Richard007

Div 1 looks like it will be a tight league this season...

Are we putting all posts on this site, now, including match reports? If so, I'd like to say that my chaps at Northampton are playing quite well and have advanced to the next round of the cup. Thank you

Yes, I thought it looked a bit funny - just like the real thing

...but fair

I'm game to start contributing again - but the format is still awkward compared to the old version

Not really, old chum - I dont want to break up the squad - which I'm very happy with (also, too indebted to replace them)

Too true, a real shame

Div 2 - CARLISLE 1 NORTHAMPTON 5 Our best result of the season! Carlisle have led this division all year and had only conceded 4 goals at home before tonight. We got a big helping hand when they had a red card with the score at 1-1, but ran away with it and restricted our opponents to just 2 shots on target. We play 3rd and 4th placed teams next in the toughest run of matches we could have been given.

Northampton's Div 2 season has been a roller coaster thus far. Our form has been decent recently - but we started the season horriblly and really struggled for goals for a long time. Once we started to win a couple SMFA intervened by crocking most of our star players on a regular basis. Worst hit are our strikers - Benteke just returned from 3 weeks out and was immediately crocked for a further 3 weeks in his comeback game. I've not seen that happen before in 7 years of playing the game. A tough run coming up with a Quarter Final Shield match up at Div 1 Bolton taking place 2 days before we face Carlisle, the league leaders and hot favourites for the Div 2 title. We've beaten Div 1 opposition in the previous round, but away at Bolton is a much sterner proposition than Derby at home, whom we trounced convincingly . I think promotion to Div 1 has to be our priority, so I guess Bolton fans are in for an easy match and can book their semi final tickets now. With so much talent sidelined we haven't got the squad to mount a challenge on both fronts.

A lot of people missed this start-up, I think. If you open a new GW with a forum base, can you post news of it in EC7046?

After a dismal start to our season Northampton have come good of late to edge up the table and into 2nd spot in Div 2. Our shoddy away form has improved since we put out a more attacking formation when travelling which has also seen us start to score a lot more. We got to playoffs last season and looking to go one better this time around. We've had horrendous injury problems all season which has seen fringe players like Di Santo and Arnold play more regularly and they've done well. Di Santo was the last signing I made before going horribly into debt and I have big hopes that he can still reach 90. Next up we play Div 1 Derby in the Shield. Whilst promotion from Div 2 is the priority ahead of the Shield, we're in the last 16 and I have to play to win it (and put out my best XI).

I think I've finally worked out this new forum thingy - but you have to be a NASA space shuttle pilot to understand it immediately. Another good season in 7046 well underway, with some outstanding performances by promoted sides, particularly Sheff United who were the best team in Div 2 last season and now vying for the Title in Div 1. Division 2 will also be a good contest with some decent sides in contention.

Re: English Championship 7046 Discussion Thread Goats and Monkeys ! The run-in from hell. Northampton prove themseves to be the "Newcastle" of SMFA Division 2. Today was a bad day for the appropriately monikered "Cobblers". We've been in the top 2 or 3 all season, but have recently become the Origami Men of Division 2 (completely folding under pressure). Just when we needed to finish strongly we've ended the season with an abject run of form. I've become the John Carver of SMFA. We haven't won for weeks, we haven't dominated a match for ages and I appear to have absolutely no grasp of tactics. I've even got an 82 ranked player who demands to be played in the first team and who remains "mildly unhappy" even though I'm paying him more in a week than I earn in a year. (If you don't like it here mate, then go back to your own country). Throughout the current season I've doggedly stuck with 3-5-2 formation at home and a 5-3-2 away. I've used high tempo, snarling, combative tactics which should be attractive to watch - but produce perfomaces more boring than the Eurovision Song Contest. In other game worlds, this enterprising approach has taken me on 28 match unbeaten runs, 100 goal seasons and "Manager of The Year" awards . Here, it takes me on 7 match winless runs, fan protests, home defeats against the bottom clubs and widespread scorn. To freshen things up, I tried a 4-2-3-1 today and barely crossed the half way line. My attackers are truly inept - Bony is just here for the paycheck. My midfield generals are a bunch of gutless cowards. My defence is made up people I've never heard of and rarely seen on TV - and the kids I have in the youth team are taking ages to get their rating increases. So, here's an open invitation to all of you predatory managers in 7046 to have a raid on my squad. I'm prepared to let Varane (90), Bony (90), Pogba (92) and Lovren (89) and Deulofeu (87) leave Northampton. You can clean out my youth team as well. All the above are decent - some clearly more attractive than others. However, for Pogba or Varane you would also have to take either Rossi (91) or Paulinho (91) as part of the deal - and I'd expect something decent in exchange. So a 2-for-2 package that gives both sides something to be pleased about. No silly proposals please and nothing that requires any cash from me. I'm £50m in the red already. Make me the sort of offer you might accept yourself.

Re: English Championship 7046 Discussion Thread