FC Bristbury (English Team)

[John Naish]

Thanks, and the last one was on Friday. I think most of them went well, but I'll have to wait and see. I feel I'm setting too much of a precedent for success, that the fans will be bitterly disappointed if we finish second! On that front, at least I haven't named the club Manchester United though!

[Buffs Mad]

Yes, my side were wary of 'expectations' so we got a 2nd place finish in early to manage that.

Nice they're over, you can relax for a bit.

Good luck for S4.

[John Naish]

Great start to the season

I won't go through the qualifying matches of the Cup, but I will say that we went through on a 13-0 aggregate, so that should suffice to show how one-sided those two legs were!

We managed to win our first League match against friends K.Marasspor who finished second to us in season 2 and have been in the same League as us last season and this. Unfortunately for them, they have stayed at about 19.5 quality, whilst still being active. The Hedghogs however have soared to 30.6 quality, and so it was a rather simple 3-1 win away for Bristbury.

Later that same day we faced what looks to be an abandoned team in the Champions League, and have secured any goal difference decisions at the end of the group stage to be in our favour by thumping it home 12 times for a 12-0 win!

Today we had a couple of easy matches - first of which was at home against Anissa FC, which at the time looked abandonned, but has since been put back into order. We got the lead and then relaxed so as not to tire out too much - I have an MC and an ML out of action due to injury at the moment, meaning out of my midfielders the only ones who get relief are my 2 MR's, so they my remaining MC's and ML are pretty exhausted at the moment having had 4 days straight with two matches a day for the past 2.

The second match was the battle of the 4-4-2 classics, and between fairly equal teams as well. FC Bristbury on 30.6 quality, and our visiting opponents Ragil Fc on 30.4 quality, and if anything his starting 11 was better than mine. However he didn't watch the match and I managed to guess his tactics and adjust mine accordingly. The tired team pulled off a 3-1 victory, to put us in a strong position for the away leg of this Cup tie.

[John Naish]

Shock exit from the Cup!

Yesterday FC Bristbury faced Ragil FC for the away leg of the Cup. I was away for the match, but having won the home leg 3-1 I felt we were in a strong position to progress. I expected a tough match, and the other manager turned up and effectively fought to a 2-0 win. On a 3-3 aggregate FC Bristbury were knocked out of the Cup on the away goals rule, much to the disappointment of the fans and the players. Central Defender Sean Kelly gave his thoughts after the match: "Having won the home leg by a reasonable margin we didn't really think about the impact of that one goal we let through. It's gutting to be knocked out like this, but we deserved it - we allowed ourselves to become complacent. Now we will aim to win the League and Champions League double for the third season in a row."

Meanwhile, central midfielder Leandro Viera is being unfairly ribbed by the media for his comment that with Adriano Lourenco having been out due to injury for about 5 days, he and Dean Pritchard were "too tired to perform". Leandro and Dean, the fans would like to say that they think you've done a fantastic job and the press are out of order.

League fluctuations

This season's League is a more active one than FC Bristbury have experienced before. We finished the first day in 2nd on goal difference, but then after a goalless draw on the 2nd day we found ourselves in 5th. A win on the third day saw us climb to finish 5th after 3 days and then a win for us and a loss by our main rivals put us back to 2nd after 4 days. Having won our League game today, we will finish 1st if the team in 2nd lose, but if they draw we will have the same points but will be in second due to goal difference. If they win we will trail behind them in second by 2 points.

Finally, I now have some tokens, so expect to see between 1 and 3 new players appearing in the next few days.

[John Naish]

New signing - Chalermwut Sahapol is to replace Dean Pritchard as one of our 3 central midfielders. The fans have grown fond of Pritchard after 3 whole seasons at the club - he was on the original squad list - and will be sad to see him go. The club wish him the best for the future, and he leaves in good spirits.





P.S. - I forgot to take a screenshot whilst still on the auction page, so all his stats have been reset. They were pretty encouraging though.

[John Naish]

First high score

Today we faced Alen FC in the League. We were by far the home favourites and we showed it, even with half our second team out instead of the first team! Leandro Viera took full advantage of his first shot on goal, 4 minutes in slamming it home. Apart from a 2-day injury to our new MC, Chalermwut Sahapol at 26 minutes in and a goal from Alen FC at 69 minutes in everything went FC Bristbury's way! All in all we romped home to a very satisfying 8-1 lead, meaning we retain the second position and are trailing first by 2 points still.

[John Naish]

Opponents take on reversed roles

Today FC Bristbury played two matches, and neither of which went as expected.

