The British Steel Glory Hunter

Hi. My name is Harry Groves, and this is the start of my story. I’ve decided to document my adventures this time around because, while I’m a long time lover of Football Manager, for the last few years I’ve really struggled to fall in love with a save in the same way I used to. I hope that sharing my story with you guys will give me the motivation that I’ve been missing since probably FM17.

So, what is the British Steel Glory Hunter challenge? Well, it’s a combination of the British (and Irish) Steel challenge and the Glory Hunter challenge, of course. I’m sure a lot of you will know the rules of both of these challenges, but for those of you who don’t I’ll quickly run through them.

British Steel
Starting unemployed with no coaching badges or past experience, you have to win every single available trophy in the default database in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The real kicker is that you can only ever play players from those five nations.

Glory Hunter
A challenge coined by Doctor Benjy, in which you have a time limit of 20 seasons to win the primary league and the primary cup in England, France, Germany, Spain and Italy, along with the Champions League, Europa League, World Cup and the European Championships.

British Steel Glory Hunter
So, combining the two challenges, I have come up with the following rules. Starting unemployed with no coaching badges or past experience, I have to win the following 10 competitions. In England, the Premier League and the Emirates FA Cup. In Scotland, the Scottish Premiership and the William Hill Scottish Cup. In Wales, the JD Cymru Premier and the JD Welsh Cup. In Northern Ireland, the Danske Bank Premiership and the Tennent’s Irish Cup. And finally, in the Republic of Ireland, the SSE Airtricity Premier Division and the Extra.ie FAI Cup. Just like the British Steel challenge, I may only use players from the five aforementioned nations. So essentially, it is the British Steel challenge but abridged, because I have no interest in, for example, staying in Northern Ireland for years upon years trying to win every one of their six cup competitions, or having to drop back down to League Two because I got promoted by finishing second. I prefer the rules of my saves to guide my career in fun and interesting directions, rather than keep me stuck in one place trying to meet a load of ultra-specific criteria before I can move on.

As for the structure of the story, I’ll probably go with monthly updates (monthly in the game ofc), with updates on any important happenings, such as matches, transfers, injuries etc.

The only four jobs available at the start of the game are Derby County, Wigan Athletic, Chesterfield and Waterford FC. I highly doubt any of these clubs would take a chance on a lowly upstart like me, so I will remain patient and wait for the right position to become available.

I hope you like the sound of this, and I’ll be back with my first update soon, which will be an introduction to our first club.

MY FIRST JOB



I’m delighted (probably too strong a word) to announce that I have signed a contract with Llanelli Town in the JD Cymru South. I was considering making this a YouTube series instead, but I’m glad I didn’t now because I would have had to try to pronounce it. As you can see I’ll be sporting the club colours on the touchline.



I think it’s safe to say I’ve got pretty lucky. I was fully expecting to be thrown straight into a relegation battle, so to be comfortably mid table with an outside chance at the title is a nice position to walk into for my first job. From what I can tell, their former manager is also the chairman, and it seems like he resigned of his own accord to focus on his chairman duties, rather than being sacked for underachieving. Their recent form has been good with three wins on the trot, and my first game in charge will be against Risca, who are bottom of the league and haven’t won a game yet, so it’s just about as friendly a welcome as I could have hoped for. Now watch me give them their first win.



Unfortunately, the finances aren’t quite as positive, but we’re only £18,000 in the red and only a few quid over the wage budget, so it’s not the end of the world. I would have liked some more room to manoeuvre to bring some players in though. We’ll need it, as you’re about to find out.

Speaking of which, now I’ll show you some of our key players. Spoiler alert: They suck.


Our first choice goalkeeper. It doesn’t inspire confidence does it?


Not Sam Carter as in the lead vocalist of the band Architects, although he’d probably do a better job. 35 years old, with 4 pace and 5 strength, he’s our best centre back and second best centre mid, at least according to the coaches. Yikes.


