The Rivalry King

[riggytheowl]

The Rivalry King

Throughout history rivalries in football have been built on many things:​

Manchester United V Liverpool - The Manchester Ship Canal.
Barcelona V Real Madrid - Catalonian and Spanish nationalism.
River Plate V Boca Juniors - Class and wealth.
View attachment 300987
Now most of these origins no longer come into play, but the rivalries exist. In this story/ adventure I will be aiming to win as many derby games as I can. And not just the big ones either! Throughout this career I will endeavor to learn more about each rivalry and maybe learn some rivalries I didn't know existed. Let's face it The Tyne- Wier derby is one of the biggest in England, but it means nothing to the people of Sheffield if a Steel City Derby is around the corner. We will be taking part in some of the biggest spectacles, maybe Galatasaray V Fenabarche (the biggest game in Turkey) and some of the unsung heroes of the derby day world could be, Chester V Wrexham (the cross boarder rivalry that is the heaviest policed game outside of the football league).
View attachment 300986
It is also possible that to take part in these games we have to rebuild a club, after all we can't have a proper South Coast Derby until Portsmouth rocket up the leagues.
Logistically, I will be letting the game choose my first team. From the English, Romanian, Slovakian, Serbian and Ukrainian leagues (used a random number generator and it ended up very Eastern European). So we could be seeing a Partizan V Red Star grudge match, which I am sure we are all familiar with. But what about the Traditional Derby in Slovakia between Slovan Bratislava and Spartak Tnarva. Let's dive in and see.
View attachment 300984​

 

[riggytheowl]

So it Begins

So it begins!
And which far flung part of the former Eastern Block have we been sent to?
Well none as it turns out, the football manager gods have sent all the way darn Souf (down south for you non-northerners) where we have landed the job at none other than Sutton United.
View attachment 772059
FACFILE:
Est: 1898
Nickname: The U's
Stadium: Gander Green Lane
Most famous for: This win against Coventry
View attachment 300982
Main Rivals: Carshalton Athletic
Other Rivals: AFC Wimbledon, Kingstonian, Woking and Tooting and Mitcham

So as we can see, it could be a while before a big derby game comes along especially as not a single one of these teams is in the same league. Here's hoping we get someone good in the cup!​

 

[Lippo255]

Interesting idea, will be keeping an eye on this!

 

[riggytheowl]

Interesting idea, will be keeping an eye on this!

Cheers, unfortunately it may be a while until we get any actual rivalries happening.

 

[riggytheowl]

Pre-Season Struggles

Pre-Season Struggles
- A respectable start to pre-season ends in a drubbing
- Key players identified
- Weak areas strengthened decently
- An international flavour comes to Sutton
- We prepare for the first game against Whitehawk

Tactics


Firstly the tactics I am using to begin with, they will grow and change but this is a base I have had success with in this league before.
View attachment 300953
I have found this to be a nicely balanced tactic, with better finishing we could have won all but one of the pre-season games.

Key Players


So in Spillane, Lockwood and Clough we have a solid defense clearly our best players and our strongest area.
View attachment 300952View attachment 300951 View attachment 300950
In addition to these players, we have a young attacking threat in Haysman
View attachment 300949
Transfers

We were clearly lacking out wide and in the net so I addressed these areas early.
Locke comes in on a pay-as-you-play deal to improve the 'keeping situation.
View attachment 300948

Out wide we see Gibson on a free and Austin on loan from Cambridge Utd.
View attachment 300947View attachment 300946

Then we look to improve depth in attacking areas with Ismajli from Albania coming in on a free and Wall being loaned from Luton.
View attachment 300945View attachment 300944
One last player comes in, the young German/ Congolese right back Seidu looks a good prospect.
View attachment 300943

Results
On the face of it pre-season results were iffy, however, only the last two results really annoy me. It is apparent though that the tactics perform better against more attacking teams. And that we cannot defend set pieces.
View attachment 300942

Rival Watch
So we keep an eye on Woking as they are the team we are most likely to play first, pre-season wasn't kind to them either!
View attachment 300941

Next: First month of the season and possibly more signings​

 

[riggytheowl]

A Nightmare start

A Nightmare Start


- We only pick up 4 points from 15
- We concede 9 goals, 7 from dead ball situations
- Three new players sign
- Morale drops and fans question appointment

Results

So straight to the most painful part of the update, these five games. Whitehawk clearly outplayed us for the entire game, as did Concord but the other games were very even. Hopefully it's just luck that's deserted us.
View attachment 300875
Not much else to say about these games other than we clearly need to score more goals.

