IFA Yorkshire

[LobLUFC]

In 2017, the Yorkshire International Football Team was founded, their first game being a 1-1 draw with Ellan Vannin.

Ever since hearing about this, I have attempted FM saves using only players from Yorkshire. Previously, I have been able to take Leeds to 4th in the Premier League, but have never been able to get a club out of the semi-pro leagues into the Football league. So, I'm gonna give it another shot and this time catalog it, hope you enjoy!

RULES
Only players born in the Yorkshire area may be used (Players with Place of Birth blank or unknown that begin their careers at a Yorkshire based football team are eligible)

Club Logo

Picking a team to take over: For this I wanted to pick the team based in Yorkshire with the least history, a club willing to go for a gimmick like this to try and garner attention and to my mind that is Leeds United feed team Guiseley (sorry to both Guieseley fans). Plus picking a team like York would lessen some of the struggle this is meant to be. With them expected to finish 14th I don't expect promotion to be on the table in our first season with a small budget of 3,800 pounds a week as well

Our Squad

Here are our heroes, Jamie Vardy, Kyle Walker and John Stones they are not. I think we have a nice range of leaders in defenders Ainge and Ellis along with some promising youngsters, especially keeper Rushworth and centre mid Pugh. However, we're probably only a mid-table Vanarama North side in what is a stacked league it seems compared to the south with the likes of York, Darlington and newly promoted Kings Lynn who are expected to do the double in the season preview.
Carl Rushworth

Tom Pugh

However, those of you with a keen eye will see a major issue with these two which is that the wages have changed! we are now majorly over the wage budget. For those of you that have also used create-a-club, does this happen to you too? Am I missing something? The screen will tell you the wage and then it's just...not.

With the transfer budget I have got the wage budget up to 5,400, and I have been able to get rid of the second surprise I had after creating the team...

Who, in the ****** ****, are you!? I dont know why his loan stayed or was generated but he was costing us 400 pounds and is from Grantham so he's been knocked off the wage budget as well.

So what are my aims this season: I think its simple really, survive in the job and try to find a simple system that will work for our players, while constantly looking for new talent to bring in next season.

I'll update again after our first game of the season (Against the favourites Kings Lynn) and look at some key players as well as new loanees bought into the club.

Onwards and upwards for Gods own Club!

 

[Brane_Orsou]

Good luck with this, I have a feeling you may need it

 

[LobLUFC]

Good luck with this, I have a feeling you may need it

And some ? Furthest I've got starting from the bottom is the conference, so if we make it to the professional leagues I'll be over the moon. Not that it's looking likely on this go round...

 

[LobLUFC]

LUCAS RADEBE SIGNS FOR IFA YORKSHIRE

You heard right, Lucas Radebe has signed for IFA Yorkshire on loan from Farsley...

Ok, maybe it's not THAT Lucas Radebe, but I couldnt resist signing someone named after my childhood hero, and he's a good third choice striker that'll probably play only once or twice for us. Now you may be saying third choice? but I only saw one striker in the first team? and you'd be correct, that is because we have signed...

this man, Niall Huggins on loan from Leeds United (carrying on some Guiesely traditions, who is immediately our best player.

Finishing, composure, speed, everything you would want at this level. I think his performances could be the one that makes or breaks my job this season. However, this posed an issue for me. Our previous best player, Aaron Martin, is also a striker, and I had planned to play a 4-1-2-2-1 system as we have a good amount of central midfielders, but now I'm torn between sticking with this or changing formation to try and get our two best players in the squad.

The other two loanees I've brought in who I expect will play a fair few games are Lirak Hasani, from Doncaster, and Harry Sheppeard from Sheff United

Hasani looks really good for his age to me and could easily be playing for Donny themselves very soon, I expect him to be in the starting lineup

Sheppeard is a solid backup Right Back if needs be

At this point, before our first game, these sigings made me think perhaps we do have a chance of staying mid-table, maybe we can build a solid foundation for this year. I'm not sure what my first team is yet but that's good we have a little competition for places now when we had none before. Hey, we even drew with Huddersfield pre-season, lets see how we do.

Kings Lynn 1-0 IFA Yorkshire
Oh, well...they were predicted to come 1st and we gave them a tough time. Granted our best performance was a 6.9 but it's not a terrible start, and we had some publicity around the team concept so we had more away fans than ever before. Someone even bought a flag with the white rose proudly waving so lets not jump the gun here.