Someone I’d actually heard of which is a surprise. He looks like a good right back, and he can also play on the right side of a back three, which is a formation I’m considering. He’s on stupid wages compared to the rest of the squad, so unless he’s willing to take a big pay cut I doubt he’ll be here past the end of the season.


Good young left back with potential. He can only play full back though so if I play a back three then I’d have to train him to play either centre back, centre mid or left mid.


A good midfielder who has comfortably been Llanelli’s best player so far this season. I’ll be counting on him to carry that form on for me.


Another pretty good midfielder. The issue is all of our decent midfielders are similar players. More creative and technical, but not so good defensively.


He looks pretty good, until you see the fact that he is 38 years old. A 38 year old goalkeeper I could handle, maybe even a 38 year old defensive midfielder. But a 38 year old winger? It’s not ideal.


Genuinely good young left winger. It’s a bit weird that our right winger could be our left winger’s dad. It’s also a bit weird that both our left back and left winger are 16 years old.


Looks like a good shadow striker or pressing forward for this level. The determination and work rate should make him a favourite of mine.


I’m conflicted here. On the one hand, he looks like he could be lethal at this level. On the other hand, I don’t like the teamwork and work rate being quite that low. I feel like he’ll score some goals but he’ll also go missing an awful lot. He was unhappy because we wanted a new contract, so I’ve given it to him and he’ll be with us until the end of next season.


Last, but certainly not least, it’s a man with probably my second favourite name ever in FM, behind a regen I once had called Sunday Salami. It’s William Wang. He’s awful, but I’m going to make him a valuable member of this team even if it kills me (or more likely gets me fired).

While the transfer window is currently closed, the loan window is still open, and free transfers are allowed too, so I’m definitely looking to bring in a few players. The priorities are a centre back, a defensive minded midfielder and another good striker to give competition up front, but really we could do with at least one player in every single position.

I’m not sure when I’ll write the next update, because there are only two matches left in October, so I might just combine October and November. Maybe I’ll do October on it’s own if there are enough signings to report, but I doubt I’ll be able to bring that many in within the next two weeks. Cheers guys.

October 2020

I decided to post October and November separately. Only a small update this time, with two matches and two transfers. Next month we have five matches and I expect another six or seven transfers through the door, so it will be longer and take longer as a result.

Risca United vs Llanelli Town


This was a very frustrating first game. No matter what I changed tactically we never looked like creating anything, other than one clear chance for Jamie Jenkins that probably accounted for about 0.7 of our xG. I can take an occasional dull 0-0 against a top team or maybe even a mid table team, but doing this against the team in last place is really poor, especially as they had only picked up two points from seven games before this match.

Signings


The first signing of my career, and I think it’s a good one, especially when you consider that he’s on a miniscule £8 per week. He is equally comfortable playing the more defensive minded role in midfield, or the more mobile box-to-box/carrilero role. After how impotent we looked against Risca, I’m really considering switching to a 3-5-2, so I think another quality midfielder will still be needed.


Our second signing is a striker on loan. I disagree with our coaches, I think he’s much better than two stars. To my eye he looks really solid and he can play as either the poacher or the deep lying/pressing forward equally as effectively. We’re not paying any of his wages either, so there’s no risk.

I’ve signed two player/scouts, but they will primarily be focusing on their backroom roles and will likely never play, so I won’t bother showing their attributes. They both seem ok, but nothing special. I’ve also taken loads of free agents on trial, so hopefully at least a couple of those will have low enough wage demands to join us. They’d certainly all improve our team.

Llanelli Town vs Ammanford


I made the change to the 3-5-2 for this match against 14th placed Ammanford, but despite getting a win in the end I still wasn’t happy with the way we played. Up until the last half hour or so it was disappointingly similar to the Risca performance, with not a lot happening for either team. I won’t complain too much though because we got the win. It was nice to see our new loan signing Tyrone Ofori come off the bench to get the winner.

