Career Scratch: Second Chances (DONE) & Armstrong 1KC (DONE)

[Ashez]

We've enjoyed it all the same so as long as you have too why's it matter :). Like I said I agree with all the points mentioned but at the end of the day you did this save for yourself and to entertain us which you've achieved. Come the end I'm sure a line of text on a leaderboard will mean little compared to the save/memories and the comments/views recieved etc. I find it rather classy tbh that you even considered this as I'm sure 99% of people wouldn't have. 

[Scratch]

3 hours ago, Ashez said:

We've enjoyed it all the same so as long as you have too why's it matter :). Like I said I agree with all the points mentioned but at the end of the day you did this save for yourself and to entertain us which you've achieved. Come the end I'm sure a line of text on a leaderboard will mean little compared to the save/memories and the comments/views recieved etc. I find it rather classy tbh that you even considered this as I'm sure 99% of people wouldn't have. 

Thanks mate. Totally agree, it's about playing the save, not the line of text on the leaderboard.. (although, I would like to knock @BatiGoal down a rung someday! ?)

[Taff]

Thats very fair of you dude, and like @Ashez said, you're not breaking any rules, but it could cause a floodgate to open for people to try this with other 1K's and it doesn't seem fair to the likes of you, @BatiGoal, @kts365 and others who have completed the 1K using the usual methods

[Scratch]

14 minutes ago, Taff said:

Thats very fair of you dude, and like @Ashez said, you're not breaking any rules, but it could cause a floodgate to open for people to try this with other 1K's and it doesn't seem fair to the likes of you, @BatiGoal, @kts365 and others who have completed the 1K using the usual methods

Thanks mate. They say a picture is worth a whole bunch of words, so check this out:

Spoiler

I LOVE it, but like you say, it's not fair to the others who've done it the hard/normal way. So I'm happy with my decision. Thanks for the support! ?

[Cockers2505]

@scratch99 I bow to your honesty, where others would simply say FU and keep the challenge real for the leaderboard, you on the other hand are a true gentleman, this is why I buy the game and join this Forum, either way, YOU have invented this, YOU have achieved this and it should be YOU on top of the leaderboard, I'm sure @BatiGoal will come back with an even more genius way to top your score as he always does 

Good luck mate, I personally think its been enjoyable so far and others have tried to follow in your footsteps, so it can't be all the bad 

[Scratch]

6 minutes ago, Cockers2505 said:

@scratch99 I bow to your honesty, where others would simply say FU and keep the challenge real for the leaderboard, you on the other hand are a true gentleman, this is why I buy the game and join this Forum, either way, YOU have invented this, YOU have achieved this and it should be YOU on top of the leaderboard, I'm sure @BatiGoal will come back with an even more genius way to top your score as he always does 

Good luck mate, I personally think its been enjoyable so far and others have tried to follow in your footsteps, so it can't be all the bad 

Thanks mate! I'm not even sure how far Armstrong will get, as I left this approach too late (playing him in the lower Conference divisions), but I am sure that if I started a new save tomorrow, I'd be able to get to 2KC easy... Too easy as it happens! ? Thanks for your support. 

[Scratch]

Update - Season 10 - Stockport

 

With AFC Wimbledon safely deposited in the Premier League, I started looking around for another job. Unfortunately, with only 7 second chance teams remaining, it's getting hard to get a job! With none on offer, I had to consider my options: stay with AFC Wimbledon or head off to another temporary side.

 

In the end I went to:

 

Stockport in the Conference North. Yes, that's right, the bottom tier of English football (that you can play anyway). 5 levels below the Premier League!

 

Why? Well, if I couldn't be making progress towards the Second Chances challenge, then I may as well make some in the 1KC one. It worked too! But the Second Chances challenge really went nowhere, despite a promising new approach.

 

Targets

Here are the targets I set myself:

• Sign Armstrong and get him to score 120 goals
• Try to influence the second chance teams to get at least one promoted in both L1 and the Championship

Read on to see how I went!

 

Transfers

The last few years, the number of transfers we've made dropped right away, but this year we're back! We made more transfers than we've ever done. Seriously, you probably don't want click that spoiler button. 

 

Here are our transfers out:

Spoiler

 

 

 

This year there were 28 player exchanges out! With only 7 teams left, that's an average of 4 per team.