Signings


We signed three players this month which will probably be our last of the summer unless someone brilliant comes along. First we have two for the future that can be squad players straight away and one experienced head for the centre of midfield.
View attachment 300869View attachment 300867View attachment 300865

Spicer in particular needs to perform straight away.

The Table


As you can imagine, the table looks awful, but I expected to be in the relegation zone with a start like this, so silver linings and all that...
View attachment 300864

Player of the Month

There wasn't going to be a player of the month, and still kinda isn't. All we are doing here is crediting the guy scored our only goal this season. Bignall
View attachment 300863

Rivalry Watch

This months rivalry watch was going to be AFC Wimbledon but then I noticed the predicament Woking were in and thought it a small crumb of comfort.
View attachment 300862

Derby Fact

The first ever derby game, and indeed the first ever football fixture was the Rules Derby played between Sheffield FC and Hallam FC. Sheffield the first winners with a 2-0 victory. Future games between the sides got so violent one was dubbed the battle of Bramall Lane.

Next month: We hope to pick up points and smile again!
​

 

[riggytheowl]

Cross-hairs unaligned

Cross-hairs Unaligned
- We play better but still only have 5 goals in the league
- We can't hit the target and fail to win all month
- Slip into the bottom two
- Haysman and Austin show signs of life

Results
The results look bad, and they were, but we played better than last month and just couldn't put our chances away
View attachment 300764
We could have picked up at least twice as many points with accurate finishing.

FA Cup

​We do manage to get two goals in the FA Cup but it's only enough to earn us a replay
Table



The table looks bad, it is bad.

View attachment 300742

Hopefully we will climb the table if we can put some chances away.

Player of the Month
Interestingly we did have one or two good performances, and POTM goes to Haysman

View attachment 300738

Rivalry Watch


Both Wimbledon and Woking sit mid table so it looks like we'll need to go up to play them.

Derby Fact

It might be easy to think of Europe or South America when talking about fierce rivalries, but one of the biggest in the world takes place in Egypt between Al Ahly and Zamalek SC. The biggest derby in Africa currently sits at 91 - 52 to Al Ahly and was voted the 8th fiercest rivalry in the world
​

 

[riggytheowl]

On the Edge

On the Edge


- We get knocked out of the FA Cup
- Get an ultimatum from the board
- Striker Wall and left winger Austin start to take chances
- We finally climb out of the relegation zone

Results

As you can see we started the month by getting knocked out of the FA Cup. We played awful in that game and the first league game of the month. Following this we were told to take 12 points from 5 games to save our job, so I gave Austin more freedom on the left he duly delivered scoring in the next 2 games.
View attachment 300387

Basingstoke were actually top when we beat them, despite this run though we still have to pick up one win from our next two games playing 4th and 5th in the league.

Table

The table looks much better, would still like to be higher but it's progress in the right direction.
View attachment 300386

If we continue taking chances a mid table finish is easily possible from here.

Player of the Month

Goes to Austin, the Australian winger on loan from Cambridge, got us going after the terrible start to the season.

View attachment 300385

A shout out though to the players that made team of the week for the game against Wealdstone.

View attachment 300384


Rivalry Watch

We actually finally see our main rivals, Carshalton drawn against St Albans in the FA Trophy. We find ourselves drawn away to Maidenhead so the chances of us meeting are pretty slim.

View attachment 300381


Derby Fact

The historical rivalry between Real Madrid and Barcelona is well documented and the Spanish Vs Catalonian nationalism aspect has littered the fixture with many crude tasteless acts. None more obvious than the execution of the Barcelona president Josep Sunyol during the Spanish national revolt in 1939. More recently the unofficial referendum for independence was strongly supported by those at the top of Barcelona and opposed by those at Real.
​