League Table


After the Risca match we had dropped down to nine points off top, but the win against Ammanford plus results elsewhere going our way mean we’re back where we started when I took over, seven points off top. As I said I’m hoping to have some more quality signings coming in, so if they settle quickly I still think we can mount a title challenge. I won’t lie though, I wish there were playoffs.

Player of the Month


Tough to pick really, considering I was only in charge for two games. I can completely disregard the Risca game to be honest as nobody did anything of note. So based on the fact that he got a goal and an assist to beat Ammanford, my player of the month is Jordan Follows.

Fixtures for November


All the league games are winnable, and we’ve got Ammanford again in the cup. The last match against Carmarthen is a local derby and they’re currently a point above us, so that could be a massive game.

I’d appreciate any feedback if you guys have any, for example do you think I should skip the match writeups for these less significant games, or not bother with the player of the month etc? Also would you rather I bunch all of the transfers together and then bunch all the matches together, or just write them as they happen like I have in this post? Lastly, anything else you’d like me to show each month?

Welcome to the Stories section mate. A good read thus far. I believe it's pronounced Clan-elly? Don't quote me!

It's an interesting and fun challenge you've undertaken here. I'll be following with interest! As for the updates, you're best doing what you think is best. It seems simple advice but tend to follow what your instinct tells you to do!

2020-12-20 11:58#280094 ScottT : Welcome to the Stories section mate. A good read thus far. I believe it's pronounced Clan-elly? Don't quote me!

It's an interesting and fun challenge you've undertaken here. I'll be following with interest! As for the updates, you're best doing what you think is best. It seems simple advice but tend to follow what your instinct tells you to do!

Cheers mate, and thanks for the advice! See I was thinking something like Clan-ethly. But who knows, Welsh is hard.

November 2020

Signings
I had six players all complete their transfers to the club within the first three days of November. Unfortunately, a few of my existing players got a bit annoyed about it, but only one is seriously upset, which I’ll show you after the transfers. Either way, we’ve definitely strengthened the squad, and we’ve hardly had to spend a penny. Most of these players were suggested by my assistant manager (using the “suggest transfer targets” thing), and then I brought them in on trial.


This is the actual nephew of the greatest midfielder in Premier League history. I think you could probably argue that he isn’t quite as good as his uncle, but he’s definitely really solid for us. Even though he might be slightly better suited to other roles, I’m probably going to play him as the more attacking of my midfield three. I want someone getting up in support of the attack from midfield and he looks to be the best at it.


Tom Wright looks like another very solid signing to me. 8s and 9s are good numbers at this level, and he has them in every attribute that matters, at the very least. This signing really upset Sam Carter, but we’ll get to that in a bit.


Here’s that word solid again. This is another player with at least an 8 in every attribute that counts. He’ll be good competition for Martyn Harries on the left wing, but I’m also going to train him up to be a central midfielder because I think he suits it.


We needed right winger because, of our existing right wingers, one is 38 years old and the other one is William Wang. Kanga looks good, and that pace could be deadly at this level. Don’t worry though, he has very low stamina so I’m sure William Wang will still make plenty of appearances off the bench.



This guy looks brilliant physically and has some other good attributes too, but I’m a bit concerned by some of his shortcomings. Strength, marking, teamwork, concentration and composure are all worryingly low. My scouts and coaches are all extremely high on him though, so I’ll put my trust in them. He’s better than the crap we had before anyway.


And lastly, we’ve brought in a new goalkeeper. It’s not a position I was specifically looking to improve yet, but when you find such a clear upgrade for such little money you have to go for it. He has some dodgy attributes, but that’s to be expected at this level and he’s only young, like all of these signings.

Sam Carter (the 35-year-old with 4 pace and 5 strength) was upset that I brought in somebody in his position, despite the fact that we play with three centre backs. I tried telling him that I was changing the way we play and so needed to bring in some different players, but he responded like this.

