A New Start - Holmesdale FC (Level 1)

[talisman]

First Win!

The Management got stuck in a traffic jam so couldn't attend the Cup 2nd Leg match this morning, but he needn't have worried as the team produced a superb performance to qualify for the next Round. The defensive woes that befell them yesterday were not apparent as debutant Allan Lunan helped keep a clean sheet, and left-winger Akim Todd and right-back and MoM Jack Lamb scored to seal a 2-0 win and tie aggregate of 3-1.



Build, build, build

Later on in the morning, the Seating Upgrade finished, giving the Holmesdale Stadium a 600 capacity. Next to be built was a much-needed Utility facility, Portable Toilets. These cost $3k (down from $4k) and will take 4 hours (instead of 3 days) to build.

More Transfer Activity.

The Management visited the Transfer Market, and seeing a useful tri-role defender, joined the list of bidders, and also put a bid in on another, lower-Quality, two-role defender in the same market, as a backup in case of losing the first auction. In the event, both auctions were won, and both players have joined the squad. As a result, the final two retiring players, defender Vitaly Frank and midfielder Andy Gratton, were sacked in order to reduce player wage costs.

Behnam Hajeb: 1T, $121k



Adrian Maidana: 6T, $127k



The Management is looking at his training options and will report back soon...

[talisman]

Day 3

The League constitution and Fixtures were released overnight, and the Management made his usual first glance over the opposition.



All teams are managed and all but three of them are new teams for this season, the other three teams were started last season and failed to promote.

Stadium construction.

With the final Seating upgrade complete, Holmesdale now have an 800-capacity stadium, the maximum for this Level. Next to be built were the Floodlights, costing 10K and taking only 15 minutes to build ($15k and 3 days), then the Scoreboard - $1k and 5 minutes construction time ($2k / 3 days) - was completed before the first League match was due.

First League Match

Heading away to one of the returning teams in the League, Holmesdale had a slight advantage in Quality, and they used it to record a 2-1 win, both strikers getting on the scoresheet. Midfielder Daley Forrester became the first player to record a caution during a match, his foul resulting in the free-kick from which the hosts equalised, late on in the match.



Stadium construction redux...

With each of the stadium complex facilities having been upgraded once, the next logical step would be to upgrade the stadium itself, but this would be pointless at this time because the 1000-capacity of the next level stadium would not be fully utilised. It should be noted that under the new Construction arrangements, it has taken Holmesdale a total of 32 hours 25 minutes ($145.5k) over three days to get to the same point that would have taken 37 days (ie 1 season and 9 days) ($190.5k) under the old regime. While it could be argued that you don't need to do all the construction as quickly as has been done here, the faster things get built and upgraded, the better it is for the team, in reaping the benefits of the upgraded pitch reducing injuries, and the accumulation of more of the red and green packs, faster, from the Medical and Training facilities.

With that in mind, there are facilities that can be upgraded without upgrading the stadium, so a start will be made on those. The Youth faciity can be upgraded to Level 3 in 2 days (was 3 days) now, and as two new players were to be available in 26 days from the Level 0 facility and will be available in 24 days from the upgraded facility, the Management would lose nothing by upgrading this now, so a decision was taken to pay the $23k (was $32k) to get the upgrade going.

[A spreadsheet is being compiled with all the new upgrade costs/times and this will be made available in due course for all concerned]

Finances

Despite all the Squad and Stadium expenditure and only one home match so far, Holmesdale still have $4M in the bank: