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Cup Semi Final Interview With Broughy1322

Written by Broughy1322

Another week, another set of managers exit the cup. The highest ranking manager left at the semi final stage is Broughy1322 of Premier League team Stinging Scorpions. We ask him some familiar questions to gauge how he's feeling before the big game.

1 Your team, Stinging Scorpions, is facing Glencoe Rovers in a cup semi-final on Tuesday. Glencoe have disposed of two Prem sides already, helped by having home advantage. This leaves you as the highest ranked team left, despite having never made it past Round 8 before. How does it feel to be in the semis?

It feels really great. I've never put any kind of priority on the cup before and, unlike the league, having one bad result from fielding a slightly weaker team puts you out. This season I had such an awful start in the prem (I was bottom and behind an effective "bot" team after the first 6 games) I decided to start playing my first team properly in the cup for the first time. It's worked out really well and it's exciting to be in the last four. I've also started picking up better results in the league now that I'm playing my second string. They must be trying to tell me something...

2 What is your favourite tune of 2014 so far, please also provide a link to vimeo/utube/soundcloud for us to listen?

I'm not one for new music (I much prefer 70's/80's rock/blues despite not being born when that music was created) but, even though it's all over the place, you can't not like this song: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6Sxv-sUYtM). It's just such a happy song :)

3 You took over your team on 27/09/05 and despite a difficult start to this season, you are 3rd in the Prem and could conceivably yet do the double. For lower division managers wondering what they have to do to build a team as good as yours, could you please explain your long term plan and the timescales over which you've executed this to get you to where you are today?

Phew. Well to keep it as succinct as possible, I basically did the usual training and selling routine to make it up to II, then sold up and used some of my accumulated money to buy a young group of really good defence trainees. I then progressed through the various training regimes, adding new players as I went, to get what I have today. All of my 15 regular first team players have been trained and improved in skill in my team at some point, so I really feel like I built them up on my own. I've been on that training plan for over 10 seasons now and had it all planned out from the start. It's all about planning and realising things are going to take time. There is an in depth season by season history of my team on my wiki page if people are interested: (http://wiki.hattrick.org/wiki/Stinging_Scorpions)

4 How much is a pint of beer in your local & what's your usual tipple?

I don't really have a local but I prefer drinking Corona over anything else.

5 This season, the England community voted in Darth Hansen to be our National Team manager. He's the first ever non-English based manager to get the job. Under his tenure England are currently top of Group 5, 1pt ahead of Italy with a 3pt cushion and a big GD advantage over Croatia (the best of the teams outside the Q2 qualification places). As an ex-England NT manager, did you vote, do you still follow the NT, and what do you make of this season's developments?

Unfortunately I don't. My interest in Hattrick has been dwindling when it comes to anything "extra" on the game but to be honest I'm happy to hear we've finally given a non-Englishman a go. I always like to see things changed up and kept fresh. Seems like it's working too.

6 What skill are you training at the moment and why?

Playmaking with a high level of stamina, to stop any degradation of my midfielders.

7 You currently have platinum supporter, with a second 'Scorpions' team in Division II in Syria. Your series (238753) contains five other platinum 2nd teams (the others being a Spaniard, two Argentinians, a Dane, and a Swiss manager). Is platinum something you will continue to fund at the revised prices, and why are they all doing so much better than you this season?

I'm really not sure. I still have it for a while but the prices are very high and with my interest dwindling I don't think it's really worth it. I'll have to have a much better think about it when the time comes though. And I decided to focus on training for a bit now so am basically getting whooped every game. I went for a competitive team the first few seasons and found some success but I just don't have the time to devote to that any more. When my main Scorpions eventually stop being competitive I might refocus my attention back on my Syrian team (if they're still here).

8 According to our internet research, Scorpions are a Texan soccer team based in San Antonio, a Scottsdale (Arizona) Baseball team, a Bridgend (South Wales) Rugby team as well as a Bristolian wheelchair based basketball team. Do you manage these as your second teams as well, and what made you decide to nail your colours to the 'Scorpions' mast?

Yep they're all mine and are the reasons behind my dwindling interest on Hattrick haha! I joke of course, but very interesting to know there are other Scorpions out there. It was such a long time ago now that I made the team it's hard to know where it all came from exactly. I do have a fondness for Scorpions though - they're such cool animals - and I used to play fantasy football for a few years in which my team names generally had a scorpions theme too. I guess it just spawned from that. In terms of actual colours, orange is my favourite and black just goes so well with it :)

9 Please tell us how you met your OH (or last 'conquest' if single), with any amusing anecdotals?

Back in uni I shared a corridor in halls, then a house, with a guy who had a sister. She came to stay one weekend. The rest, as they say, is history.

10 What was your favourite movie of 2013?
Rush (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1979320/)