 

Here our transfers in:

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

Umm, there are just a few signings from AFC Wimbledon... 14 to be exact... Well, they needed to sell because they were bankrupt for some reason. I was doing them a favour by putting some money in their coffers! The end result: I had pretty much the same team that walked the Championship, playing 4 levels lower down. We're talking about players like this:

 

They're all on £325K per week, so our wage bill is quite high for a Conference North team, but I had plenty of money lying about. Those AFC Wimbledon people could learn a bit about financial management from me!

 

The other transfers in are either the same players that got exchanged back out again, or they were goalkeepers (we have 33 in our squad, just in case). 

 

The New Approach

So why so many signings? Well, not managing a second chance team meant that my only way to influence that challenge is through building those teams up (lots of player exchanges) and pulling their rivals down (buying their goalkeeper and other top players). 

 

I found that there was a benefit to doing this from a non-League team: The transfer window is open until mid March! And I'm allowed to send players on exchange to second chance teams, even when their transfer window is closed. So instead of having a couple of brief periods to build up certain teams and pull down others, I have most of the season. I used that to good advantage.

The main disadvantage to this approach is that most good players players want crazy high wages to drop down the divisions, and second chance teams won't want players with wages higher than about £5K-£9K per week. I had to cancel about 90% of transfers once I learned of the player's demands. That was after I'd only targeted players on very low wages to start with. Still I managed to pass on some players like this:

Spoiler

 

 

Another disadvantage is that for the first time, I filled up the reserve squad! The board won't allow me to release most of them because they are seen as valuable. If I want to follow this approach again next season, I'm going to have to change club!

 

Job Opportunities

I was waiting for a second chance team to become available, so when I saw Blackpool were looking for a manager, I applied! Unfortunately, they thought Derek Adams was more qualified...

 

This was between Leeds (still in the Premier League) and Athletic Bilbao (again!) both approaching me unsolicited and when I was ranked 16th in the world with 8 league wins and 19 cups:

 

Well... Now I know how @Mr.Manager felt when something similar happened to him! ?

 

Anyway, I had to content myself with sitting in the shadows, pulling strings.

 

Results

We won the League comfortably (of course!), going 41-1-0 with 193 goals for and only 6 against (not bad):

 

This far down we get to play in the FA Trophy instead of the League Cup. That was pretty straight forward for us to win, with a 6-0 victory over Cambridge in the Final and similar performances throughout.

Spoiler

 

In the FA Cup, we progressed nicely before coming up against West Ham in the 5th round. We drew the first game 1-1, then needed a 94th minute equalizer to send the replay into extra time, before winning 2-1. Whew!

Spoiler

 

After that we blew Cardiff away 5-0, squeezed past Man Utd 1-0, before facing Liverpool in the Final. They crushed us 3-0:

Spoiler

 

I have to admit I thought we'd win it... ?

 

Accidental Armstrong 1KC

Armstrong has turned 29 now and looks like this:

 

Of course, someone like that is going to do pretty well in the Conference North. There were a lot of goals - so many that I started feeling this approach wasn't really fair. As discussed in the comments above, I decided I won't be adding this to the 1KC leaderboard.

 

He scored 4 goals seven times this season, 5 goals three times, 6 goals once and even got 7 in one match:

Spoiler

 

 

 

Armstrong ended up scoring 142 goals in 59 games and now has 768 goals total under my management.

 

If I keep him in the lower leagues, he'll hit 1,000 goals in a couple of seasons...

 

League Tables

Here's the top and bottom of all the English leagues:

Spoiler

 

 

 

Manchester United won the Premier League, no bonus points here. Man City finished 6th, Leicester finished 7th, both a long way off from winning it again.

 

In the Championship, no second chance teams were promoted or even anywhere near the playoffs. At the other end, Birmingham were relegated, but Charlton escaped a long period in the drop zone. My new approach of helping teams (outlined above), was directly responsible for saving Charlton, but just didn't work for Birmingham. The only other second chance team in the league was Sheffield Wednesday and they were so mid table, I pretty much forgot them and concentrated on those I could have more effect on.

