Notts County : Returning the first ever football league club to glory!

Finn

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Introduction
Since I started playing FM games my number one goal has been to return Notts County, the first football club ever, to glory. I am a big fan of the club and have made several attempts to get them back where they belong.

Previous Attempts
CM 06
On CM 06 I tried and tried but seemed to always fail and fail :( I never got near to doing anything good with the club and had an oversized squad with the biggest financial debt possible! I played three seasons in League 2 getting to the play-off final on the second but never managing to get promoted, before I was sacked at the end of the 3rd season.

FM 07
I had learned from my mistakes on CM 06 and was ready to rock & roll my way to promotion from league 2 on FM 07.
We had a great 1st season winning the league by 6 points!
I was a favourite of the fans and we were predicted to stay up in League 1 the next season but sadly we played brutal.
Half way through the second season things were looking bad, then as we got into the second half they got worse.
We came 22nd and were relegated to League 2. The board offered me another chance but I was fed up! I resigned and my second attempt ended just like that!

FM 08
I was getting fed up of failing with Notts County and wasn't going to even try on FM 08, but something just told me I should, so I did. I started off in League 2 well, mainly around mid-table up to the half way point. I made a few good free-transfers in January then BANG! Form shot up and there we were fighting for the play-offs at the end of the season. On the last day we were a point off the play-offs and playing away to 3rd place Petersborough. I went into the game with a slightly defensive approach and we were being pressured for most of the game. It was looking like they were going to score when suddenly we made a counter attack and BANG! In the net! We were in the play-offs!
We won our play-off semi-final comfortably, 2-0.
Then it was final day! We were playing Morecambe (I think!)
The match was completely even and at the end of ninety minutes it was 1-1. End of ET 2-2! We won on penalties! :D

If I explained the rest it would take years so I'll be quick!

Second season we struggled in League 1 but managed to get a decent amount of wins and a lot of good draws so we finished 3 places outside the relegation zone!

At this point I had made many quality signings, the most memorable being Drew Talbot from Luton who was my top scorer!

Third season we played even better and won a good amount of games! We finished in mid-table! Drew Talbot was once again my top scorer.

4th season, it was party time!!!!!!!!!!!! Brought in Ryss Ashraf on loan from Derby, thinking he might be a good back-up to Weir-Daley and Talbot..........how wrong was I!?

I gave Ashraf his debut and BANG BANG BANG, hat trick.
He got 26 League 1 goals, top scorer in the league.
We finished in the play-off places and beat Darlington in the final on penalties! We won the Johnstones Paint Trophy at Wembley too!

Then playing in the Championship........one word MISERABLE! Ashraf left as his loan was only one season, Derby wouldn't loan him again as he was in there first team plans for this season and I hadn't the money to buy him!
Talbot left at the end of his contract to Sheffield Wenesday. Our Irish wonderkid Phil Hogg (regen) left to Dundee for the prospect of Champions League football.
Made a few good signings but ultimately we finished 24th ;(

I then started the next season in League 1 and was going well, threatening for a play-off place but then BANG....FM 09 came out!

Back to the Present!
I have just started my new FM 09 game with Notts County and am hoping to improve on the success that I got on 08!
I plan to bring Notts County to the Premier League on 09!

Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks!
Finn
 
i dont know much about county, but how can they have been the first ever league club? only one team? must have won it i presume.
 
lol, they were the first football club in the world, founded in 1862 and helped found the football league!
 
ah. my claim to fame is i live where the team that won the first ever world cup come from. mind you the cup was kept in the working mens club and got nicked in the 90's.

the mighty West Auckland FC world cup winners 1909 & 1911

http://www.westaucklandtownfc.co.uk/worldcup.php

but Bishop Auckland have won the Amatuer FC cup more times than anyone else
 
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lol nice! I live nowhere near Notts County as I am Irish! My local team were founded last season! Wexford Youths, in the Irish first division :D
Anyways! Anyone got any advice for my county game?
 
Yeah there is! It's in county Wexford! I've been there a few times!
 
Has anyone got any advise or county experiences?
 
Goalkeeper!

Need a goalkeeper!
Both Russel Hoult and Kevin Pilkington are injured and I have no 3rd choice! My assistant has picked my left back Jamie Clapham as keeper for the next match!!!!!!!!
Anyone know any VERY cheap, like under 20K keepers that have low wage demands and would move to Notts County?
 
Yeah I am searching for a free at the moment!
 
If you can get him, Jan Budtz is a really good keeper for the lower leagues, you should be able to get him for a small fee or even free
 
14th August 08

UPDATE : 14th August 08

Results :
Notts County 1-0 Rochdale
Tranmere 2-0 Notts County

Transfers :

In :
Zoumana Bakayoko (Free Agent) Free
Lukas Jutkiewicz (Everton) Loan
James Chester (Man Utd) Loan
Terry Dixon (Free Agent) Free
Jamie Annerson (Sheffield Utd) Loan

Out :
Spencer Weir-Daley (Woking) Loan
Paul Mayo (Kettering) 18K

Summary :
Going ok so far although it's very early days! It would help if the club had more money as the board say there is not enough funds to upgrade youth or training facilities ^o)
There isn't enough good back-up for any position really so i'm going to need to bring in a few more players before the end of the summer! My wage budget is low though so I may need to offload a few first!
 
Just started a game with Notts after reading your posts thought id give it a go. so far played a few games and am currently mid table which tbh isnt too bad with the dire financial situation they find them selves in. I promoted Louis Pearson from the U18's and he scored first game to beat rotherem 2-0 which was great. I also brought in som others Willie Boland to bolster the midfield and the team aint looking to bad at the moment. However its a long season and my past experience isnt much to go by at LLM. good luck with ur team tho
 
It'd attempt to get Wrexham back in the football league but with 10k i can do nothing really can i :$X|
 
Maybe it's that Notts County are the earliest founded club that is currently in the football league!
Yeah Notts County have bad finance but 8 games in I'm 4th in the league with Richard Butcher (Centre Mid) as my top scorer with 5 goals!
 
.

It'd attempt to get Wrexham back in the football league but with 10k i can do nothing really can i :$X|
What you do there Ollie, is loan as many players as you can. Try get a good parent club that will send you good players on loan. Notts County also get 10K for transfers but I have signed loaned 4 players and signed two players on free transfers! I also signed Juho Makela for 12K and he's rated as my best player! If I was you I would have a go! You might be able to get back into the football league with your current squad and then see what budget you get next season to try and stay up!
 
Update

UPDATE :

Fans Welcome Makela to Meadow Lane
Brought in Juho Makela from Hearts at the last minute possible before the window closed! He was on the Hearts reserve team and I got him for a complete bargain at 12k!
He has scored 3 goals in 7 appearances with an average rating of 7.03 so far! He scored to goals in our 4-1 win over Gillingham but unfortunately picked up a two month injury while he was at it :(

Butcher Hat-Trick
Richard Butcher has been on fire this season scoring 5 goals in 8 league appearances. The most memorable match so far for the 27 year old centre midfielder was our 3-1 win over Dagenham and Redbridge at Meadow Lane. Butcher managed to score a hat-trick and his second of the three was selected as goal of the month!

Magpies Smash Gillingham as run goes on!
Notts County have won 4 - 1 against Gillingham to take them to three straight wins in the league.
It has been a strong start to the campaign by The Magpies.
Quality play in recent weeks has seen the team move into promotion contention and, although the season is still young, fans will be hoping the team can disprove predictions that the club would only suffer a season of midtable anonymity. The Magpies find themselves above all expectations so far this season in a remarkable 3rd place!
 
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