Havent & Waterlooville- A Claim to FA Cup fame

How far will i go in the FA Cup in the first 5 years?

  • 1st Round

    Votes: 5 11.6%
  • 2nd Round

    Votes: 3 7.0%
  • 3rd Round

    Votes: 4 9.3%
  • 4th Round

    Votes: 11 25.6%
  • 5th Round

    Votes: 9 20.9%
  • Quarter Finals

    Votes: 5 11.6%
  • Semi Finals

    Votes: 6 14.0%

  • Total voters
    43
  • Poll closed .

David 0404

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Everyone should remeber last year's FA Cup underdogs Havant & Waterlooville beating Swansea and scoring 2 goals at Anfield. It's getting to that time of year where everybodyy is just beginning their last Fm game before FM 10 is released. Mine is with Havant & Waterlooville, not with the aim of getting them to be the best team in the world, premier league and champions league champions ect. because it is simply unrealistic. My aim is to get hopefully to the championship one day in the future but my main goal is to emulate last season's real life achievement of reaching the fourth round of the FA Cup. With the luck of the draw and a bit of cup magic, i hope i can do something special here...

Breaking News: David Rowlands unveiled as Havant & W Head Coach. Unkown manager David Rowlands was today announced the Havant & Waterlooville head coach on a one year part-time contract worth £500 a week. The board greeted the young rookie manager with the news that there would be no transfer money available and that the club were already over their wage budget and were unable to provide anymore funding into the club.

My task was a tricky one but pre-season looked pretty comfortable. A few welsh touring sides would play me aswell as the annual fixture with parent club pompey. I noticed that the friendly was the only benefit of the link and immediately set about finding a new one. i took southampton over dagenham and redbridge and signed a young american defender on loan. Considering no-one wanted to leave and clubs just weren't interested in my players, i could not amend the wage budget. I have started signing players and have now gone into september. i will post results for each month and put up screenies for proof. please feel free to comment and give me advice on how i can improve. i am currently using JP Woody's original tactics and tugs training schedule. any reccommended tactics,formations and anything else to do with the team (including possible signings) would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

David0404

P.S. I am using 9.0.3 patch with england and scotland playable, wales, N.Ireland ,Republic of Ireland, France and Italy non playable and a large db
 
Pre-Season was pretty disappointing, with me expecting a clean sweep of wins with the exception of Portsmouth. I was completely wrong. For Pre-Season i'll let the screenshot do the talking, with 3 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses (both at home) from the 6 games we had. Highlights were the last gasp comeback against hemel hempstead and the convincing win to round of the pre-season against Llanelli. oh, and one of my signings scoring on his debut against pompey.

Signings, i had 13 at the time of writing, my best one so far being the £130 coup of Tesfaye Bramble, but LLM favourite Yankov was also in the frame. i would've liked a few more loan signings but it wasn't to be. my squad still needs strengthening if we are even to compete in the FA Cup.
 
Good luck with this. I voted 5th round but hopefully you can get further.
 
A busy start to the season in a month which didn't see Havant & Waterlooville play the type of football i wanted them to. it was sloppy and we didn't seem to keep the ball for more than 30 seconds.

AUGUST:
Hampton & Richmond 2 : 1 Havent & Waterlooville (Henry)
Possibly the toughest possible opening game of the saeason, away to the team who the media and the bookies tipped to win the league. They completely dominated us from start to finish, with all the goals coming in the first half. They took an early lead, but transfer-listed Charlie henry smashed a freekick in from close range before a H&R winner with the last kick of the first half.

Havant & Waterlooville 1 : 1 Hayes & Yeading (Williams)
We were awful- simple as that. we should have demolished them yet took part in a stalemate. The only high point of the game was a first goal for new signing Tom Williams, a 17 year old striker from Wigan.