Looks like someone is insecure about how crap they are. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

Goytre United (11th) vs Llanelli Town (7th) – JD Cymru South


This game was almost a carbon copy of the Ammanford game, where we seemed to be half asleep until the last 30 minutes or so. I have to be happy with the team spirit to come from behind to win late on two games in a row, but I would much prefer it if we just got the job done from the start. I guess you can call us the Manchester United of the JD Cymru South. Hopefully I’m not the Ole Gunnar Solskjaer though, I’d like to win something in this save! It’s worth noting that Tyrone Ofori has scored late winners in both of his Llanelli appearances so far. He’s looking like a top loan signing.


So these idiots decided to get annoyed because I couldn’t promise two old men that they’d get in the team ahead of my young and talented new signings, even though I never actually said they wouldn’t in the first place. I had to back down and say I’d give Carter and Wrigley the assurances they want, but in reality that’s not happening. I’ve already offered Carter a mutual termination, let’s hope he agrees.
This guy didn’t get the courtesy of being asked though, bye bye.


Update: Sam Carter didn’t accept the mutual termination and it’s just made him more annoyed because he “wants security at this stage of his career”. It’s safe to say I’m not much of a diplomat.

Ammanford vs Llanelli Town – JD Welsh cup


Rubbish match where we didn’t create enough and then lost on penalties to the team who are 15th in the league. It’s a good job I don’t care about the cup this season. It would have been nice to win to keep the confidence up, but I’m not too bothered.

Llantwit Major (13th) vs Llanelli Town (6th) – JD Cymru South


It’s happened again. Really sleepy start that saw us go in 1-0 down at half time against a team in a relegation battle, but once again we battled from behind to get the win, albeit this time with a little help from a hideous two-footed lunge from their man Hall, who deservedly saw red. Captain Jordan Davies scored a cracking goal from outside the box, and new signings Harriott and Kanga scored too. Sam Carter got his first game since our whole ordeal, and of course after moaning about wanting to be in the team he spent the whole match looking either complacent or uninterested. I’m genuinely starting to hope he picks up a career ending injury.

Signing


I’ve brought in another old man to balance out all the youngsters I’ve signed recently. I remember this guy from an Oxford save I did on FM08. He was pretty good for me then so he should be pretty good for me now right? To be fair he still looks decent for 39, and even if he’s not playing every match he should still have an overall positive influence on the team.

Taffs Well (8th) vs Llanelli Town (5th)


This is the first match where I have really felt like we played well. As you can see, we left it extremely late again to get our goals, including an inch perfect free kick into the top corner from Lewis Redding, but we were the better team for the entire match and the goals were a long time coming. The reason it took so long to break them down is because they played the anti-football formation below. It seems like they were scared of us, and rightly so.


We’ve brought in another round of triallists, all of whom would walk straight into the team and probably become our best player. I highly doubt we’ll be bringing anyone else in this season (unless a top quality striker becomes available for less than £20 a week) but I’m definitely keeping these players in mind for the summer. We have a lot of poor players on pretty big wages with contracts expiring at the end of the season, so there should be a decent amount of budget to play with, unless the financial situation continues to get worse and the board decide to slash the budgets.


Llanelli Town (4th) vs Carmarthen Town (6th)


This was a good back and forth match against our local rivals. It was a bit disappointing not to get the win, but I can’t really complain, the draw was probably the fairest result. Nice to see both of our strikers get on the scoresheet.

League Table


A very good month has left us only two points off top. If we had managed to win that last match we would have been joint top, but I won’t fixate on that too much at this stage, it’s still pretty early in the season. I said when I took over that we could still be in the title picture, and now we definitely are. Interesting to note that our media prediction has jumped up from sixth to second after the signings we’ve made.

Player of the Month

Tough choice between two new signings, Tom Wright and Andy Kanga. Kanga has looked dangerous on the right and has got himself a goal and an assist, but Wright has been a rock at the heart of the defence and hasn’t put a foot wrong, so I’m going with him.

