Dundee Challenge

Firstly I'd like to say hi, as I'm brand new to FM Scout and hope to be a good and active member on here.

I've wanted to make an FM story for a while so here's my chance..

I took charge of Dundee, not Dundee Utd, but the Dundee in the Scottish First Division. They are predicted to finish top in the league, and have a very good squad. Since I've started part way into the game, I can't show you the squad before and after, but here is the squad now:



Coming from England, I don't really take interest in the Scottish Premier League, never mind even the First Division! So I thought this would be a nice challenge. As you can see, I've bought a completely new Starting XI, apart from Nathan Baker. However, the only remaining Dundee player that will make the First XI, will be Rab Douglas when he returns from injury. My transfers were the following;



I made some very good Free's, and some even better loan signings. Mifsud tears the English League Two apart, and I reckoned Dundee is similar to League Two sides, so hopefully he'll tear the Scottish First Division apart.

Now time for the matches. I had no friendly's, bar one before I became the manager, so we went straight into the Challenge Cup 1st round. Cowdenbeath 0-2 Dundee, with Mifsud scoring both the goals, would he prove to be a good signing? The next game was disappointing. It was in the League Cup 1st round away to East Stirlingshire. We won, but it took until the 110th minute for me to bury the game. After going 2-0 down, Nathan Baker made it 2-1 on the 41st minute, and 4 minutes later Mifsud added another. Into extra time, M.Traore netted after 110 minutes to send us through to the next round. The first league game was a success, sending us 2nd in the league after a convincing 2-0 win over Aidrie Utd, Traore netting on 21 minutes and Mifsud finishing the game after 85 minutes.

I'll update shortly, and thanks for reading the first part of hopefully my successful Dundee career.

Allow me to correct that first, Nathan Baker isn't in Dundee's current squad, he was signed on loan :shock

Looks good keep up the good work

My friend used dundee and got to the SPL

where he was promptly flogged every game.

be warned. stock up some talent

Thanks for the advice

I will get the next update later tonight, as soon as I go on the game basically

I loaned out Ross Grant to Morecambe, the 19 year old midfielder is apparently only good enough to make the bench, but has had the 7th best average rating so far, with a 6.90 rating.

For my results, in my previous 3 games, I've coasted through 2 out of the 3. The first was a somewhat easy home game against Ayr, currently bottom of the table. I ran out 5-0 winners in which the scorers where; Mifsud, De Laet, Baker and M.Traore (2). This proved to me that I had 2 very solid defenders who would always attack from set pieces, as Baker and De Laet have scored 3 or 4 goals between them already after 4 games. Then we have Mifsud, he's a great goalscorer and is still young-ish. 28 years old and he will bang the goals in this season I hope. Finally to Traore, he's been a cracking player already, he should be a regular no.10 for OGC Nice, but they had him on the loan list and I had to snap at the chance of getting him. A great midfielder and a good goalscorer. Then in the Challenge Cup 2nd round, we visited Clyde. Tim Matavz, on loan from FC Gronegien (sp), got 2 of the goals in a 4-1 thriller, Traore netted another before a 'dubious' penalty decision gave Clyde their only goal of the game on the hour mark. Gareth Williams, the 27 year old Scottish midfield who was picked up on a free, got the 4th on 85 minutes. And the final game for now was against Dunfermline away. In a poor game we managed to get a 1-0 win, with 10 men for 30 minutes of the game. Dundee were given a dubious penalty according to the media, and this went against Dunfermline like it went against us vs Clyde last week, Nicolae Mitea scored a penalty on 33 minutes. Then, after 64 minutes, Nathan Baker was sent off, leaving us to hang on to a 1-0 win.

Updating shortly but with much less detail. :p

Righty time for my old man grumble but how many people are going to fill the forum posts page with blogs seems every second or third issue is not a question or disscussion about fm but about the latest "challenge" someone has undertaken on fm please post blogs in the blogs section it is far far easier to follow your story that way and does not fill up forum posts with blogs thank you

What's the point in having a FM Stories thread when you can't use it then?