Eastleigh 1 : 1 Havant & Waterlooville
We went there looking to ****** a draw, and thats exactly what we do. Considering i've managed several clubs of different abilities on FM 09, this was a typical BSS game of football. They scored an own goal for us, which was good because we didn't look like going close. Eastleigh are managed by Ian Baird, the man that took H & W to the FA Cup 4th round.

Havant & Waterlooville 3: 1 Welling (Holloway,Bramble,Williams)
We've won! Our best performance by far. We were gifted with a 2nd minute penalty, followed by Bramble scoring on his debut and another one from Tom Williams.

Newport County 2 : 1 Havant & Waterlooville(Bramble)
The month ended with a tough trip to Wales with my side hoping to emulate the form of the last game. it wasn't to be. Bramble scored once more but on another day the score could've been reversed.

Hopefully September will be better and our FA Cup campaign should begin with the 2nd qualifying round draw...
 
Not a great start but I'm sure it will get better, on my AFC Wimbledon save it was not to hard to beat Havant as there GK is shocking lol. I'm sure you'll change that and turn a bad start around and finish possibly in or just outside of the play-offs, then if you don't go up, regroup and try for automatic places next season :) I just finished 10th with my Hull team in first season on Chriss22's V6 update, I'm quite happy with it :) :p Good luck
 
Breaking News from Westleigh Park... Havant & Waterlooville have been drawn away to non-leaguers WHITSTABLE in the second qualifying round for the FA Cup.

---------- Post added at 09:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:06 PM ----------

after a shocking performance away from home, havant & waterloo have unfortunately had to add another fixture to their already busy calendar, with an unexpected FA Cup replay against non-league minnows Whitstable. More to come in the September report...
 
I seen this a couple of hours ago and coudnt but try myself i am in november and got john ruddy on loan from everton so i have been scraping 1-0 wins
but yours sounds good and hopefully you will be in league 2 in no time
 
i have surpassed the test of whitstable and you will find out who im playing in the 3rd qualifying round in september update, which is coming tomorrow morning.the team is still gelling but results look as if we could be scrapping for the playoffs come may...

thanks for the support everyone, really appreciate it!
 
Good luck with this hope you get far in the cup :) maybe even win it :p
 
A much better month for Havant & Waterloo where we stayed unbeaten however a late slip towards the end of the month left a bitter taste that i'll want to forget.

September:
Havant & Waterloo 3 : 0 Bishop's Stortford (Smith, Booth, Yankov)
A great start to the month with a resounding win. a positional change saw Yankov move up from CB to CM, which proved a good choice, with the bulgarian wrapping up a convincing win.

It was arond this time that H&W found out their first FA Cup opponents, Whitstable.

Our first cup match of the season was a tricky one, with a home tie against Newport Co in the first round of the Conference League Cup.

Havant & Waterloo 2 : 1 Newport Co (Barnard, Davies)
A solid win after a shaky start. Some of the senior players were rested for this game leaving others tha chance to stake a clim for a first team place. Set-piece specialist Darren Barnard scored his first goal for the club after signing on a free transfer. Kyle Davies who signed from Southampton on loan scored a header at the far post to seal H&W's place in the next round.

Havant & Waterloo 2 : 0 Fisher (Booth, Watkins)
Did we deserve the win? i don't think so but it's those type of results that could prove vital at the end of the season. two counter attacks led to both goals, one from veteran striker Paul Booth and one from Craig Watkins, making his comeback from a long injury.

Team Bath 2 : 2 Havant & Waterloo ( Poate, Compton)
Without doubt are greatest performance of the season so far. Team Bath were 6 places above us in the league and were odds on favourites to win the game. They went 2-0 up early on in the second half and completely dominated the game. However a scorcher from distance from our quiet left back with 10 minutes to go gave us a chance of a point and we took that chance in dramatic fashion as star player Jack Compton finished from close range in the final minute of the match.

