Hattrick Season 70

[Eastheath]

Well, the intention was to PIC and prep for the qualifier next week.
OK, we remembered to PIC.
What we didn't expect were three injuries in the first half to first teamers, a +3, +2 and a +1. I was playing first teamers for training purposes and in order not to lose 0-12. Anyway, thanks to the injuries we lost 0-5 anyway.
Fortunately the draw has been relatively kind, we are at home to a team that has a third of our TSI. However we will be a few men short, and they are on a winning roll. We will just have to go for it, wont we....

[Donut102]

I won the final game of the 3-1 on a MOTS, but used the kids and future coaches for experience training.

I finished 2nd on goal difference, and the winner just scrapped over the auto promote line - so a chance of a bot coming down.

Overall a pretty good season, losing only 2 competitive games.
In the Cup I made it through to R7 for the first time. I knocked out one prem opponent, and lost to the eventual winner of the Cup.
In the League I only lost one match to the eventual league champion.

Roll on season 71!

[UncleIan]

The qualifier

I checked with my opponent he wasn't planning on throwing the game, he wasn't, so I sold my best IM. A home grown 24 year old with titanic (15) PM, formidable (9) passing and brilliant (11) set pieces. £2.6m to you squire! I put that down in the "proceeds from the youth team" column right? Should keep my ancient scouts in rich tea biscuits for a bit.

Looked at my opponent and figured I didn't really have a chance, so went with a 4-5-1 CA MOTS(why not?) with the hope of nicking a goal to keep spirits up. The first half was a succession of missed chances, and we rode our luck a bit, my Head specialist defender ended up on the same wing as a technical forward, who ran rings round my guy, but missed the resulting chance. We fluffed a couple of counter attacks, and the first half ended 1-0. Second half went to form a bit more, and they scored three unanswered goals to deliver my [expletive deleted] on a plate. 4-0 final score. Hardly surprising with 70% possession. Chances were 11-4, so while a goal would have been nice, the result seems fair.

IV.15 for another season.

In the other qualifiers our soon-to-be-a-bot lost, so there'll be new blood there, while 5th managed 0-0 after extra time, then won 3-1 on penalties.

[Eastheath]

Despite the two injuries that sidelined a first team defender and attacker, we had a fairly easy qualifier to retain our place in series IV.
Three goals from defenders and two goals from one of the three forwards, gave us a 5-1 win.
The other qualifier went to the incumbent as well, and the league winner lost his qualifier, so its just two new teams coming up to our league next season, whose rankings suggest we will do well to finish 6th.
We slog on....

[Bink333]

England went full MoTs away to Sweden on Friday who were PIN and expecting us to CA so went offensive. It was the right strategy, but the Swedes were fighting tooth and nail to keep their Q2 hopes alove and despite England being 53% to win on the replays we lost our first game this season 5-1. The scoreline was harsh, and in no way reflected England's best ever hatstats rating (just eclipsing what we did against Japan on a MoTs away from home half-way through Q1). Wales were 53% to beat Japan but against the odds the CA'ing Japan managed to get a 4-4- draw, and a point. That means they are a point ahead of Sweden with a game to go. Both are playing games they should win against rebuilding countries, but losing a powerhouse nation like Sweden at this stage means we won't have to beat them again later in the competition, and given how hard they have been to beat, that's a relief.

My English team has demoted to IV.2 (no qualifier). I sold my ex-Albumen set piece taker for a small loss, Ian gets some mother club munny. A team that supports me Croft Town is in IV.2, and I met their manager at a mid-week social drinks thing a couple of weeks ago. That means it should at least be entertaining banter-wise.

I went to Scotland for an Edinburgh social at the weekend, and thoroughly enjoyed it, met the previous tournament's Scottish NT manager (Steve) as well as Red and Derim- who feature highly on the Prem's historical standings, along with the Wales Press Editor. Love Edinburgh, shame I was only there for a night.

After the Social, at 4am my Oceanic team had a qualifier, I MoTsed with 274 hatstats and won 8-2. 3 of the 1st team have been transfer listed, and winger training has started, 3 seasons at 5%, before finishing off with 3 seasons of defence and then set pieces.

My South African side were next up, and lost their qualifier 3-2 playing normal with 162 hatstats. The III opponent produced 182. My YA GK (David Wickham) capped at mid-solid during a friendly mid-week so is now training defending and set pieces. He'll be promoted at 17/0 to become my primary training focus during the coming season. Defending currently poor, and 42 days to go.