The first was a League match against bottom half team Sabangau FC, who are an average quality of 20.5 to my 31.6. This did reflect quite accurately their match average. They were playing what I interpreted to be a 4-5-1 V and 3-5-2 V hybrid - they had a back row of 4 and then the normal V shape, however instead of an AMR they had an extra striker. In honesty I don't really know how it should be interpreted for the purposes of countering. but anyway, I normally counter 4-5-1V with 4-4-2 classic, which is my normal formation anyway so I decided to stick with it. Nothing really happened until 26 minutes in when we took the lead with a goal from Adriano Lourenco, but then they equalised in the 39th minute. We were at loggerheads from then until the end of the match apart from a brief spell after half-time when we managed to score the winning goal. End result a win, and the players proved that they can make the most of the chances they get, but still slightly disappointing. However, due to a 1-1 draw for the League leaders, we are now equal on points and only trail them by 2 on goal difference. I can forsee FC Bristbury gaining the lead in the League in the next few days.

Our second match of the day was against Ismail FC who we drew against 2-2 when we played them away 2 days ago. Then it was 4-4-2 vs. 4-4-2, and toady he had changed a striker for an AMC. FC Bristbury played the 4-4-2 classic again, but with altered orders and slightly different players. And it looked very much like we were headed for a clean sheet when we were 4-0 up at 79 minutes. But in the 80th minute they managed to score a consolation goal, despite the best efforts of our defenders. Special mention should go to one of our strikers Jake Thompson who assisted 3 of the our 4 goals and scored the other one in this match. He has been deservedly rewarded with the Man of the Match reward and a match off. Also to centre and right back Jonny Wheeler who celebrated his 133rd appearance for the club today, and looks set to get that to at least 200 before he retires. This is his 4th season with us - he joined as an 18 year old at the beginning of season 1 and has stuck ever since - and he will definitely get a full 5th season if not a 6th as well.

Finally, this win in the Champions League today pretty much guarantees that FC Bristbury will take a spot in the knockout rounds - we are leading the group with 10 points - second are on 5 and 3rd on 4. Realistically although both could finish above me, 3rd would have to do so on goal difference, and they are currently on -16 compared to FC Bristbury's +16.

[John Naish]

New Jerseys

After consultation with the board, it was agreed that after 3 consecutive League titles, 2 consecutive Champions League and League doubles, and with the World Cup starting today, FC Bristbury should update their jerseys. However, it was decided that the same colour scheme of green and red for the home jersey and red and black for the away jersey should remain the same, although the shades could be altered. And so, our new jerseys are showcased below along with our original and current logo. They will also shortly be updated on the original post, along with any other out of date pictures.

[John Naish]

Notable new signing

There have been no updates for a while - apologies for that, but there has been not much of interest to report. Later this I will post an update on our current standings and today's matches, but for now here is a brilliant young striker bought from the market for just 3 tokens and well below his market value. He will replace Michalis Labrou who is retiring at the end of the season, but for sentimental reasons, Labrou will stay at the club for the rest of the season, and will play in a few less important matches. I give you 18 year-old striker, Fabio Pedro from Portugal:



Nipped in at the last second of that knockout round having bid early in the preceding ones. This surpirsed the other bidder left in meaning that FC Bristbury won him.



Need to adjust skills a bit, but he looks decent, and not far from a sixth star.



Looks like he was an academy player from a higher level team.

[John Naish]

Knocked out of Champions League

Today we had the second and home leg of the Champions League Round of 16. We faced new moreira campeao. In the away leg we had lost 2-1 to them - they played an odd 4-5-1 V / 3-5-2 V combination - take 4-5-1 V and make the AML a striker. I didnt know how to counter it, so eventually settled on an equally odd formation before the match. during the match however, it was clear that this would not work and so I changed it about to try an find a reasonable conventional formation. It looked like they were going to win 2-0 but in the 87th minute Adam Wright scored a consolation goal. His first team is close in quality to that of FC Bristbury and he did have 6 friends supporting him in addition to him watching the match, so he had +7 % possession, despite my attendance and the full stadium.

What's interesting is that he played a friendly against FC Bristbury with exactly the same formation straight after the Champions League match. That also finished 2-1 to him. As did both the legs of the Champions League match up. What's even more interesting is not only that in each of these both of the opponent's goals came first, but FC Bristbury's consolation goals all came after 80 minutes. In the first and second legs it was at 84 and 87 minutes respectively, and in the friendly it was at 89 minutes. Just seems strange that the score would be identical in all 3 matches, the goals in the same order, and all of FC Bristbury's goals after 80 minutes.