Whitstable 2 : 2 Haventgotaclueville (Gray Pen)
No first team regulars were involved in this game but there were no excuses as it was a game we should have won anyway. they took the lead twice and scored an own goal for us, the reason my team have been given the name above for this match. A late substituiton brought Matt Gray on and he blasted home a last minute penalty to postpone Havant & Waterloo's embarassment until next month.

Player of the month: Paul Booth, the veteran gave some sparkling performances and rounded the month off with two goals to his name.
 
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2 fa cup ties in october, the first one against carshalton. i can tell you now that we made it through and have got a much tougher draw in our last qualifying round, away to Blue Square Premier Crawley. Could it be the end of the cup run so soon in the season? who is the new striker who scored an injury time winner on is debut? find out in october report...

---------- Post added at 07:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:58 PM ----------

Disaster as Havant & Waterloo are knocked out of the FA Cup 4th qualifying round to crawley in a dramatic 8 goal thriller. questions are already being asked as to how long Rowlands will be in the job after such a poor performance. More to follow...
 
Don't give up keep going.. Otherwise this thread will have been a waste of time :p lol
 
i'm not gonna give up, i've got my whole squad's contracts expiring in the summer, so anyone who can't prove themselves will be released and i will look to build up a new squad full of youngsters who have been released from premiership clubs (hopefully) and i reckon in a year or two its the 4th round for me. it really was the luck of the draw. i played crawley yet two non leaguers played eachother, so one of them is in the first round proper. thanks for the continued support and keep reading!
 
good one mate unlucky about the fa cup but you;ll be bak next year mate!
 
i've decided that because we're out of the FA Cup i would rather look forward into the next season and push on so my reports from now on won't be half as detailed as before until the new season starts i will only be commenting on matches that were worthwhile. Two signings in october, as our rep and budget are a lot lower than a team like AFC wimbledon, it is hard to attract players. i signed an out of contract goalkeeper from dorchester who has imediately settled into our number 1 gk spot. as you know i played carshalton in the Fa cup so i watched the game afterwards. they were playing sutton utd, with the score being 2-1 to carshalton. i noticed that a young sutton utd striker scored a goal and dominated the game. so i snapped him up on a free transfer!

October:
Havant & Waterloo 3 : 1 Whitstable (FA Cup 2nd qualifying round replay) (Watkins,Yankov,Williams)

Havant & Waterloo 3 : 2 Braintree (Booth,Gray, Dos Santos)
What a game! Braintree are still top at the time at writing and were the better team for large parts of the game.They took the lead twice before conceding a penalty in the 72nd minute which Gray tucked away. Half-time sub Jerson Dos Santos, a 17 year old signing from sutton utd, scored in the 92nd minute to make manager david rowlands leap out of his chair and dance down the touchline mourinho style.

Havant & Waterloo 1 : 1 Bath AET (Smith) Conference League Cup 2nd Round
(Havant & Waterloo win 8-7 on penalties)
This has got to be the weirdest game i've ever played. it was 1-1 after 90 minutes. so we go into extra time and in the second half of extra time Tom Williams scores for me, the goal is given the scoreboard says 2-1 Havant & Waterloo and at the end of the match it says 'The match will go to penalties' it even goes to the team talk screen so when i've done my team talk i click continue and it goes to the penalty screen and freezes. so i decide to go on holiday for one day and when i get back it says i won 8-7 on penalties. look at screenshots for proof!

Havant & Waterloo 2 : 0 Carshalton (Simpemba,Williams) Fa Cup 3rd qualifying round

Basingstoke 1 : Havant & Waterloo 2 (Paton,Dos Santos)

Havant & Waterloo 2 : 0 Bognor Regis (Simpemba, Barnard pen)

Crawley 5 : 3 Havant & Waterloo (Bramble, Booth, OG)
I was proud of my team in this match, despite losing concentration near the end. I usually use JP Woody's cloughy tactics and i did in the first half, going down 1-0 at the end of the first half but being dominated. I switched to a Wenger442 tactic i found on this site (thanks to whoever made it!) and scored within 27 seconds of the restart. i then took a 2-1 lead until completely losing it and crashing out of the FA Cup before our real journey had begun.

