Reader, I must apologise for the slowness in this update – look at me pretending anyone is actually reading this!
But still, it looks like ten days has passed us by with no news of life at Stafford Town – and you would be right to be worried that five seasons have been completed and I’ve forgotten to write about them.
Not a bit of it – it’s been one of those weeks. And by one of those, I mean (deep breath): our autistic dog taking up lots of headspace, a flat tyre on the car that needed an emergency callout (to the RAC who I am with and, it turns out are less use than an autistic dog in this situation) and the dude who did turn up (non-RAC, had to pay extra to go elsewhere and actually get someone to us in less than the proposed 8 hours) took two hours to change it because, apparently, old Range Rovers are a bit of a bastard when it comes to changing wheels. Oh, then the house we rent had water coming through the skirting boards, my new cricket bat broke within an hour of using it in nets and Luton conceded a goal to Arsenal two minutes after the match should have been over.
Yeah, one of those weeks.
But, naturally, I have managed to get some FM time in – so this is where we are now at (which is November, 2025).
Heading into the first season at Division 8 level, we were predicted by the bookies to finish just above the relegation zone – sounds good to me.
The recruitment plan was solid – back the players I have (hopefully not losing too many) and make quality additions on top – who won’t walk straight into the team as I want to focus on cohesion initially and slowly drip feed in “better” players into the side. Again, the players focused on were predominantly the players being released by the local-ish clubs (to quote the amazing Bryan’s Gunn – your Stokes, your Port Vales, your Burtons, your Derbys etc etc) and then go further afield if needed.
As a result, 12 came in.
Of those, none have really made an impact in the side yet – mainly due to a lack of opportunity. Campbell has done bits off the bench and I think Wilson got an important assist for a last-minute winner. Kai Churchley had an early run in the side but is now back warming his backside.
All this is mainly as we only lost one player – Braden Webb, a backup CB/LB. Everyone else is still with us and, to be fair, doing well enough to remain first-choice in their positions.
Before we go into the results so far this season, I want to look at the tactic and a couple of tweaks that have been made after reading this by View From the Touchline (which is Cleon, one of if not the best tactical explainer FM has ever seen).
My tactical approach in FM is typically nick a good idea from elsewhere then tweak it as I go either with ideas I have or other ideas I nick from somewhere else – not that different to how coaches work in the real world, I can assure you.
For this save, I wanted to try and revisit the classic Strikerless formation from way back in FM14 when I really started playing the game again properly and it was the tactic that I used to take Torrevieja to La Liga. It was fun, real fun. 4-3-3-0 basically. All narrow, loads of overloads, overlaps and underlaps.
This is what it looks like in its current form.
Nothing that revolutionary in the instructions and the changes I have made to the player roles are inspired by the piece I mentioned. I only need one ball-playing CB – who needs two, really? So that’s the left-footed one – we have to have a left-footed player in that position now even if it means playing a LB there. In fact, all my FBs are now being training as CBs and all my CBs are being trained as FBs to try and give me as many options and flexibility as possible.
The next tweak was to have the LB to play narrower – and yes, I do feel like we are tighter defensively in transition now and also overloading attacking central areas better. I’ve also asked the RB to stay wider for balance.
The DLP/S is now an old favourite of mine, the RPM as suggested in Cleon’s piece – to complement that I have changed the CAR/S in the LCM spot to a BWM/S and I’m really impressed with that role to be honest.
5 clean sheets in the ten games since that tweak – 23 goals scored and only one game where we failed to score (2.3 GPG)
That’s compared to 4 clean sheets in the 14 games before that – 36 goals in 14 at 2.5 GPG which is slightly higher.
Trust me, it just feels better and the football looks better.
Some results – we started the season with the FA Cup, so we shall begin there.
We fell one stage earlier than the season before, but it was still a fine effort. That said, we really should have beaten E&B. But, we raised another £10k in prize money plus a fair bit on top for gate receipts.
Then there was the FA Trophy – a graduation from the Vase which we won last season.
This is where our real giant killing is happening this season. Farnborough are in the National League South (two divisions above us) and Kidderminster Harriers are in the National League! Leiston are National League North. These are proper, proper upsets.
And these upsets have led to various clubs approaching me to manage them – all have been turned down as none of them are the big Staffs Three (or four if I consider a move to Stafford Rangers a big enough jump currently).
So the cups have been kind so far, what about the league?
We were bloody awful at Belper. Oh, and don’t ask why Epsom & Ewell are in the Northern Premier Div One Midlands, whatever you do.
It’s all looking rather pretty, I must say. And I love seeing Browney as the second-highest average rating so far as he has been a changed player since being the RPM.
If I am reading these pizzas correctly, the larger the slice the higher percentile he is in vs other DMs in the league. I’d question the “pressures” one myself, as that’s not what I see on the pitch but hey ho, data.
This is the kind of thing I like and why I rarely pay too much attention to what the coaches or scouts say about a player.
Ever since I signed Colt when he was released by Mansfield, I’ve been told he’s not good enough.
Yet, he is currently our top scorer at the highest level we have played and this season is actually the first season he’s nailed down a regular starting position. 16 goals in 51 games isn’t exceptional but it is improving. Judge players by what they do on the pitch not what people say or think about them, that’s the lesson here.
Oh, a reminder on that – our entire backroom team at Stafford Town (two promotions, one FA Vase, currently top of the next division) is TWO OF US.
No physios, no coaches, no scouts, no DoFs, no analysts. Literally just me and Paul, and I’m not even that sure on him.
Training must be crap though, right?
They are the two most recent training weeks and we have an above 7.00 average for it – I’m happy with that.
We have to remember that we train twice a week and we’re not in a position where we are building value into these players – it is all about getting them capable of having an immediate impact and we are certainly achieving that with just the two of us. And our recruitment cannot be faulted so far.
Finances are, as always, very important to me.
And, even though I say it myself, I am a bit of a genius at it.
I think I’d dispute our finances being “OK” but hey.
Show me many more clubs at this level with this bank balance.
One of the really cool bit financially this season is that our player spend has not really gone up at all.
If you look through the appearance fees, the typical team (swap Graham out for Rowan Smith) our biggest match fee is £50 per game.
The lads on bigger fees aren’t really in the team yet. So our player spend hasn’t changed too much from last season.
This season to date, we’ve made £74K profit – only £24K of that is from prize money. Gate receipt and matchday income is nearly up to £100K this season in a few months – and you can see the expenses below.
I would still love to know what gets covered in “other”. You can see we really don’t spend much on much.
Compare that to the income.
We are in good shape.
Now we have six games before the new year – a critical period. If we can maintain this form over the next six, I think we have a very good chance of promotion again.
We haven’t had a look around Staffs for a while – what’s happening elsewhere?
In the Midland Premier (what we won last season), Chasetown are third and pushing for an instant promotion back.
Uttoxeter are bottom of the North West Counties, Newcastle Town are 16th.
At our level, in the Northern Premier Div 1 West – Leek are in the relegation zone (they were initially the club I was probably aiming at for my next job). Hednesford are mid-table and Hanley are 3rd, pushing for promotion.
Stafford Rangers are pushing for a second successive promotion, 6th in the Evo-Stick Premier and four points off the top.
Tamworth are bottom of the National League North – worth keeping an eye on, maybe? Robbie Simpson must be under pressure.
Port Vale are still struggling – League One relegation zone. Writing this, I’ve just seen the job is available again (so have applied again just in case). Marco Silva is the favourite for it, that’s how life works in FMlandia.
And Stoke, as ever, are mid-table Championship.
We continue!