Fixtures for December & January


Because we’re out of the cups, we only have three matches most months for the rest of the season. Because of that, and the fact that I can’t see myself making any more signings, I’m going to cover two months per update. We’re facing the teams in first, third and fourth in the next few weeks so it could be a hugely important period in deciding how the rest of the season goes. Thanks for reading.

December 2020

A couple updates before we get to the matches.


I won the November manager of the month, which was nice for my first full month as a manager. Ofc I should have included this in the last update, but I forgot to continue on to the end of the month before posting. A bit stupid of me, but live and learn I guess.


I’m happy to tie down Ross Morgan until the end of next season, especially as he was willing to take a £40/w pay cut.

Llanelli Town (5th) vs Briton Ferry Llansawel (1st) – JD Cymru South

Up until the last fifteen minutes or so, this was an almost perfect performance. We were absolutely dominating the team who were top of the league, and before their first goal they had only had two shots to our twenty-something. We seemed to switch off once we brought on the subs, which is a bit annoying but I won’t complain too much. Andy Kanga put in an incredible performance, including a genuinely world class cross for our first goal. Another game where both of our strikers scored, so that’s another big positive. This result caused Briton Ferry to drop from first to fifth, which goes to show how tight it is at the top. There are two points separating first from fifth.

Afan Lido (12th) vs Llanelli Town (4th) – JD Cymru South

Another solid performance and result. Jamie Jenkins scored another brace, after being assisted by an incredible cross from Kanga and a lovely pass from Morgan, just like his brace in the last match. Jenkins is now up to second in the league top goalscorer chart, two points off Ibrahim So Sani of Undy Athletic.

Cwmbran Celtic (5th) vs Llanelli Town (3rd) – JD Cymru South

We were consistently carved open by Cwmbran Celtic here, and could have probably conceded more. Ryan Scholes-Beard has now conceded two penalties in three games, and he’s just been generally awful really, constantly giving the ball away. He got an assist to lift his rating up in this match but I’m really not impressed with how he’s been playing. This result puts us down to fifth, four points off the top, but with the way the season has been going that can change in a heartbeat, so it’s not the end of the world just yet. This was my first league defeat in charge, and ended our eleven match unbeaten run, which stretched back to the previous manager’s reign.

Manager’s Player of the Month

For the second month in a row, Andy Kanga just about misses out on getting my player of the month. I’ve got to give it to Jamie Jenkins for all the goals he’s scored.

Awards



January 2021

Llanelli Town (5th) vs Swansea University (1st) – JD Cymru South

Disgraceful to throw away a two goal lead. We gave away yet another penalty, but at least this time it wasn’t Scholes-Beard. Bottles were thrown at full time. Lewis Redding is now unhappy at how I’ve been handling team talks. He can piss off.

Trefelin Boys and Girls Club (11th) vs Llanelli Town (6th) – JD Cymru South

We needed a big response after losing two games on the bounce against title rivals, and we delivered here. This was a great performance that saw us be pretty much out of sight within fifty minutes. Trefelin came back into it in the later stages, with Callum Lenton making some amazing saves to maintain the clean sheet. Jordan Follows came off the bench to put the final nail in Trefelin’s coffin right at the death. We’re back up to third, but we’re back to seven points off the top, so really we’re right back where we started when I took over.

Llanelli Town (3rd) vs Undy Athletic (7th) - JD Cymru South

Undy were one of the form teams in the league, behind only the top two in terms of the last five games, and they have the top goalscorer in the league this season, so this performance was fantastic and just what we needed. Jordan Follows got a rare start following his goal off the bench last match, and he took his chance with a brace. Lewis Redding came off the bench to make his first appearance since our falling out, and he capped it with a lovely assist. The bad news is that Andy Kanga picked up an injury which will keep him out for three games, but that means William Wang will finally get his chance as first choice right winger.

Manager’s Player of the Month

A lot of players have been good over the last two matches, but it’s hard for me to look past Jamie Jenkins for the second month in a row. He’s scored eight goals in six games over the last two months, so it’s fully deserved.

