Community » Hattrick Press

How to beat Hairy Kids

Written by brandnew99

Super Frankie's XI, the lowest ranked team left in the cup for the 2nd time in 2015 will attempt to stop the Prem teams taking the cup.

Last time we spoke was just under a year ago (18625) after you beat the Hairy Chinese Kids in R9. This week you get to face them in R10, reaching the quarter-finals for the first time. You've had a R4 exit (525909713) (a bit unlucky) and a R9 exit in between. With a team aged 27-32 is there much room for you to push on from here?

There is definitely room to improve. I hope to be in the Prem next season although my ratings are still a bit below what they'd need to be to contemplate surviving the Prem. I have 7 players that I plan to retain for 5 seasons more or so and 1 player who has a couple of seasons left in him. That leaves 3 players I am looking to replace. The money coming in from this cup run, together with crowd income from my remaining home games and (the highly likely) bonus of £1.2m for winning the league with promotion/qualifier, will be used to bring in 2 players. When I met HCK a year ago, I had a huge chunk of luck needed to get past them on a PIN. Both of us have progressed since then and I expect that I will need more luck to make my first ever Semi. Having said that, my luck is particularly strong right now. I'm on 22 straight wins, in the first 21 of those I was favourite, often by a decent amount but my last match was a fluke.

Have you seen any good films recently, that you'd like to recommend?

I don't get to see too many movies, but of course there was one I have seen recently, Star Wars, don't think I need to say any more about that. (http://screenrant.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Resistance-Star-Wars-7-Force-Awakens-X-Wing.jpg)

Last time we spoke you mentioned having been introduced to hattrick by a co-worker (31210) (based in India), this seems a little unusual, could you tell us a bit more about it?

Well, not long after setting up his team, he went to the States to study and then was sent to work in London (finance industry). After seeing him at his desk with hattrick regularly on his screen, I was curious and he got me into it. At that point he hadn't played properly for a few years, and had been hoarding. Once he got started again, he quickly became the best team in India, but after some bad luck and not winning the league or the cup after a couple of attempts, he has given up again.

(Ed. proof if any were needed, that you can't just buy trophies in this game)

You mentioned to us previously, that you like to keep a decent selection of Whiskey at home, what's your favourite of these at the moment?

The booze cabinet is well stocked after the last week (my birthday on top of Xmas), and I'm looking forward to opening my JD honey whiskey. (http://www.psyop.tv/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/PRESS_STILL.06.jpg)

fetts has done the job expected of the U20 manager and taken us through to R3 which kicks off on 22nd January. The NTs had a good run into the latter stages with AGDHD, and this season we elected defunked with 76% of the vote, to try and get us out of a very tricky looking Group 8. What's your take on our situation?

I wouldn't say Fetts has done the expected, but has actually done better than that. It looks a long shot to make it any further though. AGDHD played it nicely as well. Defunked had my vote, and has my support right now in the form of scouting our opponent, not that any of that has done him much good. Some weak CA strategy beat England in the first few games (very similar to my league game ahead of this cup match (551644957) (ed. "weak only in that the CA'ing teams side defences were exposed, with a magnificent CA rating being a smidge under optimised)). England now need a lot of luck to qualify. It seems I am one of the few people that do keep an eye on the national teams, unfortunately.

Last time we spoke about Barnet and Chelsea, you said "As for Mourinho, I think Chelsea have finally committed to him and I am looking forward to a long and successful marriage between the two. With respect to disregarding this general rule for sticking to a manager for a long time, you only have to look at United and how much time they gave Moyes after years of laughing at Chelsea and City for changing managers all the time..." Aside from selling Cech to Arsenal, and alienating the dressing room after his nigh-on mysogynist style dismissal of the club doctor, what on earth do you make of it?

Never a dull moment with Mourinho is there. Selling Cech to a rival was not ideal, but he is not the keeper he once was, his first couple of games for them showed that, although admittedly he is one of the reasons they are about to go top. Courtois is better these days anyway. Maybe a few years down the line we will learn what has really been going on behind the scenes this season, but it's just been dreadful. I am disappointed to see him go, but something needed to be done to try and get out of the rut. The performances have just been so weak, with no passion, it has not been much fun heading to the Bridge this year.

You mentioned Rowing a lot at university with your girlfriend. Where did you Row, what did you row about, and did you win any awards for competitive Rowing?

We would row in a boat, in the gym, in the bedroom when I was messy... Rowing at Uni took up a lot of my time and was a great way to get in shape and the social side was great fun, I was never much good at it though. I picked up a tankard one time and does a Wooden Spoon count as an award? Because I received two of them for Rowing.

With the changes to the match engine, and staff changes, which amendments have you found most useful for your team, and which bits have you found frustrating or annoying?

They have all helped me. Better sponsors, better training and I've upgraded my form and psychologist and it is costing me less. I really like the change to OCDs, as that is a tactic I had used in the past and now I use regularly. That all being said, its probably the same for most top teams so its not benefited me all that much relative to the others.

Your wage bill is a bit higher than it was this time last year. Do you think the changes have led to any inflation in the transfer market, and do you anticipate teams to run with higher weekly costs to soak up the increased injection of money to the game?

Hard for me to say, as I have been increasing the calibre of players I buy. With all the 27 year olds who got the fastest training ever, there are now players with skillsets at a level we may not see again, so it seems fairly reasonable that prices and wages have crept up. My higher wages are needed to compete, although, I currently only have the 15th highest wage bill in div II and my wage will be going up before next season. If you look at all the matches with over 500 hatstats in the Prem this season and compare it to a year ago when 500 was a rarity, the standard has been increasing and you do need to pay for that.

What was your first car (or bike) and what happened to it?

My first car, was a VW Fox (http://smgmedia.blob.core.windows.net/images/1430/800/vw-fox-hatchback-petrol_27492520.jpg), it got written off a couple years ago after a crash (entirely the other guy's fault, and thankfully his insurance company agreed.)

Happy New year everyone!

Ashley.