Those morons at the FA… To quote a guy from the FM Central Facebook group, they wouldn’t know how to run the game if someone showed them how to word-by-word.

Folks, we’re still enjoying ourselves at our new job, and we’ve got a bit to cover leading up to the start of the January 2017 transfer window. Let’s get into it.

First match to cover was a 1-5 away win to Daventry. We felt pretty invincible, and following the wins from the last match update, it feels like things just might be starting to click. McEachran, the right winger, took Man of the Match with one goal, an assist, and some excellent play-making across the board.

This result sees us up to 15th in the league. As a reminder, we were eliminated from all cup competitions before I arrived here, so we’ve only got the league to concern ourselves with.

This next match was absolutely infuriating. The referee was absolute crap and I felt like he was horribly biased for the other team. Every instance where a call could be made against us seems to have been made, and there were some blatant screw-ups from Stourport ignored that ended up with us down two players by reds, we had five yellows, and to top it off we lost a guy to injury as well.

The only saving grace to this was the luck of a GK own-goal after he fumbled the ball and let it roll behind him. It took so long to roll so slowly and it was beyond the line for long enough that I was starting to feel concerned that the referee would – pardon my French – go out of his way to completely FUCK me over and not see it called a goal for some reason.

Here’s the recap article to show the cards. The first two cards were bad moves from my players, so fair enough. Then, Ben Gibbons got a SUPER harsh straight red for what my gut instinct said seemed like a fair move on his part. Two of my players went to his aide to challenge the ref, and that was met with an additional pair of yellow cards. Amazingly, we held our own with a man down, picked up our own goal, then Lawrence over there went and got himself a straight red. Not even a second yellow send-off. He had ungentlemanly conduct and the ref went straight to giving him a red card.

I felt like the first red was harsh, the post-match reaction thought it was harsh, and my assistant felt like I should appeal the red, so I went for it. Rodgers was going to get a stern warning for his send-off since he’d been screwing up before that, but I felt just in protesting on Gibbons’ behalf, so he got off clean from me.

Unfortunately, the FA gave it some thought and decided that I did not have valid cause to appeal the ban… Like hell I do! I feel like with that much uncertainty about the validity of the call I am well within my right to want an official review! I’m quite pissed off at this point, needless to say, but what can I do aside from walk away huffy and go get a drink with my assistant at the pub? This is such a realistic game.

Next match was a 2-1 win in a tight match against Tividale to see us jump up to 13th in the league. Following the clusterfuck that was the previous match and post-match, a result from a tight match has softened my rage a bit…

Next result saw a last minute concession to Westfied to drop all of our points from the match and a spot in the league table.

Well, after quite a while I can report back that I know have my Continental C license. It might be a while before I can work towards my B, though as the club is broke and our financial status recently fell to “Insecure” with us leaking out more money than I think I can recover right away,

Next match was a 2-1 win to Biggleswade Town to move up to 13th again.

The last match of the year, played on 30 December, was a 2-3 away win to Northwood. who were in the play-off spots. There was a last minute consolation from them, but at the end it was still an excellent performance against what was a strong and challenging team, so I feel like we’re ending 2017 on a high note, all things considered.

This is the league table, as of December 31, and we’re sitting in 12th right now, up from where we were when we started, now that we’re picking up a couple of wins, narrowing that goal difference, and finally seeing some of the better players click with my system, despite the injuries and blatant mistreatment from the FA.

I’ll be back in a couple of days to cover the next many matches, look at our transfers in and our during the January window, and figure out what I see as a realistic target to end the year on. Personally, following years and years in the high-teens and 20th last season, I’d be happy if I held onto a spot around this 12th place position we’re currently in, but we’ll play it by ear for a big longer while I browse the market and look for some cheap deals and attempt to offload players.

As usual, you can follow me on Twitter @EricSnowmane or follow the blog for updates on my progress with the save. If you want to review any posts from the previous seasons, check out the season-by-seasons page on the AFC Bolnore drop-menu.

I know it’s getting a bit spammy at this point, but if you use Reddit and want to see more Football Manager blogs or YouTube series, check out /r/TheManagersCorner, a new spin-off subreddit from the main /r/footballmanagergames that’s dedicated to sharing with others your blogs, video series, or other creative writing related to the Football Manager series. Why not give it a look?