Awards




League Table


We had a wobble with the Cwmbran and Swansea Uni games but we’ve recovered well. To be exactly the same number of points as when we took over is fine, but with only eleven matches to go we’ll have to start clawing some points back sooner rather than later if we want to win the league. To be honest though, if you’d asked me what position I’d be happy with when I took over I would have said top six, so I won’t cry if we don’t win the league. If we don’t win it next season though, that’s a different matter.

Fixtures for February & March


Of the next seven matches, six are against teams in the bottom half. If we have ambitions of winning the league, we probably need to be winning all of them, or at least the vast majority. Thanks for reading.

Really good story. You are about as diplomatic as me when it comes to player management!!

Good read, enough detail. Enjoyed it. I havent heard of the challenge before but I like it

I couldnt handle it!!

Nice work

2020-12-20 20:48#280118 Dave_Finny : Really good story. You are about as diplomatic as me when it comes to player management!!

Good read, enough detail. Enjoyed it. I havent heard of the challenge before but I like it

I couldnt handle it!!

Nice work

Cheers! Yeah I definitely haven't got the hang of not turning my players against me just yet.

I think the challenge should be fun. The British & Irish players only rule doesn't really change much at this level, but when I take over a Premier League club and have to sell over half the squad and replace them with British players in the first transfer window, then we'll see how difficult it is.

February 2021


Martyn Harries, our good young left winger, was upset that I didn’t keep a promise that the previous manager made to sign some players to help him settle at the club, whatever that means. I didn’t even know about this promise, but I guess it’s still somehow my fault? So that’s now both of my left wingers who are unhappy. Wonderful.

Cambrian & Clydach (11th) vs Llanelli Town (3rd) – JD Cymru South

Another game, another Jamie Jenkins brace. We looked a bit suspect defensively here, but going forward we’re absolutely deadly, and scoring some great goals. William Wang even got an assist! I took both wingers off and went to a flat 5-3-2 on about the 70 minute mark, and we looked a lot more defensively solid, so that might be something we can look to against the better teams or to hold on to narrow leads. League leaders Swansea Uni were held at home by Llantwit Major, so we cut our deficit to just five points with ten games to go. This is doable.

Llanelli Town (3rd) vs Pontypridd Town (12th) – JD Cymru South

This was rubbish, it reminded me of my debut match against Risca, where we just hardly created anything. When Jamie Jenkins turned up looking complacent and nothing I said to him pre-match made a bit of difference, I knew it was going to be a bad day. Jordan Follows had a header late on that went agonisingly past the post seemingly in slow motion, but other than that we never really looked like scoring here, but neither did Pontypridd. Second placed Carmarthen beat Swansea Uni, so we had a chance to go two points from top if we won here, but even with the draw we’ve cut it down to four.

Port Talbot Town (4th) vs Llanelli Town (3rd) – JD Cymru South

If you look at the stats, you might be fooled into thinking this was a close game. I tried to be clever by starting with the back five, but after having literally ZERO shots after 35 minutes, I made two substitutions and reverted to the 3-5-2. Well, after about 70 minutes we had still only had one shot, so I sacrificed a midfielder to go to a very attacking 3-4-3. We created much more in the last 20 minutes or so but it was too little too late. I’m angry with myself for showing Port Talbot too much respect and trying to change what had largely been working, and I think I’ve single-handedly put us out of the title race. The gap is back to seven points yet again, with only eight games to go and Carmarthen not looking like dropping points any time soon, having won their last nine league matches on the bounce. I feel like we’ll have to win every single one of our remaining games to even be in with a shout, but I’m not sure even that would be enough. I would try holding a team meeting to rally the players but I just know they’d end up getting angry with me as usual, the muppets.


So apparently Carter wants to commit his future to the club now. Over my dead body.

Manager’s Player of the Month

I’ll probably go with the goalkeeper Callum Lenton. He’s been really solid ever since signing, and while he hasn’t exactly been amazing this month, neither has anyone else. Judging by his match ratings he’s certainly been the most consistent over the last three matches.