IFA Yorkshire 1-2 Southport
Oh, well...we were really unlucky this game. We absolutely outplayed them, hit the post, the bar and they scored two screamers. Hey, we have our first ever Yorkshire goalscorer in Simon Ainge, remember the name! a proper Yorkshire goal too with a thumping header off a free-kick by the big man. Also, the ground was packed, eager to see how this Bilbao of England would do in representing them, and we were clapped off for a hard fought performance that did not deserve a loss. Bring on the next game!

Boston Utd 1-1 IFA Yorkshire
First point on the board! and again it should have been 3! This is not pretty football, just the way we like it, but this was on another level. 90 minutes of hoofball and missed headers by defenders. We have a real problem I notice at this point with our back two which may scupper us this season, but I'll discuss that later. Onwards

Kettering 2-0 IFA Yorkshire
Oh no. This was bad. Like really really bad. Kettering just destroyed us for the whole game, I think they had two disallowed goals as well. I'm really concerned now, not one good performance by the whole team yet, and my strikers aren't scoring. At this point I'm thinking it's the dynamics, we start with team cohesion so far in the red I imagine we have to be somewhat behind all the other teams. Hopefully we can figure this out....

IFA Yorkshire 1-2 Leamington
Oh for gods sake, still nothing from my strikers and just really bad performances, our defence is so open we don't look like stopping anything and I'm not sure what I can change. The crowds already halved, people are making their minds up about us, and it's not good.

The last thing I wanted to see

IFA Yorkshire 2-3 AFC Telford
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. Huggins finally showed what he can do but the defense lets us down again, no contribution from the midfield either. I will not stop till we get our first win! I'm panicking and pulling out several formation variations now, I will not give up!

Kidderminster 2-0 IFA Yorkshire
But maybe I should. The worst performance of the season. Ellis with maybe the most blatant red card you'll ever see which just screamed "I'm done with being embarrassed get me off the pitch" and Huggins and Hasani are on international duty for the next game, it is hopeless

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHA GET IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNN, GET THE **** IIIIIIIIIINNN CMON YORKSHIRE. Darlington were in a playoff spot, we were bottom and played much better than them. Again it felt like we were gonna throw away a game we deserved to win, but in the 89th minute Martin, who was goaless and looked completely bereft of confidence, slid a last minute winner into the bottom corner. Thank. God. Maybe we can go somewhere from this.

If you look at the performances from this game though I think it shows the problem well. We have not had a single good TEAM performance this season. We are far too reliant on individuals and I'm hoping that'll change when the cohesion improves. All this may be mute though when we look at our centre backs.

Both are fine centre backs in their own way, but their both slow. Really slow. In this division, I think it might be a killer. To combat this I think I have two options, play Lund at CB with Ainge and move Sheppeard to RB or say **** to the budget and bring in any cb I can two star or above that can run. What would you do to deal with this?

So, here is where I leave us today. With that win, hope remains. Win and draw a game is my next goal. I think we may be in a relegation dogfight though but until I am sacked I shall not give up this seat and will keep pushing upwards. Up the Whites! Also if anyone wants to throw some Assistant manage "I think were being overrun in midfield" advice my way I'd love, and probably need XD, to hear it.

Here is our current formation, would you play both Martin and Huggins? or should I try and be more cautious like this? Thanks for reading

 

[LobLUFC]

The last thing I needed. Johnson, a good winger for this level, is out until February at the least I imagine, more likely is his season is over. I tried to release him (Heartless I know but we're already over budget!) but the board blocked it. Noble-Lazarus will be starting for us now on the left.

Back to your scheduled programming. With Huggins on international duty, I decided to stick with the one man up top, but play a flat three in the centre of midfield. When he's back, I think I'm going to try him out as a right winger, our current one Jay Rollins has been the least consistent of an extremely inconsistent team so he's lost his place for now.

An early Huggins goal gave me hope, but Holman and Ndlovu dominated my players in the air with three headed goals and a deserved loss. I'm probably a loss away from the sack now, and we could start really falling behind the rest of the pack.

However, a mentality change against Spennymoor really seems to click and we earn a draw! We still weren't creating enough but we had 60% of the possession in the game using this system

It's a simple gegenpress with the play our of defence removed as Ainge and Ellis are not Maldini and Puyol, the last thing they want at their feet is the ball, and it seems to be clicking with the lads more than anything else has. Also, yes! the centre back partnerships went from poor to decent, maybe there is hope for the two together? With an FA Cup match against Yaxley I'm hoping we can now build some confidence.

And we do! an easy game wherein Hasani and Rollins both got their first goals for the club. Back to the league.

A nothing game, but another point, and earlier on Im sure we would've been expected to get battered so I definitely see the positives in it.

