The British Steel Glory Hunter

Season 2

It’s been an eventful summer, with lots of outgoings and eight big signings. I’ll take you through those signings and a few other things, and then I’ll talk a bit about the upcoming season. The only departure of any real note was Martyn Harries, our seventeen-year-old left winger, to Bangor City in the Premier League. He’d wanted to leave since last season, and he wasn’t exactly amazing, so I wasn’t too reluctant to let him go. Apparently the fee we got for him broke the club record, and it’s understandable at a whopping £250.

Signings

Tyrone Ofori – free from Newtown

I already told you about this one, but I might as well show you him again. Ofori won my personal player of the season and the fans young player of the season last year while on loan, so I’m delighted to bring him in on a permanent basis. I’ll more than likely be playing with just the one striker this year unless things go horribly wrong, and I think Ofori is the likely first choice.

Sean Whaler – free transfer

He may be a natural right midfielder, but to me he looks perfect as a right back, and that’s where I’ll be playing him. He’s really well rounded and can fulfil his attacking and defensive duties equally well.

Jakob Priestman – free transfer

I decided I wanted a squad that could play multiple different systems, so I had to go out and find an attacking midfielder. There are some gaps in Priestman’s game, he doesn’t quite have the passing to be a playmaker or the finishing to be a shadow striker, but he’s still a very good player for this level. He can also play up front, so if I decide against using a system with an attacking midfielder he can still fit into the team.

Alun Webb – free transfer

A pretty solid right winger. He is lacking in the physical department and if I was being picky I’d like him to be slightly better at crossing, but he’s still pretty good, and he’s Welsh which is a positive considering about 90% of my signings have been English since I joined. If he turns out to be poor it’s not the end of the world, because we’ve still got Andy Kanga and William Wang in reserve.

Adam Allan – free from Afan Lido

A Scottish centre back who looks very good for sixteen, he’ll be third choice behind Harriott and Wright. I was unsure about this signing because I’m worried about playing a sixteen-year-old in the centre of my defence, but if you’re good enough you’re old enough I guess. Strangely, Afan Lido were happy to let him go on a free transfer. Maybe they needed him off the wage bill or they didn’t want to upset him by not letting him leave.

Reece Kendall – free transfer

This was a right ball-ache trying to find a left back, there just hardly seemed to be any available. Kendall isn’t bad, but I was probably hoping for better. We’ve got Harri Freeman to fall back on if Kendall turns out to be awful, but I don’t think he will.

Jordan Hickey – free transfer

As I said before, I wanted a squad that could accommodate multiple different systems, so a top quality defensive midfielder was on the agenda, and Jordan Hickey definitely fits the bill. As you can see he’s really solid, apart from maybe his positioning, and he can take a mean free kick too. He’s not just a defensive mid, and he’ll find himself operating as part of a midfield two more often than not, and he can also cover centre back and right back. Really happy with this one.

Eddie Brown – free transfer

You might be wondering why I’ve signed another striker if I’m only planning on playing one striker, and we already have Ofori, Follows, Jenkins and Priestman. Well, I’m planning on playing a 4-2-3-1 with Brown out on the left as an inverted winger or inside forward. He’s looked really good there in pre-season with three assists in three games, and once he finds his scoring boots I really think he could propel us to promotion. He was the bookie’s choice for both player and young player of the season, so it seems I’m not alone in that opinion.


All of those signings have placed us at the top of the table according to the bookies. Also one of our key players, Ross Morgan, wanted to leave following interest from Connah’s Quay in the league above, but I managed to convince him to stay by promising that we’ll win the league this season. So no pressure. Without trying to sound overly confident, I have to say that I’m very confident that we can do it this season. The only thing I can see being a stumbling block is this.


Because of the big clear-out, we now have no team leaders left. Really it’s probably the main reason why I gave Follows and Davies new contracts, because otherwise we’d have hardly anyone influential. Hanslow and Morris are both player/scouts I signed last season who will never even see the pitch, so they don’t really count. I tried dropping Follows’ agreed playing time to a fringe player but he wasn’t having any of it, so I’ve changed it back to important player to placate him. Realistically he won’t be getting that much game time, and I’m really hoping he doesn’t kick up a fuss about it. One of our only influential players being upset would be very bad, and if last season is anything to go by I’m sure it will happen.


One more thing I thought was worth showing. Sam Carter is now a manager, and he’s immediately gone into my worst opinion list. They’ve got that right.

Fixtures for August & September

We beat Undy Athletic in the first round of the cup during pre-season, and we’ve got a big test in the next round against long-time league leaders from last season Swansea University. Then it’s a fairly innocuous first couple months in the league, where most of our fixtures are against teams who finished mid-table last season, plus the one relegated team Aberystwyth. Ok guys, let’s hope for a title winning season.