March 2021


Oh no.. what have I done?

Llanelli Town (4th) vs Risca United (16th) – JD Cymru South

We got the win but anything less would have been a catastrophe. Annoyingly, Carmarthen were losing but turned it around to win, and keep the gap at seven points.

Ammanford (15th) vs Llanelli Town (4th) – JD Cymru South

Solid win here, albeit one that we would have expected. The real interesting thing is that Carmarthen dropped points, so the gap is now down to five points with six to play. And guess what? We’ve still got to face Carmarthen, in the first match of next month. Unfortunately it’s not just Carmarthen we have to catch, as Swansea Uni and Port Talbot are both in with a shout as well. It’s shaping up to be a real four horse race, unless we mess up and lose any of our next two games. They’re games we should be winning, but they’re both against teams fighting for survival, so who knows.

Youth Intake




Although it may look like we have our very own class of ’92, it’s really nothing to get that excited about and I won’t bother showing you anyone other than Nathan Jenkins, for three reasons. One, five star potential for a team our size isn’t necessarily that amazing. Two, we probably don’t have the facilities to help them reach their full potential anyway. And three, I won’t be at Llanelli long enough for any of them to break into the first team, apart from maybe Jenkins. Jenkins is pretty good, but I’m not quite sure what kind of midfielder he is.

Llanelli Town (4th) vs Goytre United (13th) - JD Cymru South

Well, this is it guys, there’s no coming back from this one. We were torn apart on the break multiple times early on and were 3-0 down after 25 minutes. We both created so many chances, to the point where it could easily have been something crazy like 9-6. It really reminded me of the Manchester United vs Leeds match from yesterday (as I write this) where we both just went at each other’s throats and the more clinical team won. All that being said, our defenders were still nothing short of pathetic, but that’s partly on me for playing a back three with very little cover out wide, although they normally cope much better than this. Ordinarily I would have shored things up a bit after it was apparent that they kept carving us open, but we needed nothing less than a win to stay in the title race, so the only thing I could do was to go even more attacking and hope we could get four goals unanswered. All credit to Goytre, who look like they will survive relegation now after this result.

Llanelli Town (4th) vs Llantwit Major (11th) - JD Cymru South

Absolute rubbish. We couldn’t finish our dinner. I tried changing to a 4-4-2 but no dice. I just want to get this season over with now.

Manager’s Player of the Month

Tyrone Ofori. Two goals and an assist.

League Table



Fixtures for April & May


Four matches left, and we’ve got a job on to stay in fourth. If you ask me right now, I’d say we’ll probably finish sixth, but if you offered me that when I took over I wouldn’t have been too upset. We’ve got to play Briton Ferry who are currently sixth, so that will be a big game. Cheers guys.

A disappointing couple of results... It's just about finishing as high as possible now and ensuring that the form doesn't continue as it has recently.

April 2021

So we’ve come to the end of our first season with Llanelli. We’ve been disappointing recently but let’s hope we can end the season strong and clinch fourth place, and who knows, maybe even higher (yeah right).

Carmarthen Town (1st) vs Llanelli Town (4th) – JD Cymru South

This wasn’t too bad, considering we were away to the team who will almost certainly win the league. It was pretty even all things considered, with their xG being padded by their late penalty. The only thing that stings a bit is the fact that they are our local rivals.

Llanelli Town (4th) vs Taffs Well (7th) – JD Cymru South

Not the most entertaining game, but we’ll take the win to end our losing streak. Backup striker Nathan Logan came off the bench to make his first appearance since I arrived, and scored a lovely goal to win the match. Because of results elsewhere, the lowest we can now finish is fifth, and a win in our next match clinches fourth.

Briton Ferry Llansawel (6th) vs Llanelli Town (4th) – JD Cymru South

On the surface it looks like a draw away to the team in sixth is a decent result, but they’re fourteenth in the form table. Disappointing result especially as we could have secured fourth place. As it stands we’re two points ahead of Cwmbran Celtic, with a worse goal difference, so if we fail to win our final match we could drop down to fifth.