Uh Oh, York are first. This could be goodbye...

We couldn't do anything about it, they're top of the league and have a massive bufdget compared to ours, this seems rather unfair...and the board seems to agree? Their defintiely not happy with my management, but I'm not called into the boardroom for a meeting, no "12 points in 5 games", nothing, just the media stirring things up! They're against us, they dont wan't it to work either. From now on if you buy FourFourTwo you are barred from the Guiseley Ground while I'm in charge!

Next round of the FA Cup, against league rivals, and another win! a deserved win too we probably should've scored more but I'll take any win. Now can we please convert this to league form.

Oh, thank you very much. This was an inane game, Curzon Ashton are bottom with us, both teams had to win it, and they played the most do or die system with three strikers up top I had seen at this level. Constant chances for both teams, neither converting any, until Noble Lazarus floated one into the top corner to get me off my seat. They had a one-on-one in the 93rd minute (after two minutes injury time was shown which had me cursing) and Rushworth saved! the full time whistle was blown and IFA Yorkshire moved off the bottom spot putting CA in their place. Let's make this the moment we turn this around.

We don't play too well, but we get a draw. This is momentum, I wanted a win and a draw and I've got it now for the first time this season. Also, two clean sheets in a row, the defence is playing much better and Rushworth is fastly improving.

On the one hand, I don't care about this at all, its the FA Cup and Harrogate are in the conference. On the other, the board wanted me to make the first round and are already upset with me, this has not helped.
Also. RADEBEEEEEE, I'm choosing to believe it was this (though in game he actually scored a 25 yard screamer which was out of nowhere)

Another draw, Tom Pugh popping up for a late header in a game we were terrible in, but these are the sort of points we need to pick up against much better opposition like Chester so I'm very happy with it.

This was harsh on us, so harsh. We dominated the game, but Bradford had two free kicks where their defenders scored headers from in the first twenty minutes and did nothing the rest of the game. It was really encouraging to see us fighting back though against fellow strugglers where earlier we would've definitely crumbled. This next game against another struggler, Farsley, will be crucial I think.

And we only go and batter em! Huggins the hero as we decisively outplay Farsley, keeping the ball well and for once taking our chances. Also..

we're five unbeaten in the league now! ok it's not the most impressive with three draws but if I told you we'd do this after our first games I don't think anyone would've believed me.

And you can see just how important that win was, taking us up to the heights of 19th, jumping over Farsley and Hereford as well as putting us a win behind Kettering and Bradford PA. Unfortunately, my raiting with the board is currently a D meaning from now on I really have to keep up some form or I think they'll be every quick in calling me in for a discussion now. But overall, after our start, I'm buzzing! Let's show some true Nothern steel and get ourselves away from that drop zone. Up the Whites!

Also, just for interest, here's Leeds form so far. Mental.

 

[Brane_Orsou]

First season was always gona be tricky. Nice to see the Heed army drawing with you.

 

[LobLUFC]

Added to banned list: Anyone who reads Goal. I'm five ubeaten c'mon!

Make that six. We really deserved to win, but the same pace problems hit us again with the Blyth striker running away on a counter to score.

#
Ok anybody who reads in general, you're banned! The media is conspiring against me it's the bloomin FA Trophy no one really cares

Oh my god, ten minutes left, 1-1 and we're down to nine. Of course they score a last minute winner as a result. spennymoor 2-1 IFA Yorkshire

WHAT! It's the FA Trophy! the board want to talk to me after the FA Trophy loss? No way. Well, okay, lets see how this goes...

**** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** WHAAAAAAAAT! THE FA ******* TROPHY AND YOU SACK ME!!!! WE HAD TURNED IT ROUND IN THE LEAGUE! WE WERE SIX UNBEATEN AND YOU SACK ME NOW! OOOOOOH HO HO HO YOU'RE IN FOR IT NOW BUDDY YOU ARE IN FOR IT NOW JUST YOU WAIT, YOU ARE GONNA RUE THE DAY YOU SACKED ROBERT LAWLEY.

Right, well we're out of a club. So I guess the Yorkshire challenge is over right?

Wrong! welcome to the Yorkshire challenge 2.0! Farsley are currently in the relegation spots. The aim now is to save them from relegation, get rid of all the non-yorkshire players and continue the mission, and now we have a rival, IFA Yorkshire.

Here's the team, almost all aren't from Yorkshire so I won't be going through them all that much as nearly all won't be here (If we're still here), bar striker Jimmy Spencer

Also, to get to the second season and back on track, I probably won't go into the rest of the fixtures in depth this season, only key ones.

Right, lets get revenge.