Only one defeat in our last 12 games would usually be a great record, leaving January we had a 13 point lead at the top of the table, but only 5 wins and 6 draws from our final 12 games meant that second place Watford, who kept winning, had clawed the lead back to just 4 points.
No league table scripting helping the player here, this was a raw, tense and difficult run-in to the title.
I’m pretty sure the difficulty is ramped up when you are chasing a title in FIFA 19, these matches felt much harder than the previous games, teams were tighter, pressured me more and more clinical each team wanted a say in the where the title was going, and it showed.
During the run-in, due to injuries and an already thread-bare squad, I promoted Youth Player, Palmer (CF) to the first team, and gave him his debut, in which he showed great promise, a stocky, powerful player with a 92 OVR potential, I’ve been training him up to increase speed, agility and finishing, all these traits were on show as he grabbed a goal on his debut appearance, out-muscling the defender and finishing neatly off the bar, the other goal in the clip below shows RMF Damm grabbing his 19th of the season to claim the league top scorer award.
So, with 2 games left to play and a 4 point difference between us and Watford, the title race was on, a two-horse race, here is how it played out:
I Love the commentary, setting out the requirements, the atmosphere, and the general big-match immersion that FIFA 19 creates, it adds so much more to the experience and enjoyment and reward of winning a title.
Champions!!!
We did it, a draw was enough to clinch the title, finally edging out Watford by just 2 points. An amazing, and thoroughly enjoyable season, topped up with my first trophy within the game.
As mentioned, Jurgen Damm was m top scorer with 19, goals were quite evenly spread throughout the squad, with Josh King bagging a respectable 13 goals too.
The Title win and promotion saw the board grant me a £90 million transfer kitty, enough to prepare the squad for a tough season in the top flight, I have already made 3 pre-contract signings in Suarez (CF), Olivier Torres (CM) and Balbuena (CB), and also added to these with the £24 million signing of Adam from Wolves at RMF and the £13 million signing of LB Spinazzola from Juventus, we now have good players in each position, some good cover and a host of promising youth players in reserve who will be trained, developed and loaned out.
Of course, the Flagship signing was this guy:
Really looking forward to playing with Suarez in the Premier League.
This will be my likely starting XI for the first game of the new season:
And finally, a nice goal scored by Olivier Torres on his debut in the Pore-Season Champions Cup tournament, in a narrows 2-1 loss to Athletico Bilbao:
Roll on Next Season!
FIFAFX.com 
Paul – Congratulations and very well deserved over the course of the season. Speaking from experience it gives the game much more meaning when you come back after relegation as next time you will be determined for that to not happen again.
Meanwhile things are developing in my Fleetwood career. I had a difficult 4 away games on the trot last night. My aim beforehand was to get through these fixtures and still keep in touch with the play off spots. I was 10th and 3 points behind 6th place. I battled with intensity to win 2 and draw 2. The difference is now 6 points with me having a game in hand on the teams above me. I would have settled for that. Thanks to a home league game being being postponed I have another away fixture next and travel to Derby. After that the majority of my remaining games are at home. I have also booked a place in the FA Cup Quater Finals having won 2-0 at Derby (good sign). I don’t know my opponents yet as there are replays to be settled. There is still a League 1 team and a couple of Championship teams still in the draw, so things could open up for me. This is what it is all about.
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Thanks Darryl. It was a nice accomplishment especially the way it played out with Watford really making a go of it late on.
I stumbled across the line.
Good luck with your play off surge!!
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It is also a sign of how immersed you are into a game when I found myself applauding the Fleetwood travelling fans after the Derby game. Sad but true.
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Haha. Nice one Darryl. The crowd atmosphere is superb. Chants of ‘Nottingham Forest FC, we’re by far the greatest team, the world has ever seen’ and ‘Championes, championes’ ringing around the ground when we secured the title.
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Paul – but surely they were chanting “Nott’m Forest FC”?! 🙂
Congrats and the meaning of this promotion is evidently greater than the last. Now you must have bonded with Forest to the extent that you want to do a Cloughie with them?
A word on league table scripting, or rubber-banding: I think you were definitely rubber-banded here. It’s there to work against you when you’re a long way ahead, as well as for you when you’re a long way behind. In game design it’s meant to keep the contest ‘interesting’.
I love that ball you’re using there.
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Paul – Congrats on the bounce-back promotion. Lovely shiny trophy too.
It’s going to be very interesting to see how things pan out in the Premier League second time around for your Forest. Suarez will surely help. I’m a bit surprised you’ve been so quick to drop your top scorer and headline-friendly Damm so quickly though.
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Surely the chant would indeed be “Notts Forest, Notts Forest, Notts Forest!”
Congratulations on Promotion Mark II. How much left in the kitty after those signings? A RB looks in order?
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NG – Fully Agree, and was quite evident that the COm team chasing me suddenly stepped up their game, and the teams I played were much harder to play against during that title run-in, and it works, it did make it tense and more enjoyable than a title won by 10+ points.
The half Red/White ball? Yeah looks really nice in-game, its the Adidas neo-glider ball, also comes in blue/yellow. I have redeemed loads of my FIFA GP in on the EA catalogue and bought about 30 different balls.