Manager’s Player of the Month

Ben Harriott has been good at centre back, but I’m going to give it to Lewis Redding. He went through a spell of unrest earlier in the season, but he’s happy again and he’s had a good month, getting a goal and an assist from the left wing.

May 2021

Lots of players will be leaving at the end of the month, but we’ve tied down a few to one-year extensions. Among those players are Jordan Follows who has cut his wages from £160/w to £65/w, club captain Jordan Davies who has cut his wages from £140/w to just £30/w, and young striker Calum Morgan, who scored an unbelievable 41 goals in 36 starts for the under-19s. Oh, and William Wang too.

Llanelli Town (4th) vs Afan Lido (12th) – JD Cyrmu South

Our disappointing end to the season ends disappointingly. To be fair, they’ve been on really good form recently and on the balance of play we deserved to win, so it’s not a bad performance really. We needed the win to guarantee fourth place, but did results elsewhere go our way?

League Table


Port Talbot beat Cwmbran Celtic, so we managed to hold onto fourth place by the tips of our fingernails. Interesting to note that Goytre United, who I said were almost certain to stay up after they beat us, ended up getting relegated. As it turns out, their 5-2 win over us was their only win in their last ten games of the season. I feel like Man Utd losing to Arsenal.

Manager’s Awards

Manager’s Player of the Season
I’m going to go with Tyrone Ofori. There’s no doubt in my mind that if the loanee had been here from the beginning of the season he would have been our top scorer. What sets Ofori apart from Jamie Jenkins is that, even if he wasn’t scoring, he was making a telling contribution to the team. Great season from him and I’ll be trying desperately to get him back next season.

Manager’s Young Player of the Season
This one and the signing of the season are interchangeable. I’ll give this one to Tom Wright. He had a tough job being at the heart of our back three, but he was consistently solid. His form dipped towards the end but then so did everyone’s

Manager’s Signing of the Season
Callum Lenton. It was a good season for the goalkeeper. He played every second of every game since he came in, and hardly put a foot wrong.

Manager’s Donkey of the Season
Anyone who has been reading this should be able to guess who this will be. Sam Carter. He kicked up a fuss when I dared to sign another centre back and was awful whenever he came into the team since then. I’ll be glad to see the back of him.

Manager’s Team of the Season
GK- Callum Lenton
CB – Daniel Alfei
CB – Tom Wright
CB – Ben Harriott
RM – Andy Kanga
CM – Joe McWilliam
CM – Ryan Scholes-Beard
CM – Ross Morgan
LM – Lewis Redding
ST – Tyrone Ofori
ST – Jamie Jenkins

Season Awards







Season Review

Overall, I’m feeling kind of indifferent about this first season. It was a bit disappointing not to put up more of a fight for promotion, but I did take over part way through, with no pre-season, and made multiple new signings on a shoestring budget with no time to really bed them in. I’m confident that if I can bring in some players and think up a new tactic, I’ll be able to win Llanelli Town the title next season. If I don’t, I’m not sure I’ll stay on for another year, but we’ll see.

Challenge Progress


I’m gonna put this graphic up at the end of each season just to keep track of my progress. Hopefully it doesn’t stay empty forever.

A decent first season in charge all-in-all and hopefully a base to work from heading into next season.

Please tell me that William Wang's squad number is 69.

2020-12-22 11:00#280157 Harleygator : Please tell me that William Wang's squad number is 69.

Unfortunately we're so bad we're not allowed squad numbers at this level. But yeah, as soon as I can I'll be giving Wang the 69.


I'll be doing the transfer window tonight, so the next update will probably be some time tomorrow. I've done one piece of early business which I might as well share now.


We've also had this piece of news.

This past season our budget was £1.5k and our wage bill £1.8k, and this next season the budget is £1.9k with our wage bill at only £1.0k at the start of the window. There's definitely enough money to work with this summer.