FM22 British & Irish Steel Challenge

[ashncfc86]

FM22 British & Irish Steel Challenge

I know FM23 has just been released, but I have decided to stick with FM22 for now as I had already started this challenge and after reading other peoples FM stories I have decided to start my own to keep me on track.

I’m sure most of you know the premise of the British & Irish Steel Challenge, but basically it is to win every domestic trophy available in England, Wales, Scotland, Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

These are the rules I have set myself for this challenge, slightly tweaked from the original:

1) Start unemployed with Sunday League Football experience and no coaching badges
2) NOT limited to only UK nationality players
3) Must WIN each league to claim the trophy - automatic promotion or promotion via playoffs DOES NOT count


I had already completed almost 4 seasons before I decided to start this thread, so I will be posting a season by season summary of the journey so far in my next posts.

See below list of available trophies which we are going to attempt to win (41 in total):


England (0 / 12)

Premier League

Championship

League 1

League 2

National League

National League North

National League South

FA Cup

Carabao Cup (EFL Cup)

Papa Johns EFL Trophy

Community Shield

FA Trophy


Scotland (0 / 7)

cinch Premiership

cinch Championship

cinch League 1

cinch League 2

Scottish Cup

Scottish League Cup

Scottish Challenge Cup


Republic of Ireland (0 / 7)

SSE Airtricity League Premier Division

SSE Airtricity League First Division

FAI Cup

League of Ireland Cup

Munster Senior Cup

Leinster Senior Cup

Presidents Cup


N Ireland (0 / 10)

Danske Bank Premiership

Lough 41 Championship

Lough 41 Premier Intermediate League

Northern Irish Cup

League Cup

Charity Shield

County Antrim Shield

Steel and Sons Cup

Intermediate Cup

Mid Ulster Cup


Wales (4 / 5)

Cymru Premier - Llanelli Town (2023/24)

Cymru North

Cymru South - Llanelli Town (2022/23)

Welsh Cup - Llanelli Town (2023/24)

Nathaniel MG Cup - Llanelli Town (2024/25)​

 

[ashncfc86]

Season 1 Summary (2021/22)

I started unemployed, with Sunday League experience and no coaching badges and then went on holiday until January 2022 to see which jobs would become available.

I wanted to start the journey in Wales, so I was looking for a job in the JD Cymru North / South to get started.

I applied for a few jobs which became available with no luck and then we were offered a job by both Port Talbot and Llanelli Town, both in the JD Cymru South.

We ultimately chose Llanelli Town because they were sitting in mid-table when we were offered the job and they had a better financial position and wages.

As mentioned above, when we took over in early February 2022 they were sitting mid-table, but the previous manager had been sacked as they were expecting to mount a title and promotion challenge.

We couldn’t find any free transfers worth snapping up, so we made do with the squad we had and had a couple of half decent players come into the 1st team from the youth intake (notably Gwion Smith who is still a squad player in 2024/25).

We were already out of all the cups at this stage so it was a case of concentrating on the league and we then managed to get a decent run going and went unbeaten until the end of the season.

We ultimately missed out on the title and promotion, but only by the slimmest of margins on goal difference to Briton Ferry.

Going into 2022/23 we needed to delve into the free transfer/non-contract market to improve the squad and make sure we could challenge for the title and promotion.

It ended up being a more significant re-build than expected, which we will go into in the next season summary.

Overall Season Summary:

​

 

[ashncfc86]

Season 2 Summary (2022/23)

Heading into the 2022/23 season we wanted to ensure we were in a position to win the Cymru South title and gain promotion - there are no playoffs, so winning the title is the only way to get promotion in this league.

We had no transfer budget so had to look for players on free transfers or on non-contract deals at other clubs.

We had a clear out of the players we deemed surplus to requirements - either due to them being on too much money for their ability or if they were not suited to our preferred tactics.

It ended up being a more significant rebuild than expected as we brought 17 players into the club, all on free transfers or from other clubs where they were on non-contract deals.

