My Football Manager 2021 journeyman series is now well and truly underway, as Shama Deadman begins his managerial career in the Welsh second division.
In Part 1, Shama met his Cambrian & Clydach squad for the first time. Today’s chapter will see him take the Cam Army through the first three months of their league campaign, as they bid for promotion to the Cymru Premier.
But might there already be signs of a dispute between manager and chairman? And should you always believe what the papers say? Let’s hear Shama’s side of the story…
COACHING COURSE DISCOURSE
Before taking over at Cambrian & Clydach, I asked a few journeyman managers for some advice on how to start my new career. They all said the same thing – take a coaching course as soon as possible, and ask your club to pay for it.
Finances were tight in the Welsh second tier, but I thought I’d ask our chairman Phill Williams if he would pay for me to study for my National C Licence.
“No. I don’t think it’d be beneficial for you at this time.”
“Of course it would! I’m new to management and want to get my qualifications done early, so I can be useful on the training ground.”
“Gareth Southgate didn’t have any qualifications when he became Middlesbrough manager, and look at him now!”
I then pointed out that the board had just agreed to send player/assistant manager Mark Crutch on a course for his C Licence, and asked why they wouldn’t do the same for me.
“We’re worried that getting a coaching badge could lead to a bigger club coming in for you – and we don’t want to lose you.”
“Of course you’re not gonna lose me – certainly not any time soon! I’ve only been here a month! But I take it that you’re not worried about losing Crutches to a bigger club?”
“It’s different. We’re just helping Mark with his studies so that he’s ready to become our manager in the future. Anyway, can’t you pay for the course yourself?”
“I wish I could, Phill. But I’m on 170 quid a week here, and I’m having to work three days a week as a daffodil salesman just to keep a roof over my head!”
[Also, Football Manager doesn’t allow you to pay for your own coaching studies. Just a thought, Sports Interactive. -Chris]
Sensing that I was fighting a losing battle, I went for the last trick in the book – the one response that all my fellow journeymen said was guaranteed to make chairmen go weak at the knees.
“If you don’t grant this request, I can see us being left behind by our rivals.”
“You think you can try that on me, Shama? That response only ever works on video games!”
At that point, I was left with two options – back down, or issue an ultimatum. I was tempted to tell Phill that he’d be regretting this decision when I win the 2044 Champions League with Southampton, but I then figured it wasn’t a good idea to get sacked from my first job after five weeks.
So I admitted defeat… for the time being. I would have to be patient, and perhaps try to win Phill over on the pitch before he would let me study for my C Licence.
SEPTEMBER 2020
My managerial career officially began on 19 September 2020, as Cambrian kicked off the Cymru South season at home to Goytre United. From what I’d seen of us in pre-season (and even in our early League Cup exit to Llanelli Town), we looked pretty solid defensively. That was still true here, as winger Lewis Ellis gave us this rather fortunate 8th-minute opener before we battled our way to a narrow 1-0 win:
Classic semi-pro football. To be fair, it took a magical long ball from our 17-year-old right-back Morgan Rowling to play Ellis through. I’d like to hear what his distant relative JK thinks of that… actually, on second thoughts…
Ellis also gave us the lead in our first away game at Afan Lido, seven minutes into the second half. Sadly, captain Ceri Morgan – who made the assist – went from hero to villain four minutes later, giving away the penalty that led to Lido salvaging a point.
It was a fairly similar story when we hosted Llantwit Major. A missed header from Jarrad Wright sent Llantwit’s striker clean through and basically forced his centre-back partner Connor Young to concede a penalty, which the visitors converted. Thankfully, attacking midfielder Liam Edwards saved the day with a vicious equaliser that made it back-to-back 1-1 draws.
Five points from our first three games. Could we build on that solid start?
OCTOBER 2020
Edwards banged in another leveller when we faced an unexpectedly tough game against Cwmbran Celtic, who’d lost their first three games. Unfortunately, the rest of our team let us down, and another mistake by Wright saw Celtic take the lead for the second – and decisive – time. So much for our unbeaten record!
Next up was an Ammanford side whose star striker was 43-year-old Lee Trundle – yes, THE showboating Swansea cult icon! We couldn’t afford to give Trundle too many chances, so naturally, we handed him a simple penalty on the half-hour mark. Edwards did grab us a draw with his third goal in as many games, but carelessness was costing us again.
And then came Pontypridd. 15 minutes in, Rowling gave away our FOURTH penalty in six games – and he also strained his groin in the process. After the Dragons scored their spot-kick, our teenage right-back tried to run off his injury… but he wasn’t fooling anybody.
Rowling was subbed a minute later, and our other full-back also failed to survive until half-time. Left-back Cam Strinati‘s failure to clear a free-kick led to Pontypridd going 2-0 up in the 24th minute. When Calamity Cam put a simple back-pass out for a corner kick a few minutes later, I hooked him immediately.
Though Ellis drew us level with a couple of goals early in the second half, we would eventually fall to a 3-2 defeat, leaving us just above the relegation zone on goal difference.