 

In League 1, Portsmouth and Oldham were promoted, while at the other end, no second chance teams were anywhere near relegation. At one point Bury and Bristol City were 20 points clear of 3rd. I let Bury go, but sabotaged Bristol City and in the end Portsmouth caught them (only just!). Oldham and Sheffield United were 10 points adrift of the playoff places. I managed to get Oldham firing (and the other playoff teams keeper-less), but Sheffield United just fell short!

 

No teams ticked off this year, so I'll call that a failure. At least the net effect is 1 team moved up into the Championship, so still upwards momentum, but we need to get some teams promoted next season.

 

Past Winners (3)

Spoiler

 

• Manchester United
• Arsenal
• Chelsea
• Manchester City
• Blackburn Rovers
• Leicester City

 

 

Completed (20)

Spoiler

• AFC Wimbledon
• Aston Villa
• Barnsley
• Blackburn Rovers
• Bolton Wanderers
• Bradford City
• Cardiff City
• Coventry City
• Derby County
• Fulham
• Ipswich Town
• Leeds United
• Newcastle United
• Nottingham Forest
• Norwich City
• QPR
• Reading
• Swindon Town
• Wigan Athletic
• Wolves

 

 

Remaining (7)

Spoiler

Championship (4)

• Charlton Athletic
• Oldham Athletic
• Portsmouth
• Sheffield Wednesday

League 1 (3)

• Birmingham City
• Blackpool
• Sheffield United

League 2 (0)

• No second chance teams

 

 

Looking Ahead

So, a great season for the 1KC, not so much for the Second Chances challenge.

 

I need to move on from Stockport as they are done (too many exchanged players blocking up the reserves). If I can get a second chance team, I'll take it, but it's not looking likely (Birmingham's board seem quite accepting of relegation)... So it will probably be another season in the Conference (although I'd like the Conference National if I can get it, as it might keep wage demands down slightly).

 

We'll have to wait and see...

[Scratch]

19 minutes ago, Risheek said:

Going good in the challenge mate! A enormous score for the goal tally! I'm considering a FC United of Manchester 1KC for FMM18. KIU!

Thanks mate! Yeah, it did go pretty well, but I had an obscene amount of money so there were always going to be a lot of goals. Hope you go ahead and do another 1KC. FC United would be an interesting one to watch! I'm thinking about starting another one myself (who am I kidding, I have the save started!). 

[Scratch]

Just now, Risheek said:

Can't wait mate! I really think I need another save to work on to be honest! Atm, I can only work on the SAF challenge and the CC... A 1KC would be great but enough for the time being...Maybe FMM18!

Yeah, when I finished my first one, I had to do a couple of one season only challenges before I could face another 1KC.

I actually have a double 1KC waiting for me, that I should go back to, but I've been away from it so long that I've lost the feeling for it. But right now I'd like to do a normal 1KC, without the second chance thing distracting me, without doing this transfer my money around stuff etc. I picked a striker and a team and started the save - but I'll try to finish this first if I can. Maybe I'll stop caring about the games so much (and the 1KC) and go through it quicker to get it finished.

[Scratch]

20 hours ago, Risheek said:

The updates are class mate, up to you if u wanan change them but I thoroughly enjoy them! I can't wait for your 1KC!

Thanks mate!

[Scratch]

What's this, another update, so soon? No, it's just something that blew my mind during the World Cup during the off-season:

You little ripper Australia!!!!!!! That's absolutely amazing! I could believe it if I'd I been managing them, but for the AI to come up with that result...

 

[Taff]

Holly Cow, the AI has gone mental and awarded the World cup to Oz, what next Wales are the world number 1 

[BatiGoal]

Hehehe don't see that everyday great progress, mate! kiu!

[Scratch]

@Taff @BatiGoal - Thanks! I still can't believe Australia won the World Cup. Did the game do that because my nationality is Australian? Does that give a team a boost? I would have said no, but I can think of no logical reason for that to have happened!

[Scratch]

Armstrong's best ever game:

Spoiler

Count em!

[Scratch]

Update - Season 11 - Bognor Regis

 

Last season saw mixed results, with no second chance teams ticked off, but 142 goals for Armstrong.

 

I thought I'd have more success building up the second chance teams this year, but first I had a problem to solve. I'd filled Stockport's squad to overflowing with assorted rejects that I'd exchanged for and goalkeepers I'd bought, etc. The board wouldn't let me release the vast majority of them, so my ability to maneuver would be severely limited. The only solution was to change clubs.

