Season 91 - Are you ready?

[talisman]

Desert Rats Summary, Day 28 the last...

Desert Rats FC won both their Association matches, helping the Association to a Final win, and promotion to Gold 2 for next season. The first match was a struggle, 1-3 down with an hour gone and nothing the Management did seemed to be able to turn the situation around, until he realised that if this was an abandoned team, then the stupid orders foisted upon it at the TM change would be in effect, so he changed to hard attacking... Using Normal mentality in the second match supplied the expected result against a -9%Q team. The final League match was the expected hard graft against a team that gave them a stiff trial the first time round, but the undefeated season was again secured with a couple of goals from Patrick Tillmanns.



Season Review.

In the League, Desert Rats started out as 5th Quality, but with a judicious bit of squad updating and their main challengers for the title slipping up in the early matches, they found themselves quickly at the top of the table and they didn't look back, dropping only four points with two away draws all season. The Top Players lists were also dominated by Rats players.



Desert Rats found themselves again inserted into a +1 Level Champions League, and having gone out at the Quarter-Final stage in the two previous seasons in similar circumstances, there was concern that the same would happen this season. Some miracles do happen, however, and the Management's adoption of an ultra-defensive formation when faced with a +1 Level team of superior quality won out on several occasions, and the last of three Level 9 clubs in the Level 10 Champions League competition ended the season with the Champions League trophy after a Penalty Shoot-out in the Final.



The Cup competition was a litle easier on the team, but the Rats fought their way through one or two difficult matches on their way to the Final, where they defeated a similar-Quality team in the Penalty Shoot-out after the Final finished all-square.



The playing squad saw gradual but comprehensive changes over the course of the season, 11 players joining the club and 10 leaving, including senior players Filip Andersson and Ireneusz Jezierski, and both goalkeepers. The final squad and stats are as follows, with their club record. Notable amongst these is the ever-present record of defender Bryce Brown, having played in every one of the clubs matches this season.



As last season, the Management has had a dilemma in chosing a Player of the Season. A week ago one player stood out, but suffered an injury and his main challenger took advantage to level the playing field, so again there is a joint award:



...and at this point, the Management would have dashed over to old_version (R.I.P.) for the club stats, so now you'll have to put up with the Player records culled from his Stats Spreadsheet...