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Interview with DavidC8

Written by DavidC8

An interview with DavidC8 whose team is now the lowest ranked remaining in R9 of the English Cup.

You are through into the last 16, R9 because your team, Wanderers Reunited, won on penalties last week (568915127). Were you watching this one live, and did you set penalty takers?

Yes to both, fortunately. I've recently moved to Australia so cup matches have 5am kick offs, and as soon as my girlfriend left for boot camp (5.40) I logged in to HT. I saw that I was 3-1 down and shrugged at a fairly expected outcome. As one of my league mates was 3-3 up against Anders (568915122), I started watching that with more interest than in for my own game. Obviously, our fortunes swapped through the second half. My game genuinely took me on a bit of a roller coaster as I took the lead in extra time and was cursing the demise of the golden goal rule. I was then behind in the penalty contest, but then came back again to win it in sudden death. Fortunately, by that point, my girlfriend was back and in the shower, so she missed me punching the air at the winning penalty.

You took charge of this team on 28/03/08. This is your 7th season in Div III of your 16 seasons and the furthest you've progressed in the cup. Can you push on from here?

Each season I keep thinking that this'll be the one I promote out of III.13, and finally test myself in II, but it's a really tight division. Every season we make a prediction and you could easily swap any of the top 3/4/5 based on luck and fixture orders. Hopefully, I can manage to reach II before everyone gets too old, but III.13 has been great fun so far. I probably don't pay enough attention to the detail to make a proper go of Div II anyway!

Your manager page suggests that you support Wycombe Wanderers. After 112 appearances for the club Gareth Ainsworth was promoted to become manager. Presumably this wasn't done to magically cure any injury, but in hattrick terms how would he be described as the coach?

Yep, a Wycombe fan but a I've become a bit detached for a range of reasons. I do still have a few of our classic Martin O'Neill squad, as my reserves, though.
I imagine in Hattrick terms that Gareth was probably permanently bruised but training, and sliding downwards to a +9 now he's aging. I think I'd describe him as an inadequate coach with solid leadership (this would be the fairest judge of his coaching skill, on the assumption that in real life Div 4 teams and Div 1 teams don't all have the same quality of coach).

If you have a favourite tune from 2015/16, please provide a link to vimeo/utube/soundcloud for us to listen, but an older classic tune would be fine too.

I'm a big Tim Minchin fan and have just started working in child protection (all views are mine and not necessarily those of my employer) so I'll have to go with Come Home (Cardinal Pell): (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EtHOmforqxk). I generally spend more time listening to podcasts than music, so my other audio recommendation would be "The Bugle" now that they're back and broadcasting again (http://thebuglepodcast.com/).

You get to play Matt- next, who is the reigning Prem champion and currently just 2pts off the top spot. Was losing 5-1 in the league last Sunday a deliberate ploy to make him think your TC has been shot to bits?

Ha, as I mentioned earlier, I really don't pay enough attention to the detail. This result was down to my having a bit of a training priority juggling act, underpinned my my being conscious that the chances to win the league has gone (again) for this season. Anyway, shipping 5 goals to Etheric City was a good omen before our previous cup round, so...

I'm mildly amused by the fact that Matt- and I are just one win/loss, and one goal different in our respective league standings this season. That's probably where the similarities end though.

Please provide a link to your favourite work of art?

I'm going Internet cartoon, it's a form of art. (http://xkcd.com).

Please tell us how/where you met your other half (or last conquest), and how he/she feels about your hattrick addiction?

We met through OkCupid, but Hattrick hasn't really come up. I think I mentioned it once when she asked what I was doing, and she didn't feel it really warranted a follow up...

Please tell us the best clean joke you've read recently?

I love puns and "bad" jokes:

Did you know that dogs can't operate MRI machines? But cats can.

Please tell us about your home-grown players Cleary, Root and Walcott, and your long term plans for them?

Cleary (364928310) is going to head on to become my coach in a few seasons, and probably would have been targeting a shot at the NT had he had a spec. He and Root (361162445) are getting whatever training is going as they become the best IMTW options I can manage. Walcott (393357829) has been a bit of a waste of potential (sounds familiar), I didn't really decide what I was doing with him on promotion so he's currently a jack of all trades who could become a decent backup IM.

You mentioned moving to Australia, how are you enjoying the sports scene out there?

My main interest is the cricket, but I've just missed out on last season's action. I've joined a (real) football team, and I'm already surprised to find myself welcoming 9am kick offs on a Sunday morning. Early alarms are much nicer than the prospect for playing in the midday sun. I also went to my first AFL game this weekend, which is a strange sport. I'm a huge fan of their referees taking throw ins though! I also can appreciate their completely unironic entrance music: (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tWOPEJpPInA)