We relied heavily on manual shortlisting of players coming to the end of their contracts and offering trials to find the most suitable players.

The new players were a mixture of first team starters, squad players and fringe/backup to give us some adequate coverage with the most significant signings highlighted below.
​

• Adam Bailey-Dennis - a 6ft 6in central defender with quality aerial ability which we would try and exploit from set pieces​
• Dylan Crowe - a pacey attacking wing back released from Ipswich Town​
• Ola Bello - a young striker also released from Ipswich Town​
• Mac Chisholm - a promising goalkeeper with great potential released by West Brom​

We also brought in a couple of older players to provide some experience and leadership with the likes of Luke Cooper, Chris Baker and Richard Crees.

With this we were ready for the season ahead, with the hope of winning the title and gaining promotion to the Cymru Premier at the second attempt…

And what a season it was in the league! We only lost 2 games and scored 95 goals (averaging just over 3 goals a game!) which means we were Cymru South champions and could tick the first trophy off our list!

We also had a great run in both of the cup competitions. We reached the final of the Welsh Cup and only lost on penalties to Cardiff Met Uni. In the League Cup (Nathaniel MG Cup) we also reached the final and narrowly lost to The New Saints…

In terms of individual performances there were a few stand outs…

Adam Bailey-Dennis scored 24 goals in 30 league appearances (he was a beast from set pieces as we expected and he was also our main penalty taker).

Ola Bello scored 28 goals in 30 league appearances and Dylan Crowe contributed 16 assists with an average rating of 7.95!



We broke a few Cymru South league records along the way too both team and individual…


Most Points - 92
Fewest League Defeats - 2
Biggest Win - 8-1 vs Cwmbran Celtic
Most Matches Won in a Row - 11
Most Matches Without Losing - 23
Most Team Goals - 95
Most Overall Goals in a Season - Ola Bello - 28
Most Assists in a Season - Dylan Crowe - 16
Highest Average Rating in a Season - Dylan Crowe - 7.95
Most Player of the Match Awards in a Season - Dylan Crowe - 9
Youngest Goalscorer - Gwion Smith - 15 years 210 days

On a personal note, we also managed to take out 4 Manager of the Month awards, Manager of the Season and started working towards our coaching badges!

All in all a very successful season and we have managed to tick the first trophy off the list. It could have been 2 or 3 if we had a bit more luck in the cup finals.

We now have a great base to work from for our first season back in the Cymru Premier and we will look to add some more quality to the squad in the summer.



Overall Season Summary:

 

[ashncfc86]

Season 3 Summary (2023/24)

On to Season 3 we go and our first year in the Cymru Premier - we had a great base to work from having comfortably won the league last year and hopefully some of the established players have the quality to make the step up.

One player I forgot to mention in the previous post that we picked up on a free transfer towards the end of last season was George Williams. He came in for the last few games of the season and made a great impact, so hopefully he can kick on into this season.

During the summer we added to our squad depth / quality with a few youngsters released from some of the higher tier clubs and a few free transfers.

It was another very successful season resulting in back to back titles! We only lost 2 games and just pipped The New Saints to the title on goal difference. The title win meant we were heading into the Champions League Qualifying Rounds next season which would hopefully bring some much needed funds into the club.

We also made it a double winning season with success in the Welsh Cup with a run which included a 7-0 demolition of Colwyn Bay in the Second round and a reasonably comfortable win in the final against Connah’s Quay.

In the Welsh League Cup we made the Semi Final, eventually being knocked out by The New Saints.

Individual performances of note included George Williams winning Player of the Year contributing 16 goals and 13 assists.

Josh Robinson was an excellent addition at the back and won Young Player of the Year with an average rating of 7.48.

Mac Chisholm had another excellent year between the sticks and with 20 clean sheets took out the record for Most Clean Sheets in a Season in the Cymru Premier and George Williams broke the record for Most Player of Match Awards in a Season.

We also made some more progress with our coaching badges and have now made it to a Continental C Licence.