August 2021

I somehow managed to close the word document where I do my writeups without saving, so I’ve lost the first half of this update. I could go through and write everything up with the same detail, but I haven’t played it for five days or so, so that wouldn’t be ideal as I usually write things as soon as they happen so they’re fresh in my mind. What I’m going to do is just give a brief recap of everything that happened up until I lost the word document, and then carry on as normal from there. Suffice to say, it hasn’t been a very good start. Before we get into the games, I’ve made two more signings, and Joe McWilliam has left the club.

Signings

Chris Marriott - free transfer

As I said before, it was a real struggle to find a decent left back, so when my scouts brought me this guy I had to snap him up. He looks good and has a lot of experience. Whether he or Kendall will be first choice, I don’t know yet.

Shiloh Remy - free transfer

I kept getting £0 offers from small clubs for Joe McWilliam which I obviously wasn’t going to accept, so eventually I got annoyed and ticked “reject all offers”. Of course, the very next day, Bangor City in the league above came in for him and the bid was automatically rejected, which caused McWilliam to become upset. Thanks FM. Luckily we’ve brought in a far superior replacement in Shiloh Remy. Our squad looks to be in great shape now.

Matches






Manager’s player of the month
Tyrone Ofori. He’s the only player who’s scored for us in the league, it’s got to be him really.

September 2021

Aberystwyth Town vs Llanelli Town – JD Cymru South

This is the last of the matches I played before I lost the word document. As I said, it’s not been a great start, one win in our first five league games.

Llanelli Town (8th) vs Port Talbot Town (4th) – JD Cymru South

Well my break from the game didn’t make my team any better. We’re now in the same position as we were when I took over last season, seven points off top.

Llanelli Town (10th) vs Cwmbran Celtic (8th) – JD Cymru South

This was more like it, although it could have gone either way up until we got our two late goals to kill the game off. Ofori continues his good goalscoring form, and Eddie Brown finally got his first goal for the club. I suppose it’s natural that it will take time for all the new signings to settle, especially as we don’t have any team leaders at the club.

Pontypridd Town (2nd) vs Llanelli Town (9th) – JD Cymru South

For the first time this season, we’ve won two on the bounce. This was a great result away from home against 2nd place. We’ve got Pontypridd away from home again in a few days in the cup, so we probably won’t even bother travelling home in between. Despite the fact that this result didn’t move us up in the league table and we’re still 9th, we’re now only two points off top. Very close league this season so far.

Pontypridd Town vs Llanelli Town – Nathaniel MG Cup 3rd round

Two matches away to Pontypridd, two wins. This one was somewhat less convincing, but we made eight changes from the league game to afford some game time to some of our squad players, so to beat the team who are third in the league is still a great result. Eddie Brown came off the bench to get the winner, so it looks like he’s really starting to find his feet now. The quarter final draw has happened and we travel away to JD Cymru Premier champions TNS. Well, it was fun while it lasted.

Briton Ferry Llansawel (16th) vs Llanelli Town (9th) – JD Cymru South

We end the month with a win against bottom of the table Briton Ferry. While anything less than a win would have been a disaster, I’m still happy with the manner of the win. Briton Ferry finished 6th last season, and this season they’re bottom with no wins after eight matches. Makes me feel a bit better about our lacklustre start.

Manager’s Player of the Month

I’m going to give it to Tom Wright. He didn’t play in the two defeats in the first two matches of the month, and since he came into the side we’ve only conceded two goals in four games and won all of them, with Wright getting a goal and an assist as well.

Awards



League Table

So after a shaky start, we finish September in a good position. I feel like everything is starting to fall into place now, and I’m confident that we’ll go onto win the league. If we don’t, then it’s a pretty damning indictment of my managerial ability, because with the players we have at the club we probably should be winning it.

Fixtures for October & November

Our next two matches are against the two promoted teams, so that should be another six points in the bag. We’ve drawn top of the table Penrhyncoch in the main cup, so that will be an interesting test to find out where we stand. We’ve also got TNS next month, who are the Bayern Munich of Wales, so I’m excited for that one.

October 2021

A bit of news before we get into the matches, I’ve started on my first coaching course, which should make me more attractive to other clubs when the time comes for me to leave Llanelli. That might not be for a while yet though, that depends on how this season goes.

Llanelli Town (4th) vs Rhayader Town (13th) – JD Cymru South

Rhayader went down to ten men early on in this match, and it was all one-way traffic from there. To tell the truth we didn’t actually create that much, and two of our goals were absolute belters from left back Chris Marriott, who has 3 finishing and 4 long shots. Still, a 3-0 win is a 3-0 win, and it puts us in 2nd place, only behind Port Talbot on goals scored.

Ton Pentre (13th) vs Llanelli Town (2nd) – JD Cymru South

Not the most exciting game, but a moment of quality from Eddie Brown got us the win. We’ve now won five league games in a row, and this result has put us top.


Both Jordan Davies and Jordan Follows have come to me wanting more game time. Realistically I can’t offer that to either of them, so I told them both that I’ll look to sell them. Davies decided he’d remain patient and wait for his chance, but Follows has decided that he wants to leave for the good of his career.

