Lower League Diaries II - Erith & Belvedere

Most stories in FM12, mine included, were about the user in the game, taking over from Sir Alex Ferguson or Brendan Rogers to carry on where they left off, but this story will be about the technical side of Football Manager. I'm not saying I'm close to being good at LLM, but I believe I know enough to post

Lower League Managment (LLM, for short) has always been a touchy subject - some people love it, others hate it, but everyone agrees that if you can conquer LLM, you are better than most in the FM world.


I downloaded a database from this very website that gave me access to the 9th tier of English football (Regional County Leagues). My choice for a team to bring to the top is Erith & Belvedere. Basically, I just liked their logo and I took a leap of faith. Thankfully, my stadium is already decent sized, but we'll need to get ownership of it soon enough. Not too soon though, because I can't possibly afford it.


Erith & Belvedere F.C., established 1922, is a football club representing Erith, in the London Borough of Bexley. They are currently members of the Kent League Premier Division after being relegated from the Southern League Division One East in 2005. They were also founder members of the Corinthian League in 1945.

I've put my real nationality in-game, along with Belgium as my second nationality to increase the scouting knowledge in the country. A very good country to choose in Norway. They have the best coaches for the cheapest wages.

I've selected almost all the nations, and made the important ones playable. The Brazilian and Dutch leagues have been made playable on purpose because the 15-16 year old wonderkids that cost nothing and are willing to come to the lower leagues.

Good luck Akash, will definitely be following. Although disappointed you didn't go for Maine Road!

As it clearly states, this season is just a learning experience. I am not aiming for promotion, and I'm surely going to spend the first 15 matches testing out various tactics. After all, we are a amateur club and I am going to need enough players to get me into the higher leagues without getting poached by the other clubs. I had no idea we had three cups to look forward to. The money we'll make off a good cup run is unmatched. I'm very happy with the news of the Kent cups.

Next job - Signing staff.

2013-01-18 18:13#77799 manchesterblue97 : Good luck Akash, will definitely be following. Although disappointed you didn't go for Maine Road!

To be honest, Erith & Belvedere > Maine Road FC.

To be honest Maine Road FC > Manchester United

Hey akash. I tried to create a discussion forum for the LLM in the Challenges folder.
You can check it. Maybe we should talk there as well.
I play now for 3 years with Witney Town. I started unemployed untill I was hired by a club.
Sadly there are many bugs in the game after you promote to the 8th tier.
Woeful contract negotiations, the board increases the wage budget to 0, you don't play in the FA Cup anymore, the board expectations remain to the 9th tier division. I won promotion from the Hellenic Premier Division to the Southern Premier....etc and the board keeps pretending that I should learn from the experience from the Hellenic Premier Division.
It's also to easy to sign good players on amateur contracts when you are in the 9th tier.
I wrote all these problems in that folder.
Sadly erimus, the creator of this extension said that it's a problem at FM.
It's sad because I always choose the lowest division but this season we have way to many bugs in order to play in the 7th-9th tiers. Not much fun.
Last season at FM 12 the extension worked million miles better!

Great start Akash, I will be following.
Good luck

Here two link to these problems.
I started the discussion
http://www.fmscout.com/q-7680-Contract-negotinations-English-8th-tier.html

http://www.fmscout.com/a-fm13-data-england-level-9-plus-real-club-and-competition-names.html

First order of business - getting an assistant manager who has some sort of talent. I go into the staff search and have to decide what attributes I want to pick as a filter. My choice - Tactical knowledge, Judging Player Ability, Motivating, Man Management and Working with Youngsters, in no real order.

Tactical Knowledge - This one helps you with the opposition instructions.

Judging Player Ability - We all love out team reports in the start of the game, and "Assistant Reports" in the squad list, don't we? Pretty self-explanatory. He will judge the abilities of your players.

Motivating and Man-Management - This is what decides how accurate your assistant manager's team talks suggestions are.

Working With Youngsters - Because my team cannot afford an Under-18 coach, the assistant manager takes over the responsibility, and this attribute helps you decide whether or not, your assistant manager is good enough to handle it.

My current Ass Man had amazing discipline and determination, but pretty shit everywhere else. My choice as his replacement isn't spectacular but is very well balanced. He is what the club needs.

2013-01-18 18:31#77803 vladsofro : Hey akash. I tried to create a discussion forum for the LLM in the Challenges folder.
You can check it. Maybe we should talk there as well.
I play now for 3 years with Witney Town. I started unemployed untill I was hired by a club.
Sadly there are many bugs in the game after you promote to the 8th tier.
Woeful contract negotiations, the board increases the wage budget to 0, you don't play in the FA Cup anymore, the board expectations remain to the 9th tier division. I won promotion from the Hellenic Premier Division to the Southern Premier....etc and the board keeps pretending that I should learn from the experience from the Hellenic Premier Division.
It's also to easy to sign good players on amateur contracts when you are in the 9th tier.
I wrote all these problems in that folder.
Sadly erimus, the creator of this extension said that it's a problem at FM.
It's sad because I always choose the lowest division but this season we have way to many bugs in order to play in the 7th-9th tiers. Not much fun.
Last season at FM 12 the extension worked million miles better!

Oh damn! Thanks for the heads-up, vladsofro. I had no idea. Just checked all the links you sent me and now the 8th tier looks impossible. No issue, will just move on to a better team when the team gets impossible to manage. Maybe going to a different league and then coming back into the BSN/BSS. Very disappointed really. I was planning to get Erith and Belvedere up to the big leagues.

Anyway, thanks for the heads-up again, and if I somehow find a solution, I'll be sure to let you know!

With the Assistant Manager out of the way, it is time to deal with the other staff. According to my board, I'm allowed to have a coach, a physio, a 'Head of Youth Development' (Youth Coach, I guess) and 'Director of Football'. There are no DoFs "realistic" about coming to our club, so I'll keep checking throughout the season to see if that changes.

I'm sure most of you are aware about the DDM rule while looking at potential coaches. The three important attributes that define a coach are Discipline, Determination and Motivation. I'm still unsure about how training works in this edition of the game, but various attributes of the coaches determine the level (stars) for your coaching. At this level, it'll be difficult to get coaches that have a massive effect on coaching and have any meaningful stars added in the training column, but when I consider asking my board to improve my training facilites, I'l be sure to improve my coaches to atleast 14-15 in their respective category.

I'm excited to see how this story turns out. I'm intrigued by the idea of LLM but haven't the guts to try it yet.

A long way to go to the top but I'm sure you'll make it in no time Good luck mate!

I'll be following Akash!

These weren't the teams I should scheduled to face when I took over, and I quickly cancelled those friendlies. Why? Money!. When the club's estimated value is a massive £5k, a manager has to take any step necessary to make sure a profit is made. The four friendlies that I have organized have made us £350, £200, £250 & £190 respectively. Organizing another 20-30 friendlies for my reserves should be my next step (since they aren't part of any division), but for some reason, there aren't any available teams. I'll just try again when the season starts.

As for the performances, I let my assistant manager organize them, so I'm not sure how well we played. Yes, we won most of them, but those could've been against very average sides.

Next step: Introducing the Team.