So, week one of quarantine, time to start a new save and spend a couple of hours a day switching off from the world and revisiting mid 90’s football, complete with a playlist of hits and cheese including Aerosmith, KLF, Def Leppard and R.E.M.
Loading up CM93 EoS update with Klinsman, Dumitrescu, Daniel Amokachi et al. Thought about playing ChampMan Italia and going with “Quarantina”, but have gone for a club I’ve thought about playing for a while, Rochdale.
Starting in division 3, squad looks ok, good balance of D/M/A, particularly Paul Williams DMA L. But there’s no ‘keeper! I always try and use different players for each save, not always going for the usual suspects, so a request for recommendations goes out on Twitter and the first signing is Nick Buxton (who promptly gives us a follow! @buccono1 Thank you!)
A nice mix of random friendlies and we kick off the season with a draw then a win, in to the top 3 and we don’t drop below there the rest of the season! A decent two leg “derby” result against Oxford gave us a short league cup run, and out in round 2 of the FA Cup against Birmingham so we “concentrate on the league”!
A bit of transfer market action sees us move on a few fringe players, including most of the original attacking line up, and bring in some new blood – Karl Connoly, Simon Collins, Richard Hancox, Mark Limbert, Jodie Craddock and old CM legend and favourite Danny Carter.
We secure promotion with a good few games remaining and finish 22 points clear of Cambridge (who have a great squad and are now pencilled in for a future save) and Brighton (who win the playoffs to join us in Division 2). No surprise Danny Carter is fans Player of the Year with highest average rating and most MoM’s, as Aston Villa win the Premier League, ahead of Newcastle, and the League Cup and Leeds Utd take home the FA Cup, again with Newcastle runners up! Plymouth drop out of the football league and Shilton gets the sack, to be replaced by Telford United!
Bring on Division 2!
I4NI 