In terms of personal awards we again picked up 4x Manager of the Month awards along with the Manager of the Season award.

Another very successful season meaning we can tick another 2x trophies off the overall list. Hopefully next season we can have a better run in the Welsh League Cup and that will be all the Welsh trophies completed apart from the Cymru North which we will have to come back for at some stage.

We also have European competition to look forward to next season, hopefully we can have a decent run and win some prize money.

Overall Season Summary:

​

 

[ashncfc86]

Season 4 Summary (2024/25) - Part 1

Season Preparation & New Signings

Following our title win last season and qualification for the Champions League Qualifying Rounds, we knew there would be some squad rotation required early in the season and potentially beyond if results went our way.

With the above in mind we looked to add some more depth to the squad to enable us to effectively rotate with minimal impact on the quality of the starting eleven. We looked to the free transfer market again and brought in 13 players including Euan Williams on loan from Charlton.

The European Adventure Begins…

We started our European campaign immediately after the players came back from the Summer break with two games in the space of 3 days. The first resulted in a 2-0 win against College Europa from Gibraltar and we then followed this up with a resounding 7-0 win against San Marino based Tre Penne.

In our next qualifying game we were drawn against Maccabi Haifa from Israel and lost 2-1 in the away leg. We needed a decent result at home to overturn the deficit and we had an unbelievable game running out 5-0 winners and onto the next qualifying round.

Unfortunately this is where our Champions League dream ended with a 4-3 loss away from home, followed by a 1-1 draw back in Wales against Legia Warsaw from Poland.

Although disappointing to be knocked out of the Champions League, we still dropped into the Europa League Qualifying Path and the European home games also brought in some much needed funds via gate receipts.

Due to minimum stadium requirements our home games were held at the 15,000 capacity Parc Y Scarlets, which meant that we could have bigger attendances than at our usual ground, which only holds 3,700 with only 1,000 seated.

Moving onto the Europa League Qualifying Round we were up against FK Sarajevo from Bosnia and Herzegovina and we were knocked out via a 3-2 loss at home, followed by a 1-1 draw away.

With this loss we still had a chance of an extended European run as we dropped into the Europa Conference League Qualifying Path where we were drawn against RFS of Latvia.

We held them to a 0-0 draw at home and amazingly followed up with a 2-1 win in Latvia, which meant we had qualified for the Group Stage and with it we received prize money of £2.4 MILLION!

We will come back to our European journey in Part 2 of the update.

The League & The Cups

Our additional squad depth proved vital during the early stages of the season with the distraction of Europe and the additional games that come with it.

Despite this we again dominated the league and ran out comfortable winners with only 2 losses and 2 draws all season.

George Williams had the highest average rating in the and the most assists with 13. Mac Chisholm again picked up the most clean sheets with 19 and Louie Theophanous who we signed specifically as a squad rotation player ended up as our highest scorer in the league with 15 goals.

Unfortunately we were unable to retain the Welsh Cup, however we added Nathaniel MG Cup (Welsh League Cup) to our trophy cabinet with a resounding win over The New Saints in the final.

We will be back in Part 2 to provide a summary of our performance in the Europa Conference League Group Stage and End of Season Review.

Having won all the Welsh Leagues and Cups (excluding Cymru North), we will also look at where we might be heading next to continue the challenge…​

 

[ashncfc86]

Season 4 Summary (2024/25) - Part 2

Europa Conference League Group Stage & Beyond…

For the Group Stage we were drawn with Sevilla (Spain), Vaduz (Liechtenstein) and FK Sarajevo (who we lost to in the Europa League Qualifying Round).

As expected, we were no match for Sevilla, but we pulled off two wins (both away from home) and one draw to finish with 7 points, which was just enough to qualify for the knockout stages.

The away win against FK Sarajevo was particularly impressive, as we were a goal down and a man down at half time and managed to bounce back with 2 goals in quick succession to secure the victory.

