome some injury problems that we currently have in that department, one for £5k and one for £1.2M. The cheapest one will be a good backup, the other one could be a damned good signing for the future and could even replace the on-loan one if I decide to terminate the loan contract. That finishes January off and we now enter February. A friendly against Finish side Inter Turku is next, which is the result of a transfer deal earlier in the season, we run out 3-0 winners but could have done without the game. The last EPL game of the update see Blackburn visit us on TV, they are given short shrift and leave with their tails between their legs as we bang in 2 for no reply. A new striker bought from Southampton reserves grabs both goals in his debut game. The injury crisis is now ridiculous as we have 9 players out with injuries plus our best centre back is now suspended for the next game at Portsmouth. We're running on fumes, the only right backs available to us are 16 year olds who aren't up to Premier standards yet. BMX Flyer has agreed terms with us and will join in July, we'll have to pay £7.5M to Udinese for him. Still it's cheaper than paying for on-loan striker, who when offered a contract said he didn't want to sign for Preston anyway, even though we are honing his skills. Bostord! On the international front, Venezuela go down 3-1 away to Martinique in a friendly, I'm thoroughly pissed off with this squad of under achieving wasters who never seem to be fit and resign in a huff. Bollocks to that for a game of soldiers. The EPL now looks thus: ![](http://img76.imageshack.us/img76/7789/prestonleague4jp.jpg)
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Post by Moo on Mar 13, 2006 11:05:59 GMT
Preston in a LAC spot? Dear Lord, what is the world coming to? Nice work there, sir! :thumb:
It must be something to do with the tactics you have here, Coffers, surely the squad you inherited can't be good enough to be third in the Premmie.
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Post by coffers on Mar 13, 2006 11:40:51 GMT
All that's left of the original squad that would get a game regularly if fit are: The Goalie, The Right and Left Back, one DM/AM/C and Nugent up front, but he is injured more often than not so is the right back. The goalie is in and out like a yo-yo or something. In the close season I bagged a shed load of midfielders in order to boost that area but all it did was give me an overdose of 2* midfielders as good as I already suposedly had, but I think my imports are better. I got one cracking young centre back from ManUre for £2M and a few more defenders to boost a very weak area, ie we didn't really have many defenders. Plus we signed an absolute shedload of young players for the U18's side for free including the so called next Michael Owen. Some of them look to have cracking potential, but won't be called upon in a hurry. Since the start of the season I've managed to offload some of the midfielders I bought in haste, but the midfield still concerns me, we need some real quality to give us a boost and a chance of beating the big guns. My strkers when fit are good enough I think, especially with BMX coming in the summer. Possibly another crack DC would be welcome along with a star right back. I'm not asking much really. ![](http://www.geocities.com/jacquesdebohun/smilies/grin.gif) The scouts are not really turning up anything that is better than we have as far as I can see. In fact the Southampton reserve striker was one I had originally targeted from My Fjolnir days, but we couldn't afford him and Southampton beat us to his signature. I couldn't believe that he was wallowing in their reserves. OK, his stats aren't as good as the on the on-loan striker, but he's more determined and will do a mighty fine job in this division for a lot less money. I'm juggling the tactics all the time, usually it's an attacking 4-4-2 type for home matches set to very defensive for away games now. But the settings get changed within the first 5 minutes of a game starting, depending how the game looks to be going. If the team I'm playing isn't up to much and we're at home then I sometimes use the 4-1-3-2 or 4-1-2-2-1 formations which helps keep the AI on it's toes, they can easily be switched to 4-4-2 if they aren't working. Having said all that it really has surprised me how bad some of the top teams are performing against us. But one thing that I can say is: We know how to score goals, If we could just stop conceding so many the I think we could dominate the league.
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Post by Moo on Mar 13, 2006 12:42:59 GMT
Fair enough, Coffers. I may have to rethink what i do with my Newcastle game, despite winning the cup last year, as I was nowhere near any of the big teams. The exception was Chelsea in the semis, where we were all over them, but that can happen in one off games.
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Post by coffers on Mar 13, 2006 12:59:59 GMT
I've just checked the get team report and according to that when fit our two bwst strikers are five star rated, we have 2 five star centre backs and a 5 star left winger. The goalie is three star, we have a three star left back and one 3 star central midfielder. The rest are 2 star rated. I know those ratings go up and down depending on current form anyway, but the assessments seem to be pretty consistent over time.
My 16yo future Michael Owen is currenty worth £1.6M, I have another 16yo striker with better stats who is worth £900k and, according to Ass-man, is a real potential star of the future.
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Post by coffers on Mar 13, 2006 14:15:07 GMT
I managed to get 2 games in this lunchtime, the first was an league game away to Portsmouth, where we won a hard fought tight encounter 2-1, which set us up nicely for the League Cup Final, but we had a nice long break as the next weekend was FA Cup weekend, it gave us a bit of time to get one or two players back from injury, unfortunately for Nugent it wasn't long enough, though now off the injury list, he was only 83% fit. Nowhere near fit enough for the rigors of a cup final.
The Final was a cracking game to watch as both sides went for it big time. Middlesbrough opened the scoring on 17 and were looking good to keep the lead until Preston won and scored a penalty on 37, a switch in tictacs had put Preston back on an even keel. In the second period, Sky Train scored with a great header on 62 to give us the advantage, but Middlesbrough then desperately sought an equaliser, it came 11 minutes from time when Downing brilliantly headed in a Queudrue cross. With time running out both sides were looking for the winner in a desperate bid to avoid extra time. The winner came 3 minutes from time from our on-loan striker who had been quiet up to that point in the game, and what a winner it was a stunning 25 yard shot, hit on the turn. Including injury time another 6 minutes were played after that and it was a nail-biting 6 minutes at that. But we held on to take a nice tin pot in our first season in the Premiership. 3-2 it was, we continue to leak goals but while we're scoring more than we concede, I'm not bothered.
That has guaranteed us a place in a European competition for next season, regardless of where we finish in the league.
Then we were humped 5-1 away at Arsenal in the league, Defoe and Henry tormented us relentlessly. :moop:
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Post by Moo on Mar 13, 2006 16:54:48 GMT
defoe to Arsenal in your game too? Interesting.
Top quality stuff to get the pot, Coffers. :thumb: for that one. KUTGW!
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Post by coffers on Mar 13, 2006 17:05:42 GMT
February 2009 is completed with a disappointing home 2-2 draw against Everton. We were 2-0 up and then Drogba decided it was time to play. :humb: Nugent scored both of our goals in his first start since his come back from long term injury and illness. We're still third but Man City (3 points behind) and Spurs (5 points behind and with a game in hand) are closing in on us fast. Our next game is an away trip to Charlton which could be tricky.
The U18's side are doing well, leading their division by a street and they have won their way to the U18's Cup Final. The reserves are pretty dire and are around 4th bottom of their division.
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