 

But where to move? (Please pretend you didn't notice the answer in the title!)

 

Real San Sebastian came knocking with £21M, but there was no real attraction in me moving back to Spain. Everton and Brighton (both in the Championship) were managerless. But there were no second chance jobs available... So I went ahead and moved to:

 

Yes, another Conference North team - although one that's actually on the south coast of England (a nice change of scenery and some long bus trips coming up).

 

Targets

Here are the targets I set myself:

• Sign Armstrong and get him to score 140 goals
• Try to influence the second chance teams to get at least one promoted in both L1 and the Championship

Read on to see how I went!

 

Transfers

Here are our transfers out (30 player exchanges this year):

Spoiler

 

 

 

Here our transfers in:

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

Once again I brought the bulk of the Stockport team across, adding a few others in the process. Then I bought a bunch of players to exchange and a bunch of goalkeepers.

 

The Approach

I continued the same approach as last time: sit in the shadows pulling the strings. I sent good players to the second chance teams, while sabotaging their competitors.

 

Last time I mentioned that the main disadvantage of being with a Conference team is that it's hard to find good players who will come for a low wage. Most want an enormous salary to drop down the leagues, but that means League 1 and Championship teams won't want to take them on exchange. So it takes a LONG time and many false starts to find willing players.

 

Here is an example of a search I use to find these players (with the appropriate attributes set too):

 

I still find 90% of them are asking for wages that are too high and I have to cancel the transfer. So... it's hard work!

 

But, what I thought was a disadvantage has actually turned out to be an advantage. When I was exchanging players from a Championship club, a lot of them ended up being unhappy at the club they went to. Now, only players who are happy to play at the Conference level are getting transferred and they pretty much have all stayed happy at their new clubs.

 

Anyway, the approach worked much better than last year, probably because I spent more time analysing what each team needed, then going and getting it for them.

 

Job Opportunities

I was happily going about my business when I noticed this in early December:

 

I was half tempted to stay, but I couldn't pass it by. Portsmouth were 13th in the Championship and I was confident I could get them promotion this year if I joined. Unfortunately:

 

Yes, rejected again! That meant the Oldham job became available and Sheffield United were looking for a new manager at the same time, but I couldn't land either of those. I'm basically unemployable! 

 

I'm pretty sure it's got to be the low Loyalty score which is holding me back. Unfortunately, by the time I applied for all three of those jobs it was down to 2. Looks like I'm not going anywhere anytime soon.

 

Actually I'm pretty sure I'd have a much better chance at those jobs if I resigned first, but doing that would mean losing my slush fund - and at the moment, I still need that to create the maximum amount of influence. 

 

Results

We won the League comfortably, going 39-2-1 with 183 goals for and only 10 against.

 

We walked the FA Trophy, winning the Final 5-0 over Stevenage.

 

In the FA Cup, we beat Man Utd 2-1, Southampton 7-0, Man City 4-2 on penalties after it ended 0-0 after extra time, Newcastle 4-0 in the Semi Final, then beat Cardiff 5-2 in the Final. No sweat!

 

Accidental Armstrong 1KC

Armstrong has turned 30 now and looks like this:

He got injured in October, but fortunately this was one of those ghost injuries (Condition hit only). He then got proper injured in January and missed 3 games. 

Spoiler

 

 

Once again, it rained goals. I stopped counting the number of times he scored 4 goals, but he scored 5 goals three times, 6 goals twice, 7 goals once and finished it off with a 9 goal effort:

Spoiler

 

 

 

Armstrong ended up scoring 139 goals in 56 games and now has 907 goals total under my management.

 

Getting close now! In other news:

 

Everyone on Vibe knows I love Adam Armstrong. Unfortunately he doesn't seem to know it! You're the only striker for me Adam...

 

On the England job: They got bundled out of the World Cup at the group stages and Gareth Southgate was looking very insecure for a while. Of course, after a couple of months, everyone forgot about it and started talking about how England were sure-fire favourites for the Euros in a couple of years. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

League Tables

Here's the top and bottom of all the English leagues:

Spoiler

 

 

 

Manchester United won the Premier League again, no bonus points, but Man City finished only 1 point behind! I'd given up on any more bonus points but maybe there's still time! Come on City!