Llanelli Town vs Penrhyncoch – JD Welsh Cup first round

Good result in the first round of the cup considering we rotated seven players. This is the cup that we have to win as part of the challenge, but being a second division club I think it’s probably a bit of an unrealistic goal for this season. Beating fifth in the league with a rotated side is a nice confidence boost though, and we keep our winning run going. We’ve drawn Ruthin in the next round, who are in the Cymru North.

Llanelli Town (1st) vs Swansea University (7th) – JD Cymru South

They’re a good team, but they’re not on amazing form this season so this is a slightly disappointing result. It was a really tight game, with Eddie Brown getting our goal from an indirect free kick, and their equaliser coming from a direct free kick on the edge of the box. We probably deserved to win on balance, but a draw isn’t the end of the world.

The New Saints vs Llanelli Town – Nathaniel MG Cup quarter final

This was a fantastic result against the best team in Wales. We didn’t create much in the game and we had to dig in to take it to penalties, and we kept our nerve to win the shootout. While this isn’t the cup that we need to win for the challenge, this still gives me hope that we could win the Welsh Cup if we play to the best of our abilities. We’ve now got Bala in the semis, who are another very good team in the Cymru Premier.

Afan Lido (7th) vs Llanelli Town (1st) – JD Cymru South

This was a strange game, as we kept catching them out with long balls over the top, usually from Jordan Hickey. All three of our goals came from this tactic, as Alun Webb scored with two lovely finishes and Tyrone Ofori continued his good start to the season with another goal. Unfortunately, after such a good performance, Alun Webb picked up a groin injury which could keep him out for up to a month.

Manager’s Player of the Month
Alun Webb, Tyrone Ofori or Callum Lenton are all in with a shout, but I’m going to go with Jordan Hickey. Despite the fact that he’s set up to be the more defensive minded central midfielder, he’s made a total of eighteen key passes across his five games in October, which is considerably more than anyone else in the team. A great month from him.

Awards



In September I came third in the Manager of the Month award, and in October I came second. Maybe next month I’ll win it.

November 2021

Ruthin Town vs Llanelli Town – JD Welsh Cup second round

Annoying. In the cup I don’t care about I’m beating Premier league teams. In the cup I want to win I’m losing against crap. This was really bad and I don’t remember one chance of note. To be honest though, I never really expected to win this cup so as long as this result doesn’t ruin my players’ confidence then it’s not too bad.

Taffs Well (14th) vs Llanelli Town (1st) – JD Cymru South

Don’t let the xG fool you, this was absolutely awful. The injury time penalty was literally our only highlight of the game, and the player who was brought down was clearly offside so the penalty should never have been given. I guess we can count ourselves lucky that there is no VAR in the JD Cymru South. Despite the uninspiring performance, I’ll never complain too much if we get the three points, and this keeps us top, although Aberystwyth are matching us every step of the way and are still only behind us on goal difference.

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

So apparently a bunch of my players held a team meeting before this match and decided that it would be a great idea to just randomly get really nervous all of a sudden. If three or more of your players look nervous then you might as well just not bother turning up, and in the most unsurprising turn of events ever, we were awful. To add injury to insult, Eddie Brown picked up an injury that will keep him out for around five weeks. I’ve agreed a loan deal for another left winger because this leaves us with pretty much nobody in that position, but like the genius I am, I didn’t realise that the loan won’t go through until January. Step up Lewis Redding I guess. Hopefully this isn’t the start of a bad run.

Signing

Clayton Green – free transfer

I wasn’t looking for another signing, but this guy contacted me saying he wanted to be considered, and he only wanted £25 a week. It’s a no brainer really, even if we have too many midfielders. I may look to train Green up to be a centre back, or maybe play Jordan Hickey as a right back, I haven’t quite figured it out yet.

Manager’s Player of the Month
I guess it has to be Jakob Priestman for the two goals he scored against Penrhyncoch. It’s been a bad month and nobody really deserves it to be honest.

League Table

We have a game in hand on everyone else because our match against Cambrian & Clydach was postponed. We’re not in a bad position, but we really need Aberystwyth to stop winning every match sooner rather than later.

Fixtures for December, January & February

I’m going to do three months in the next update because they’re all relatively short months in terms of number of matches. Maybe I’ll just do two if there are lots of signings to report, but I doubt there will be. We’re starting to wobble a little bit, but hopefully we can get back on track starting with the Cambrian & Clydach match. I’m looking at that one-two of Port Talbot and Aberystwyth as potentially make or break games, and the fact that we lost against both of them the first time around doesn’t bode well. Thanks for reading guys.

So that thing I said in my first post about how I hoped writing a story would give me the motivation to play FM that I’ve lacked for the last few years? Yeah.. I think at this point I just like the thought of Football Manager more than actually playing Football Manager. So, after a whopping 47 matches, this epic adventure has come to an end. Cheers for reading guys, and I’ll see you all next year when I buy FM22 and try to do a Hexagon Challenge story and give up in the second season again.