In the First Knockout Round we faced Vitoria de Guimaraes (Portugal) and in the First Leg away from home we succumbed to a 3-1 defeat in front of 30 devoted travelling fans. In the return leg we went 1-0 down and then pulled 2 goals back in the first half. It was not looking good until the 85th minute when we got an equaliser to send the tie to extra time. When then scored two more goals to take control and despite a late consolation from the away team we managed to hold on to progress to the Second Knockout Round.

We were really up against it in the next round where we faced Nice from Ligue 1. Their quality showed in the opening 20 minutes as they took a 4-0 lead at Parc Y Scarlets and although we pulled a goal back we went in at half time 6-1 down!

The second half was a different story though, as we pulled two goals back to make the final score 6-3 to give us some hope for the return leg in France.

Despite a decent performance we were unable to overturn the 3 goal deficit and Nice ran out 9-5 winners on aggregate, meaning our European campaign was over for this season.

Nice went on to be Runners-Up in the competition and we were named the Biggest Overachievers.

Financial Update

Our finances are looking in excellent shape following our European endeavours, due to the additional income from prize money and gate receipts.

We have gone from literally nothing in bank at the start of the season to an end of season balance of £5.6 million!

End of Season Review

Another successful season with back to back league titles and another double winning season, adding the Nathaniel MG Cup to the trophy cabinet alongside the Welsh Cup from last season.

Most of our new players made an impact, particularly Ben Tricker who came in and played alongside Josh Robinson in the centre of defence and Louie Theophanous who was a great rotation option up front.

We broke the league records for Highest Number of Wins in a Season and Highest Points in a Season.

George Williams set a new Average Rating record and claimed Player of the Year for the 2nd year in a row.

Josh Robinson also won the Young Player of the Year award for the 2nd year running.

We were the most improved club in Europe this season, moving up the rankings a staggering 461 places and this also improved the European coefficients for Wales.

​

 

[ashncfc86]

Season 4 Summary (2024/25) - Part 3


Manager Progress and Where to Next?

On a personal note we won 5x Manager of the Month awards and Manager of the Year for the 2nd year in a row. We also made it into the top ten in the Welsh Hall of Fame.

My contract was running out at the end of the season and the club kept offering me a new contract on improved terms, but my time in Wales was coming to an end as it was time to look for the next step of the challenge, despite the fact that the club also turned professional.

We were also attracting interest from other clubs and went for an interview at Wigan Athletic, but ultimately we were not offered the job.

We started to keep an eye on the Job Centre to see if any jobs became available and we were particularly interested in heading to the bottom division of the Northern Irish league.

A few positions became available that we applied for and were offered, but they did not have the most promising finances or wage budgets to work with compared to some of the teams in the league.

We will keep on searching and will be able to reveal where we are heading in the next post.


Overall Season Summary:

 

[ashncfc86]

Season 5 (2025/26) - Part 1

A New Chapter in Northern Ireland...

It’s Season 5 and after our successful stint in Wales, we’re heading to Northern Ireland's 3rd division, the Lough Premier Intermediate League.

We took over at Ballymoney United who were favourites for relegation, having just been promoted from the league below. Despite this they had £20,000 in the bank and a wage budget of £650/week, which was more than some of the established sides in the league.

Most of the players in this league are on Non-Contract pay as you play deals or even Amateur deals, so although there was no transfer budget, we were confident we could make some progress using free transfers and picking up players on non-contract terms from other clubs.

We started with the bare bones of a squad, with only 16 players including those that were in the reserves, so we had a lot of work to do before the season started. We also had to recruit a backroom team as we had no staff.

Even though we have reserves and U18 teams, at this level we will just run with the main squad so we can save on some staff costs. We will use the reserve team to give some game time to the players not starting for the first team.

In terms of the squad, the players which looked okay were Sean Green and Josh McGreevy, both strikers, and Anthony Robinson on the left wing.

It was time to see who was available on the free transfer market and trial, trial and trial again to see if we can find some gems!​