I was going to restart my CM but to be honest I can’t be bothered, the game mixes all the squads up anyways with player transfers once the mode has started, and the transfer window was pretty dull overall. I can’t recall any major transfers, in England anyways, that for me were glaring enough to be too obvious.
I’m now way past halfway through season two with Newcastle, and am properly entrenched in mid table mediocrity, but that marks a success considering I’ve graduated from playing on Professional, all assisted controls, to World Class and a mix of semi and manual.
Things are looking up though, my season is still being kept alive by the cups, and I won the local derby with Sunderland. I love Ben Arfa's goal to seal the 3-1 win, the last goal of the three;
YouTube - Newcastle 3-1 Sunderland
Despite being dumped out of the League Cup by a Watford team on crack, I narrowly got through to the FA Cup fifth round with a home win over Wolves, thanks again to my keeper Krul's injury time save to win the game. This shows how impressive the keepers can be. His initial save was a bit of a blunder, though it was struck at him very hard, but the follow up save was pure class;
YouTube - Krul Save
Next up, I had an epic FA Cup fifth round tie away at Birmingham. They too came out at 200mph and I found myself unbelievably 0-3 down at half time. Game over. In the second half, however, I slowly took control and once I grabbed a consolation goal, they crumbled. My VP headed in a second with ten minutes to go, then substitue Moukandjo, whose insane pace tormented the Birmingham defence, somehow danced and jinked his way through a packed penalty area to snatch a replay late on. 3-3!
Three days later came the replay as my cup competitions are slowly causing a fixture pile up, and I comfortably defeated Birmingham 2-0.
Next up came a tough Europa League knock out first-leg match away to Rubin Kazan of Russia, who have a decent predigree in European competitions. I held out for a 1-1 draw in the snow, again, my VP deflecting the ball home in slightly bizarre fashion to take the lead, but a late equaliser saw me have to do a proper backs to the wall job to hold out for the 1-1 draw, and now I can take them back to St James’s Park for the second leg.
The fixtures are a nightmare though. I think I played three games in five days, meaning I have a match at Wigan then the tough second leg at home to Rubin Kazan with a depleted, knackered squad, half of whom are asking to be rested. I also have a CB selection headache, with a mini injury crisis seeing Santon have to fill in at CB. Yet more injuries mean I’ll have to field a CB pairing of maybe Santon, who is a LB and really low on energy, and Tiote or Flamini…
Love it!