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Shed – That team screenshot was taken after the first game of the pre-season tournament, I was just trying out the new signings, Damm will probably start as first choice RMF, with the new signing having to force his way in.
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Jay – I realigned my budgets to around £80 million transfer funds, giving me £300k wages to play with, after signing Adama Traore from Wolves, and Spinazolla I have around 38 milk left to play with still, and yes, I am currently scouting a few RB’s, thats my priority signing.
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Well done Paul. How is Hart doing? Sometimes in FIFA I have found keepers can seemingly play above their OVR, and they often end up being the lowest rated player in my teams.
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Cheers Chris99 – Hart has been a sensation, hes 36 now, but still 78 OVR, and has pulled off some amazing saves for me this season, jot just that but he comes out and sweeps up really well too.
I put Pantimillion (71 OVR) back in for the pre-season tournament just to give Hart a rest, and he immediately came for and didn’t get to a cross, flapped and their CF nodded in from 8 yards.
I’m trying to sign a new GK and move Pantimillion on.
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Paul – the half red/white ball reminds me so much of my all-time favourite footy game ball (sad that I have one, I know, but I do). It’s the half black/white one from PES5.
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NG – if i am not mistaken that PES 5 ball was also an adidas ball, no?
Great progress there Paul, now you’ll be determined to never slip back down into the CHampionship, I’ll bet. Bought FIFA myself this weekend as well, couldn’t just let it sit there with 43% off. Tried a match, nice heavy feel. It’ll be waiting when I’m all PES’ed out.
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Is t that the puma evo ball NG? Was in PES up until recently? As that was my fave too. You can keep balls. Faces. Tattoos, but I’m a ball white every day of the week. I have over 47 to choose from in Fifa.
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Great news #1 – you won’t look back 😉
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I have been long overdue a rant.
Last night I eagerly started my session with 15 games left to push for a play off spot. On the back of good form I was confident and had Derby away next who I beat comfortably at thier place just recently. As the little one had the Internet on beforehand to play PVZ it meant patch 1.05 was ready and waiting for me.
I knew the game plan I was going to use. All of a sudden Derby looked like they had been on steroids and ping ponged the ball all over the place with the game played at a frantic pace. By half time they had 27 shots. By full time I had lost 5-0 with Derby having 41 shots of which 29 were on target. The rest of the nights games all seemed more frantic and I came out of it with losing 2 and winning 2.
I looked on the Operation Sports forum afterwards and the feeling about the patch was similar. I do respect opinion on there as they are sensible folk. The reason for my rant is that I am heavily invested in this career mode as season 6 comes to a conclusion. This is the 5th patch now and every time I have to re-adjust to new conditions. Slowly but surely we are being taken away from that slow, heavy ball game that I loved on day one.
Going back to one of the first patches and EA Sports put out a bold statement saying as a result of the positive feedback they were not going to make many changes to the gameplay and wanted people to adapt to the game as it was. Since then we are in patch 5 and it is only November. The patches have also come with significant changes to the gameplay and CPU behaviour as detailed quite heavily in the patch notes. If they carry on changing the goal posts in this manner then I may have no other alternative but to pick up my ball and walk.
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Darryl – I’ve been using patch 1.05 ever since it came out and have to say, I don’t see any of what you mention.
Admittedly the games felt a bit harder, hence my title run-in of 6 draws in 12 games, but its for the better.
Teams definitely don’t ping pong all over me and the pace is the same as it always was.
Maybe a one-off match?
You could always defect and play the other game that’s devoid of soul, where every team plays identically and you play every match in a 60,000 euro bowl stadium with about as much atmosphere as an undertakers xmas party.
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Paul – that is part of the issue as if it is harder then it is changing the conditions and could not come as a worse time for me as I am right at the business end of the season. It could be a one of or session variance and am hoping so as 41 shots is hardly reflective of a football match. I think the new patch for consoles only landed yesterday.
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41 shots is a ridiculous amount to be fair Darryl,an I thought the 1.05 patch was out last week? or maybe I just saw it announced, if it was yesterday then I haven’t played with it yet as didn’t play last night./
Will report back on my findings tonight.
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Hi Paul – you will have seen it announced as it was released last week but was only available for PC players. It dropped onto the consoles sometime yesterday. Will be interested in your thoughts but it appears to have made the game even harder. I will give it the benefit of doubt for now but that first game wasn’t a great opener for the patch.
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Darryl – I will test later and let you know.
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Things have calmed down after Patchgate. Sometimes you forget you have the power to slow down matches as it is easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of a high tempo game. I won 3 and drew 2 of last nights session. I am now in 8th just 1 point behind the play off spots with 5 matches left. I play Brentford next who are 5th and 2 points ahead of me. My last game of the season is at home to Blackburn who are currently 6th. So it is all to play for.
Going back with 20 matches left I found myself in 13th and a 6 point deficit With a whole host of teams bunched up it hasn’t been easy to claw this back as I have just chipped away at the deficit. If I did get into the play-offs it would be my best achievement on FIFA. I have taken a lower league team into the Premership in the past but that was on Proffesional with sliders in my favour.
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Darryl – new post up at 10am.where I discuss the patch.
Great achievement on the play-offs push, fingers crossed for you.
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