We clearly needed new full-backs, but before I could bring them in, we had to visit Undy in Round 1 of the Welsh Cup. Undy looked the better team throughout a low-quality contest, though they wasted several scoring opportunities. It wasn’t until midfielder Kyle Jones lost the ball in our area six minutes from time that they finally drew blood, putting us on the verge of a disastrous early exit.
But then 17-year-old striker Dylan Reid came to the rescue. Deep into injury time, Reid led a late Cambrian counter-attack, threading the ball through to Edwards to poke in a dramatic equaliser. That took the tie into extra-time, where Dylan banged in a long-ranger in the first half before doubling his tally in the second. That secured us a 3-1 win, and a place in Round 2 against non-league Bridgend Street.
No, NOT Pigeon Street! [Sigh]
Anyway, I signed a couple of free-agent full-backs who might actually know how to defend. Former Holyhead left-back Joe Donovan is a good decision-maker who is also fairly athletic. Meanwhile, London-born teenager Lewis Foster is an aggressive but intelligent right-back who previously played for Salford and Bangor City.
Donovan and Foster made their Cambrian debuts at home to Swansea University. In the first half, we just about held firm against the high-flying amateurs, who had two goals disallowed before half-time. However, after midfielder Dai Thomas was sent off for a reckless tackle early in the second half, we fell apart and suffered a 2-0 defeat that plunged us into the relegation zone.
At that point, I’d already started fining players a week’s wages for poor performances. For Kyle Jones (one of our few semi-pros, and one of our worst offenders), that’s £90 a pop. I’m not quite sure how it works with our non-contracted players, though. Does Phill phone up their employers and ask them to dock their salary on our behalf?
I was also being more critical of anyone who slacked off in our twice-weekly training sessions. One player in particular didn’t like this.
Liam Reed might have scored a few goals in pre-season, but he was still a mediocre backup winger who’d played one league game for us this year. We wouldn’t miss him.
Next up were Carmarthen, who had won their first seven games and were already hot favourites to return to the Cymru Premier. Early substitute Sam Jones gave us a shock half-time lead from 30 yards out, having come on at left-wing after Edwards bruised his knee. It didn’t last, as the Old Gold struck twice after the break to inflict more pain.
The lopsided 4-4-2 wasn’t really working, so I adopted a more conventional 4-3-3 for our next away game at Port Talbot. The Steelmen opened the scoring (from their only shot on target) before an unlikely hero saved us a point. Edwards’ corner was flicked goalwards by Young, and my 37-year-old assistant Crutches staggered across to tap it in from a yard out!
A draw was obviously better than nothing, but after seven league games without a win, we were very much struggling in that bottom three. Something needed to change, especially as our next match was at home to the team directly above us.
NOVEMBER 2020
Before Taffs Well paid us a visit, I made some tweaks to my ‘Christmas tree’ home tactic, making it less fast and direct – and a bit more methodical. The changes paid off when Ryan Prosser broke his duck to give us a 1-0 half-time advantage, which Edwards then turned into a 5-1 rout. After doubling our initial lead, the youngster then laid on assists for Wright, Prosser and Kyle Jones to lift us out of the danger zone.
After getting an extremely rare 10.0 match rating, I wanted to show my appreciation to Liam, who was already on 5 goals and 5 assists for the season. It, er, could’ve gone better!
Edwards got a well-earned rest when we faced Bridgend Street in Round 2 of the Welsh Cup. Joshua Williams gave us an early lead before Crutches doubled it, but our defence almost threw it away in the final few minutes. Our amateur visitors even had an injury-time equaliser ruled out for offside, but we survived and secured a Round 3 date with Tredegar.
Our big guns returned a week later against Llanelli Town, but the Reds halted our resurgence by beating us 1-0 for the second time this season. While they left it very late to beat us in the League Cup, they were much quicker off the mark here, scoring in the second minute. We were pretty awful over the next 88, failing to convert several equalising chances.
We were much better at Briton Ferry – or at least we were for the first hour. Prosser fired in a couple of excellent strikes from outside the box in the first half, and when Edwards made it 3-0 in the 58th minute, it looked like a comfortable win was in the bag. However, we then lost our discipline and conceded twice before scraping home 3-2 winners.
That was our first away league this season, but we couldn’t follow it up at second-from-bottom Trefelin. Despite having a player sent off early in the second half, Trefelin hit us on the break to go ahead moments later. Once again, we needed Edwards to bail us out and save us from an embarrassing defeat.
And so, as we near the halfway point of the season, Cambrian & Clydach are just four points clear of the relegation zone. A top-half finish is certainly not beyond us, but we need to secure our survival first and foremost.
And the board still won’t let me take a coaching course. Brilliant.
Some early teething problems for Shama, then, as he struggles to keep Cambrian & Clydach safe from danger.
Please join me again on Monday for Part 3, where we go through the winter months, and the new transfer window gives Shama his first opportunity to make major changes to the Cambrian squad. And who knows, he might finally get his one big wish.
Thanks for reading!
Fuller FM 
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