 

In the Championship, Charlton and Portsmouth were both promoted. Midway through the season they were mired in mid-table obscurity, but I worked out which positions needed strengthening and got them the players. I  also sabotaged the teams above them. As a result, they both went on a late run to promotion. At the other end, no second chance teams were relegated, but Oldham and Sheffield Wednesday had been in the relegation zone before getting similar treatment.

 

In League 1, Sheffield Utd and Blackpool were promoted after similar strengthening. Birmingham missed out (they lost to Blackpool in the playoffs), meaning they are the last second chance team below the Championship! 

 

Past Winners (3)

Spoiler

• Manchester United
• Arsenal
• Chelsea
• Manchester City
• Blackburn Rovers
• Leicester City

 

 

Completed (22)

Spoiler

• AFC Wimbledon
• Aston Villa
• Barnsley
• Blackburn Rovers
• Bolton Wanderers
• Bradford City
• Cardiff City
• Charlton Athletic
• Coventry City
• Derby County
• Fulham
• Ipswich Town
• Leeds United
• Newcastle United
• Nottingham Forest
• Norwich City
• Portsmouth
• QPR
• Reading
• Swindon Town
• Wigan Athletic
• Wolves

 

 

Remaining (5)

Championship (4)

• Blackpool
• Sheffield United
• Oldham Athletic
• Sheffield Wednesday

League 1 (1)

• Birmingham City

 

Looking Ahead

We're down to 5 teams left! Although it's much harder to get a job with one of those clubs, it turns out to be easier to take the extra time to shape their team properly. You can't control everything, but I'm feeling good about things! I'm going to need a new club again though, as this one is done...

 

As for the 1KC, we're only a season or two away from completing it. So all good here! 

 

 

[BatiGoal]

Getting ever so close now. Time to start enjoying the challenge

Shame about the ITN job, then again I'm doing another 1KC as well (with a German) and not having that ITN distraction is quite nice tbh. Couple seasons left, mate, kiu!

[Scratch]

15 hours ago, BatiGoal said:

Getting ever so close now. Time to start enjoying the challenge

Haha, I guess it's a matter of perspective! I just want it done, so I can get to my next challenge! ?

 

15 hours ago, BatiGoal said:

Shame about the ITN job, then again I'm doing another 1KC as well (with a German) and not having that ITN distraction is quite nice tbh. Couple seasons left, mate, kiu!

Speaking of my next challenge, it's a 1KC and I've already narrowed it down to a particular striker - and I picked him because it's easy to get the international job!! ?

[BatiGoal]

7 minutes ago, scratch99 said:

Speaking of my next challenge, it's a 1KC and I've already narrowed it down to a particular striker

Surprise Surprise.. is it.. Armstrong perhaps? 

[Scratch]

Just now, BatiGoal said:

Surprise Surprise.. is it.. Armstrong perhaps? 

Nah, that's what everyone expects, but it's not! Wrong country for a start, has to be one where it's relatively easy to get the ITN job and that's NOT England! I'm not 100% convinced the select striker will go well, but I think he's got promise and I don't think I've seen anyone else do a challenge with him...

Anyway, all will be revealed if I ever finish this!!  

Have you posted your new 1KC? Haven't seen it, but would love to check out how it's going...

[BatiGoal]

6 minutes ago, scratch99 said:

Anyway, all will be revealed if I ever finish this!! 

If? Lol I know how you feel

7 minutes ago, scratch99 said:

Have you posted your new 1KC? Haven't seen it, but would love to check out how it's going...

Never planned to. It started as a test save on OME to get a little more XP with this engine. Got a good formation going, love the player (CM turned CF) and couldn't stop playing the save. On 500 ish goals now, will probably post a single post with the career in its entirety. Simplified tho just to share my accomplishment (if all continues well) so I can finish FMM17 on a high

[Scratch]

18 minutes ago, BatiGoal said:

Never planned to. It started as a test save on OME to get a little more XP with this engine. Got a good formation going, love the player (CM turned CF) and couldn't stop playing the save. On 500 ish goals now, will probably post a single post with the career in its entirety. Simplified tho just to share my accomplishment (if all continues well) so I can finish FMM17 on a high

Oh, cool, will look forward to the recap at the end. Understand that approach.