St.Albans 0 : 1 Havant & Waterloo (Watkins)

A great monthi if we exclude the FA cup tie at the end, and certainly a very busy one. we have now notched up 4 straight league wins and we are one place outside the playoff spots with a game in hand over everybody else.
Player of the month: Craig Watkins, the midfielder has improved a lot since playing first-team football and has a few goals to his name aswell. Great credit to the boy!

Keep reading!;)
 
Unlucky in the fa cup mate.
I put you down as 4th round and i rekon you will do it :)
good luck in your last fm2009 game:D
 
Latest News: David Rowlands has been awarded the October Manager of the Month for the Blue Square South. Thhis is his first award at the club and he hopes to add more trophies personally and to the team. He was chosen due to him guiding Havant & Waterloo to wins in all 4 of their league games last month, with a 100% win record.
 
Double Update!

Sorry for the delay guys (anyone that still reads this thread), i've been quite busy and i'm ploughing through this as my parents only give me the weekend to play fm lol:p. anyway, it has been a disappointing two months by my standards, considering we are out of all competitions. despite still going unbeaten, it feels as if there has been a lack of discipline and if i do get promoted it will be like having to build a whole new team. anyway, here we go...

November:
Havant & Waterloo 1 : 0 AFC Wimbledon (Watkins)
Watkins is the man again as we win a tough match, a nitty gritty result.

Havant & Waterloo 0 : 1 Eastbourne Borough Conference League Cup 3rd Round
After playing such a tiring match on the saturdaay, changes were needed in order to rest players, so i'm not surprised that our stunning home record in all competitions came to an end agains a BSP side. We were shocking and a string of second choice players had to play, demonstrating how unconvincingly we will play if we get promoted. I'm disappointed that we're out of this trophy as i thought it woulde be our silverware for the season.

Maidenhead 0 : 1 Havant & Waterloo (Davies)

Dorchester 1 : 3 Havant & Waterloo (Bramblex2,Barnard pen)
A delighted manager and fans looked on as Tesfaye Bramble, brother of Titus Bramble, broke a scoring drought with two well-timed goals. we hope his form will continue.

It is around this time that we saw our only arrival of the month. Jeffrey Imudia, a tenacious right sided midfielder from Nigeria, signed on a season-long loan from parent club southampton.We were also drawn away to Guiseley in the FA trophy 3rd qualifying round, an easy tie that should see some of the lesser players given a chance to prove themselves.

Guiseley 0 : 0 Haventgotaclueville (FA Trophy 3rd qualifying round)
Outplayed by a non-league team that would struggle on championship manager 2010. this was like a third choice eleven, but i fully expected us to triumph. 199 people watched my team play their worst game so far.

Havant & Waterloo 3 : 1 Guiseley (Collinsx2,Compton) (FA Trophy 3rd Qualifying Round replay)
This was a must win game just in order to uphold the pride that i had restored when i came to the club, so a full strength team was fielded. Jamie Collins, life,soul and captain of the club, scored his first goals of the season with superb long range efforts. Jack Compton added another to make it three.

Zlatko Yankov, the legendary bulgarian defender has expressed his concern at the way he has been performing recently. he believes the fans have been getting on his back and wants manager david rowlands to adress this problem immediately.

Yankov has been told he will be given a rest for a few games in order to recoup morale and fitness.


Havant & Waterloo 0 : 0 Chelmsford
Disappointing finish to the month with a surprising home draw. I predicted us struggling without Yankov and based on today's game my first assesment may have been right.

Player of the month: Jamie Collins, he didn't have to do much to win it this month as the team as a whole have been woeful. but he shows sign of good potentil already and scored two crackers against Guiseley.

December update in a few minutes...
 
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