Magician's Dover Saga | S4E13 Do-O-Ver

Christmas break is over.
It is time to make progress on and off the pitch by collecting more points and fixing the financial problem.
On Saint Stephen’s Day we beat MK Dons 3–0.


Then we won against Port Vale 4–1, coming from behind. This was our last match of the year.


Then on 1 January, Karl Robinson, our assistant manager, took a job as West Brom manager. This resulted in a lot of issues with the game crashing in the later stages, but the latest patch fixed that problem.
The same day we received a reminder that we are failing Financial Fair Play again.




The good news is that the squad morale is still good.


The transfer window opened again and, as usual, we kept getting offers for Finn Mahar. This time it was Leeds with £975k plus add-ons, but I rejected it. Someone must be sold, but I didn’t want it to be him.

Then we added a win against Newport, 4–0.


We also received an extra £75k from the Kamara deal as he played 20 matches.

It was time to face Stockport at home in the FA Cup. It was 0–0 after 90 minutes, but I thought we had been the better team and decided to go more attacking. It paid off as we scored in the 118th minute. The FA Cup has been a successful campaign this season, but I also really like the prize money that comes with it. This time we cashed in £126k.


On the 8th I decided to sell Owen Dodgson to Luton for £600k. It was mostly to reduce the wage imbalance, and his contract was also due to finish, so it was better to capitalize now than lose him for free.


Then the London Emanalo offers started coming in, firstly from Brighton and Blackburn at £1.1 million plus add-ons. I increased the asking fee, which resulted in both teams cancelling their offers. Obviously it made London unhappy, but I have mentioned to the players many times that he can leave at the end of the season, not now.

We got back on the pitch to play Blackpool, who were sitting in 3rd position. Surprisingly they are doing very well this season, especially as they have also just been promoted. As always, they are tough opponents, but we came away with a 1–0 win.


Brighton then came back with an improved offer for Finn, but unfortunately it still wasn’t good enough, so I had it rejected. Eventually they gave up, and that was enough for Finn to stay.



The reason I don’t want to sell Finn is that he is really developing well.

Then our next opponent was Preston. It was a rather dominant performance from the team which led to a 3–0 victory. This was our 30th unbeaten match.

January 23 we headed to Wrexham to play them in the Vertu Trophy. We won 3–0 so we are going through.


Diop was in good form recently but he will be out for 6–8 days as he suffered a bruised thigh after landing heavily in training.

Then it was time to play Wycombe and this was another thriller. Overall we have been the better team so winning 4-3 was not a surprise.


Before the transfer window closed I sent backup goalkeeper Vicente Reyes to Dag & Red and backup right-back Federico Colombo to Maidstone on loan to take them off the wage sheet.

All of this for nothing as another report in February stated that we are failing Financial Fair Play again. My plan should have worked if not for the loanees who came back from their half-season loans.


Fulham have decided to make another offer for Finn. This story never seems to end, but while I’m here they will have to pay good money or stop irritating me with these nonsense offers.


Then it was Luton Town on our radar. Doggson was sold to Luton just a couple of weeks back and he was playing in that match. Well, he didn’t help them too much as we won 5–0.


Lucky for us, lower league teams in England can sign players all season long and Dag & Red decided to make a loan move for Marin Zgomba. He is not developing well and he will be out the door when the season ends even though he is only 23.


That is it — finally on 9 February we managed to overcome the financial struggle and the transfer embargo was lifted.



It just happened before our away FA Cup match against Swansea. They are second in the Championship so I expected to lose. But…



Diop was back and he decided to score a hat-trick in 20 minutes.


I decided to control the game since we scored three, but that didn’t stop the players from adding two more.




Just a friendly reminder during the half-time break to make sure we didn’t let this go was enough. But they were hungry and we kept scoring. Eventually the match ended 7–0.


I never expected this, but it is also fair to say that we have been very lucky with the draws this season as so far none of the big teams have ended up in our path.

This cup is all about money and we need it this season more than any other. We cashed out £144k.

Then we got another piece of good news that our fourth-round opponent will be Norwich.




Then we played Bradford and won 2–0. Again Diop was in top form again.


This was our 8th straight win and we were 22 points ahead of Bolton. It looks like we can pull off another promotion. Why I’m not surprise.

IMPORTANT
The game crashed a couple of times. These are the results from the first simulation.

I played Millwall and in the first simulation we won 2–0, but the game crashed during the Mansfield match.

Because the last save was from before the match, I had to play it again. In the second simulation we won 3–0.

After that we drew 2–2 with Mansfield and then won 2–1 against Leyton.

We then eliminated Norwich on penalties in the FA Cup and played Bolton. We were winning 1–0 when the game crashed again.

At that stage I thought it might be a skin issue, so I verified the game files and switched back to the original skin.

Later I learned the problem was actually caused by the assistant manager leaving for West Brom, and the developers had to release a patch to fix the assistant manager bug.













THIS ARE FINAL RESULTS
Our next home match was against Millwall. We conceded first but quickly equalized, and four minutes later we scored another. Then we scored a third in the 94th minute. Overall, it was a well-deserved victory.


Injuries are a problem this season and this time Mike Aidoo will be out for 1–2 weeks. It is a bit of a problem since we sold Dodgson, who was the only backup able to cover both wing-back positions.

We then travelled to Mansfield and won again. This time it was 3–1. This win got us into the play-off spots. We were already 25 points clear of second Bolton.


We added Landon Emenalo to the injury list as he is out with a calf strain for a couple of weeks. It wasn’t good news, but at this point we received a message that Bolton had dropped points and that meant we were going to be promoted to the Championship.


John sent me a message on the 27th of February saying that he is setting new budgets since we got promoted.


When all the excitement settled down we were back on the pitch to play Leyton Orient. We quickly scored four goals and the match was effectively over. They did get a goal back and created chances in the second half, but we defended well enough to get a 4–1 win.


Oh, another injured player joined the injuries club. This time it was James Scanlon, out for a couple of days with a tight groin.
For the first time in months we received a monthly financial update which stated that we comply with Financial Fair Play.

On top of that I got the award for Manager of the Month. A good reminder of how well my team has been playing.


I have organized a small celebration for the players after promotion by taking them to a restaurant. Well, I may have taken them there, but John was paying for it.

I used that opportunity to talk a bit about our upcoming game with Norwich. They have been sitting in 10th position in the Premier League, but their squad doesn’t have much better players as us so I would say they can be beaten.

While we were enjoying the meal there were matches being played, and it turned out Bolton lost again. That result was decisive and made us champions as well.


When it came to the Norwich match I could not use some of the injuries players as well as Iu Martínez who was suspended.

That didn't stopped us from wining it. We scored a goal in the 54th minute thanks to Finn and then switched to control mode. It turned out to be enough and we are going to the next round. This also resulted in extra cash, and this time it was £270k. More money, fewer problems.




After beating Norwich we had to play Bolton in the Vertu Trophy. The match ended 1–1 but we lost on penalties.


I thought we should win this, but our concentration dropped and they scored a lucky goal in the 86th minute, giving them the draw. Penalties are often a lottery so I try to avoid it at all cost. This time the luck was on their side.
It would have been nice to win a cup, but I guess we have been doing so well in the league that I couldn’t be angry with the players.