London Calling #1: The Non-League Haaland?

Yes lads and lasses it's the best day of the year for nerds like myself as Football Manager 2023 is finally unleashed into the gaming wild. For my long-term save on the game I'll be aiming to rule the footballing world using clubs only from the Greater London area (I explain in a little bit more detail here). Our adventure begins in the Vanarama National League South at Champion Hill with Dulwich Hamlet, here's how the opening stanza of my time with the club unfolded. 


My task with my new club is clear, I'm expected to reach the VNS play-offs and utilise players that are 23 and under to fit in with the club's ethos. As a firm believer in bringing through youth, I'm more than happy with this. I made a couple of forays into the transfer market and brought in some highly rated young players. My first piece of business sees 19-year-old central defender Andi Janjeva join the club and he is swiftly followed through the door by 25-year-old former Arsenal goalkeeper Ryan Huddart and the very highly rated teenage midfielder Benjamin Heal who comes to South-East London following his release from West Ham. 




After an unbeaten pre-season that takes in wins over the likes of Dereham and AFC Sudbury before culminating with an impressive 2-1 win over National League side Aldershot, it's time for the serious business to begin..

Despite the new signings, it's one of our current players who grabs the headlines as Danny Mills (no, not that one) scores an astonishing FIVE goals on the opening day of the season as we prevail from an eight-goal thriller to defeat Braintree Town 5-3. After going behind three times, Mills puts us ahead with just over 20 minutes to go before sealing the victory with three minutes left on the watch. 


For his part in the win, Mills is named in the first VNS team of the week of the season and he's joined in the all-star team by our midfield pair of Frankie Raymond and Nana Owusu. 


Our man Mills is on the scoresheet again as we ascend to the top of the table for the first (and hopefully not last) time of the season following a 2-0 win away at Farnborough. Super Danny opens the scoring with a sixth minute penalty before grabbing what proves to be the winner with three minutes of the first half remaining. 

Despite it being too early in the campaign for the result to have any meaning, it's always exciting to play in a top of the table clash and that's how we'll end our first instalment as we travel to Canvey Island in Essex to face Concord Rangers. We draw first blood as Mills nets his eighth goal of the season from the spot ten minutes into the second half. Our 100% record sadly evaporates eleven minutes from time when Concord midfielder James Blanchfield grabs a point for the home side which is probably deserved as neither side particularly did anything worthy of winning the game but also didn't deserve to lose either. 

Seven points from a possible nine and top of the table, I'll take that, for now...

I'll be back on Sunday as we start our second blog adventure for this season by travelling back to 1997 in my attempt to steer Juventus to Serie A glory in Championship Manager 97-98. 

Ciao For Now!!

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