#howayblyth

The decision of where to manage in a new iteration of Football Manager is always a tricky decision. Previously I have tended to default to my home-town team, Grimsby Town, but as mentioned previously I do like a good LLM challenge. Sure the Mariners are in League Two, but is that really LLM? Not for me. Three promotions would see me in the Premiership. Where's the challenge in that? 😉

No, true LLM, for me, begins in non-league. The lower the better. I talked last time about my time in FM16 at Cleethorpes Town. Level 9 through to level 1 and a Champions League final (yet to be played, so still potential winners!). That's the LLM I am talking about. As far as I know, the standard FM18 database will follow the usual trend and go down to level 6 in England - the National League North & South. So I had two leagues to choose from.

I've always had a soft spot for Dulwich Halmet. I lived in Camberwell in south London for a few years in the late 90s and their Champion Hill ground was only a mile and half down the road. I never actually managed to make a game, mind, but the option was always there, y'know. They were my 'local' team. Imagine how disappointed I was when I realised they're in the Isthmian League Premier Division, or level 7 of the pyramid. Ooh, so close! #pinkandbluearmy.

After that little misfire I decided it would be prudent to actually look at the contents of the National League North & South rather than just pluck teams out of a hat and then check what league they play in. That little bit of research followed and I narrowed my potential selection down to six teams - five in the North and one in the South:
- FC United
- Salford City
- Gainsborough Trinity
- North Ferriby United
- Blyth Spartans
- Truro City

The first two I can blame on my dad. He's from Manchester, the red side not the blue, and the connections to those first two clubs are obvious. The next two are due to my love of Grimsby Town. Being relatively local, quite often released Mariners or young Town players seeking football on loan would end up at either of those two clubs. I figured if I wasn't going to manage Grimsby directly I could at least manage players with a Grimsby connection. My final two choices are a bit more random. Blyth I chose because a friend of a friend supports them, follows them around the country and has a lot of fun. Truro was more random still. I have no connection to Truro. I have no connection to Cornwall. I've never even been further south in England than the Isle of Wight. I just fancied making all those opposition teams endure endless coach trips down the A30.

I decided that the two north-west teams were too 'trendy' so ruled them out, and the two 'local' teams seemed too similar to my Cleethorpes team to make it interesting. I had spent six or seven of my 12 seasons in that save playing at The Circle in Hull while my ground was upgraded. I really didn't want to have history repeat itself in that way. So that left two. Blyth and Truro. The Spartans and the White Tigers. I couldn't have picked two more geographically opposed teams if I'd tried.

In the end it came down to connections. Having a remote, distant emotional connection to Blyth won the day. I will be homed up in the far north-east for FM18. And anyway, who wouldn't want to manage a club called the Spartans?