I'm trying to cutback on the writeups myself (can't help myself sometimes). Will still do season by season writeups and dig into certain bits, but probably go simpler with certain parts. Things like charts for the 1KC and the edited together views of the goals over each half will go - need to streamline the process!

Anyway, good luck with the rest of the 1KC! ?

[veerus]

Those goal totals are ridiculous......

And what the hell is Bognor Regis?  Never heard of it before.

[Scratch]

On 8/26/2017 at 09:26, veerus said:

Those goal totals are ridiculous......

And what the hell is Bognor Regis?  Never heard of it before.

Thanks! I'd heard of the town before, but not the football team. It's on the south coast of England, not far from Portsmouth. Not sure why they are in the Conference North! You've got to hand it to the UK, they sure know how to name places over there... ?  

[Scratch]

Update - Season 12 - Multiple Clubs

Alright, we're closing in on the finish. 5 more teams to get promoted and 93 goals left for Armstrong.

Part 1 - Bognor Regis

As I said at the end of the last update, I needed to to move clubs because the reserve squad was full of players I'd exchanged for and couldn't get rid of. The problem was finding a club to move to.

I was holding out for a Conference team with decent training facilities, but they are few and far between. None were forthcoming, so I went into the season still at Bognor Regis.

I also thought it would be icing on the cake to win the Community Shield before departing, which we duly did:

But Armstrong was injured in the game... My heart stopped - but luckily it turned to be only 3 weeks, meaning he'd be better again before the transfer window closed. For a second I thought I wouldn't be able to buy him if I moved!

As soon as the game was over, I went back to looking for a new club, and the perfect opportunity emerged.

Part 2 - Blackpool

I know in the last update I said that I quite liked playing at a Conference team, which allowed me to shape the second chance teams with transfers right up until mid-March (when the Conference transfer window closes), but...

How could I say no? A chance to make sure a second chance team got crossed off the list. A chance to give the second chance teams a bonus by losing to them. I took it.

To be honest, when I applied for the job, I was pretty sure I'd be rejected based on what happened last season (when three second chance teams rejected me). My Loyalty rating was really low and no-one wanted to take a chance on me. Except Blackpool.

They'd had 3 draws and a loss when I took over, but I had the whole season to put that right.

Transfers

Here are our transfers out:

Spoiler

Here our transfers in:

Spoiler

Once again I brought the bulk of my old team across and a bunch of goalkeepers, but not too many exchanges this year. Teams in the same division as you are very reluctant to exchange players. ?

Results

We'd been knocked out of the League Cup in the first round, before I even joined the club.

We went for a nice run in the FA Cup, beating Liverpool 2-0, Arsenal 3-2, Chelsea 1-0 and were due to face Man City in the Semi Final, when something came up:

Dilemma! There were only a few games to go and Blackpool were almost certainly going up and Sheffield United were almost certainly not going down, despite being just outside the relegation zone.

Decision Time

It was a no brainer to take the Sheffield United job and make sure they were crossed off the list the following season. But the real question was whether they'd accept me.

After applying for the Blackpool job at the beginning of the season, my Loyalty had slipped back to 1 or 2. Although Blackpool had given me the job, three teams had previously rejected me in similar circumstances.

I knew of a way to greatly increase the chances of getting the job, but it was risky: Quit the Blackpool job and then apply for the Sheffield Utd job (Loyalty doesn't seem to be checked then). But there were two issues:

1. If you set up transfers before you quit, they'll have gone through before you get the job and the board won't make that money available to you. Bye bye millions...

2. If you don't get the job, then all that money is just gone anyway and you have to start again somewhere else.

Fortunately, we were outside the transfer window, so #1 didn't apply - the transfers would sit and wait until the window opened, by which time I should be at the club and get the full proceeds. But #2.... Risky!!

Still, you don't become a top class manager without learning how to take calculated risks, so...

And... It paid off!

No separate section on Sheffield United, as I only had a couple of games there and they didn't make any difference.

Accidental Armstrong 1KC

Armstrong is now 31 now and looks like this, slowing slightly (Pace down 2, Stamina down 5, Decisions down 2), but still lots left in the tank:

As well as his injury in the Community Shield while at Bognor Regis, he got a ghost injury at Blackpool and missed a week due to the condition hit.

