Championship Manager 99/00 - PART I

So I start my work in the English Conference League as the manager of Doncaster Rovers. The board expetations is to give the club a decent position in the league. The squad looks pretty good plus they have given me 120K for transfers, so I might be able to get a few players in the window.

Doncaster had poor staff so first thing I did was looking for some good coaches. Then of course I set the training rigors and divide players into groups. I have got four friendly games to check what I have in the squad and decide who is who in this team. It's not gonna be easy, as Rovers are rather one of the weakest team in league, but with a litte bit of luck this might be a good season.

TRANSFERS
First of all a lose my best player Mark Atkins. Bristol City has given a bid that I could not refuse. It was not that good but Atkins went angry when I first said "no". He stop attending trenings and started to bring some bad attitude to the team. So I let Atkins go. This is a big lost becouse aldought he is a bit old, the player still got a great skills (great passing around 80%) and can score some goals.

PLAYERS IN:
Calvin Dixon (GK, 19, English) - 30K from Stoke City
Gary Hamilton (FC, 19, Northern Irish) - 40K from Blackburn
Duncan Goodwin (SC, 25, English) - Loan from Kettering
Mark Gavin (AM, 35, English) - FREE
Steve Tobin (MCR, 27, English) - Loan from Altrincham
Julian James (DRC, 29, English) - FREE

PLAYERS OUT:
Mark Atkins (DM, 31, English) - 475K to Bristol City
Lee Warren (D/MRC, 30, English) - 15K to Livingston


I try to make Doncaster play as simple football as possible, so accept of trying players I use the friendlies to force my tactic. The first game I play away against Altrincham, the team that Rovers play week ealier in a friendly. We lost that game 0:4, so what can happen in a week...?
SQUAD
1. Calvin Dixon
2. Colin Sutherland (c)
3. Samuel Daho
4. Julian James
5. Scott Maxfield
6. Kevin McIntyre
7. Martin Foster
8. Shaun Goodwin
9. ian Duerden
10. Mirsad Bubalovic
11. Mark Gavin

After a really good game Rovers win 1:0 thanks to Julian James debut goal. Team playes exacly what I expected, good strong defence and simple attacking metods. As I look at it now I see that I don't know why I put Mirsad Bubalovic in the first squad instead of Mark Newell, who is twice as good striker. Nevertheless Rovers won their first game and then another one against Southport (1:0, Shaun Goodwin).


Great start is followed by a series of six disapointing games, with four losts and two draws. Roves fall in the table, but team get better and starts to play more decent, with better results. We get 5 wins and 3 draws in the next nine games.

Hereford - Doncaster 1:1 (Andy Watson)
Doncaster - Kingstonian 1:1 (Goodwin)
Morecambe - Doncaster 0:2 (Goodwin, Utley)
Doncaster - Kettering 2:0 (Watson, Tobin)
Telford - Doncaster 1:0
Doncaster - Morecambe 2:1 (Utley, Duerden) CONFERENCE CUP 1st Round
Doncaster - Heyes 1:0 (Barnard)
Doncaster - Marine 2:1 (Ignacio Ybarra 2) FA CUP Qual Round
Hednesford Town - Doncaster 1:1 (Ybarra)

The league is even so at that point Rovers are on 11th place, but they look like being able to fight for the top 8. Andy Watson, Ignacio Ybarra and Shaun Goodwin are players who get the team going and play a really decent football out there.

Unfortunetly game gets an error on 30.10.1999 and crashes. I tried with other teams and leagues and its the same all the time, crush on 30.10.1999. I did some search on the net and find some patches, but most of them don't work. I don't really remember how but after a 3 hours of searching and installing stuff I finaly managed to fix the problem but the save with Doncaster is already corrupted so no matter what I do it always crushes on 30.10.1999. I could start all over again but I just don't have a motivation to put all the time and effort all over again, so I can only imagine what whould my carrer in CM 99/00 came to.


Team: Doncaster Rovers
Country: England
Division: Conference
Work Period: 31.07.1999 - 30.10.1999

Stats:

Season 1999/00
Games: 17
Wins: 7
Draws: 5
Losts: 5
League: 11th
F.A. CUP - 1st Round
CONFERENCE CUP - 2nd Round