Gspot69 : Righty time for my old man grumble but how many people are going to fill the forum posts page with blogs seems every second or third issue is not a question or disscussion about fm but about the latest "challenge" someone has undertaken on fm please post blogs in the blogs section it is far far easier to follow your story that way and does not fill up forum posts with blogs thank you

I prefer to have the Stories section of the forum because it's easier to interact directly with anyone interested in the blog and it's easier to write smaller updates. When I was blogging my FM09 story with Newport County and Man City, I would usually just do a season-ending recap because I got tired of constantly editing the one huge entry I would have for an entire season. I think it's far easier to update threads on the fly and it makes it easier, for me at least, to do so on a more regular basis.

Thanks for the advice mate.

No update's tonight, for the few that are following (:p), as I'm going to see Everton vs Chelsea COYB! (Everton not Chelsea)

After promising no updates for the night, I've decided to do one.

Transfers:

I brought in Ian Walker on a free transfer with just £750 a week! He's a great goalkeeper, and even with his age, is good for most English League One sides, including Leeds! We also got James Wallace on loan for the injured Gareth Williams, see below, and Kieran Agard for Mifsud, see below also.

Cups:

I was drawn against Morton in the Challenge Cup 3rd round, which looks like a very interesting game. Then as a result for beating Queen of the South in the League Cup 2nd round extra time 3-2, where Matavz scored 2 and Mifsud the other, we were drew against Hearts which seems to be a very very challenging tie, but not an impossible one...

Results:

Queen of the South 2-3 Dundee Mavatz (33,39), Mifsud (93 AET)
Ross County 0-3 Dundee Mifsud (35,58), Higgins (75)
Despite running out 3-0 winners, Mifsud, injured after his 58th minute goal, had to be replaced with Higgins, and coming to the end of the game, Gareth Williams (a key player) was also injured. Mifsud's length, 8 weeks to 2 months with Strained Knee Ligaments, which is a huge blow, but another blow is Gareth Williams who broke his arm and is due to be out for 7 to 8 weeks. Ian Walker also made a pretty solid debut, keeping a clean sheet was a nice touch for him too.

Monthly Awards:

Aswell as picking up Manager of the Month for 4 convincing Scottish First Division wins, De Laet won the Young Player of the Month, whereas Traore won the Player of the Month, with Mifsud coming 2nd. A good start for Dundee in which I hope will be a successful career.


Updates tomorrow.

And for more updates...

Kieran Agard and James Wallace done deals for the season long loan, so I'm giving Everton and Man City a favour by giving them some first team experience.

Partick Thistle 1-1 Dundee Nicolae Mitea (22)
In a disappointing game for Dundee in which Partick Thistle could, and should, have won. James Wallace and Kieran Agard failed to really make an impact in the game, and I expected a bit more from the lads with some ability.
Dundee 3-1 Queen of the South Mitea (4)
A fantastic free kick on 4 minutes from Mitea put us 1-0 infront, then QotS equalised at 23 minutes. Kieran Agard, who had another disappointing half, came off to the 2nd goalscorer Sean Higgins, who made it 2-1 by 64 mins. He then added another at 86mins to make it a 3-1 win, and he'll be getting another start for us.

Challenge Cup Semi Final draw...

If Dundee beat Morton, they will have a home draw against either Raith (SD1) or Forfar (SD3), in what I believe to be a realistic win.

Is there no way to seperate the "stories" section of the forum with other questions about the game ie best 11, recomend a player , has this ever happend to you when playing fm etc etc as right now we have Notts county dundee and conquering Americas challenge as 3 out of 8 posts on the home menu which is at least the norm now im not saying i dont enjoy reading all the stories and games you guys are having i would just like to read normal posts on my home menu then stories which are more blog related on a seperate page insted of having to sift through forums because 3-4 people have updated their season story every other day minor issue i know but it is doing my box in

Probably dont need me telling you bbut whatever you do, DO NOT sell leigh griffiths.
he is amazing and would succeed even in the spl

Yeah, I've just realised that :p

He'd been away with an injury, and is just recovering from it, so he'll come on soon...

Sorry I haven't updated in a day or two, haven't really "fell in love" with the Dundee Challenge yet, as I've lost a few, but will hope to get back to winning ways in my next update.