And he missed 3 weeks due to another injury:

It took a strangely long time for him to settle this time (around 6 months!):

It was a hard season for Armstrong, who'd grown used to knocking in a hat-trick each week in the Conference. Back to real life! He scored at more than a goal a game, but there weren't many games with more than 2 goals. Here is the standout game where he scored 5:

The injury at the start and the move to Blackpool meant he got off to a slow start. He got into gear in the middle, but then we cut the season short at the end (and he didn't score anymore after I left).

Armstrong ended up scoring 49 goals in 39 games and he now has 956 goals total under my management.

44 goals to go.

League Tables

Here's the top and bottom of all the English leagues:

Spoiler

Chelsea won the Premier League again, no bonus points. I've given up on Man City ever winning again.

In the Championship, Blackpool hung on without me to get promotion, but couldn't catch Sheffield Wednesday (who also get crossed off). Oldham joined them, monstering their goalkeeperless opponents in the playoffs.

In League 1, Birmingham looked a class act, getting promotion easily. And although it's not related to the challenge, this match struck me as one which must have been particularly tense!

That leaves us with two to go next season: My Sheffield United and Birmingham, both in the Championship! Could we end this next season?

Past Winners (3)

Spoiler

• Manchester United

• Arsenal

• Chelsea

• Manchester City

• Blackburn Rovers

• Leicester City

 

 

Completed (25)

Spoiler

• AFC Wimbledon

• Aston Villa

• Barnsley

• Blackburn Rovers

• Blackpool

• Bolton Wanderers

• Bradford City

• Cardiff City

• Charlton Athletic

• Coventry City

• Derby County

• Fulham

• Ipswich Town

• Leeds United

• Newcastle United

• Nottingham Forest

• Norwich City

• Oldham Athletic

• Portsmouth

• QPR

• Reading

• Sheffield Wednesday

• Swindon Town

• Wigan Athletic

• Wolves

 

 

Remaining (2)

Championship

• Birmingham City

• Sheffield United

 

Looking Ahead

I'm pretty certain Sheffield United will get crossed off next season, which only leaves Birmingham. They have a lot of good players and were great in League 1, but will that transfer to the Championship? We'll see!

As for the 1KC, Armstrong should reach that this season, barring any major injuries, so fingers crossed!

[Cockers2505]

They think it's all over...

@scratch99 time to reap the rewards, this has been an epic challenge(s), story and career all in one, let me congratulate you now as 44 is an easy shout, and both Birmingham and Sheffield Utd look like being ticked off, its win win situation for you...

[BatiGoal]

2 hours ago, Cockers2505 said:

They think it's all over...

@scratch99 time to reap the rewards, this has been an epic challenge(s), story and career all in one, let me congratulate you now as 44 is an easy shout, and both Birmingham and Sheffield Utd look like being ticked off, its win win situation for you...

Still have to see it.. 44 is a massive number.. Armstrong's looking like a grandpa.. the two remaining clubs are in terrible condition.. and @scratch99 the least trusted person in the land with 0 loyalty. This challenge is pretty much over!

[Scratch]

18 hours ago, Cockers2505 said:

They think it's all over...

@scratch99 time to reap the rewards, this has been an epic challenge(s), story and career all in one, let me congratulate you now as 44 is an easy shout, and both Birmingham and Sheffield Utd look like being ticked off, its win win situation for you...

Thanks mate! Although... it's only early days (4 or 5 games in), but Birmingham are playing like @BatiGoal has been on the phone to them... ?

[Scratch]

16 hours ago, BatiGoal said:

Still have to see it.. 44 is a massive number.. Armstrong's looking like a grandpa.. the two remaining clubs are in terrible condition.. and @scratch99 the least trusted person in the land with 0 loyalty. This challenge is pretty much over!

Don't you worry, Armstrong will the 44 and Sheffield United will go up, they're both nailed on. As for Birmingham, we'll have to see... How much are you paying them to lose each game? I'm gonna have to top that!

[BatiGoal]

35 minutes ago, scratch99 said:

Don't you worry, Armstrong will the 44 and Sheffield United will go up, they're both nailed on. As for Birmingham, we'll have to see... How much are you paying them to lose each game? I'm gonna have to top that!

Villa are my 2nd fav. club so that's wonderful news