Guest Post by HatStephens
Last month I started as a Junior Developer at Kyan and and they have just launched their first iPhone App called Title Challenge (available in the App Store). I had nothing to do with the creation of this game and can take no credit for it, but after an interesting discussion today in the Users’ Forum I wanted to put this article out there for discussion.
The game’s tagline: Back To Basics Football Management. The idea was to create a Football Management game that didn’t take 2 hours to set up; no personal training regimes, no discussions with individual players about their attitude at half-time and no waiting around for the next game. I love it, but this is not a sales pitch (honest).
Now, the reason for this article is that Paul Sturgess (the genius behind the game) has added the functionality to create your own database of players. The game does not use real surnames – it uses real first names and then a surname of the correct initial. You will find the likes of Andy Cowgill, Alex Spearing, Winston Rudd and my personal favourite Jaanai Giles – I started just before the launch! Now this feature didn’t interest me initially. I have no intention of entering the real names of all the players (although I believe one user is nearing completion and is willing to share). However, today saw one user release a database with English and Italian teams (with real names) from the 93/94 season. He contacted me through the Forum and asked for my input about the West Ham line up minutes before he released it…
I would have been 10 years old that season. I have been a West Ham fan since birth, but in all honesty I was not an attentive fan until my teenage years. I am now in my second year as a season ticket holder but I would never claim to know West Ham as well as many of the readers on here. That being said, I certainly remember the likes of Breacker, Potts, Dicks, Morley, Cottee, Martin, Miklosko etc, but filling in a whole XI from when I was 10 was never going to happen. I only saw one game that season: April 4th – Spurs vs West Ham (1-4) (£13 a ticket + 50p booking fee!). My brother was a Spurs fan so it was an away game that season. Nice win though!
The initial XI shown to me was: Miklosko, LB:Thomas, CB:Gale, CB:Webster, RB:Brown, LM: Holmes, CM: Bishop, CM: Hutchinson, RM: M Allen, LF: Cottee, RF: Chapman.
OK.
So my first thoughts were: where is Tim? And Julian? Then, I was not convinced Hutchinson was there that early (he lived opposite my best mate and I was pretty sure that was when we were at Secondary School). Finally, who was Thomas? And Webster?
So I will admit, I took to the trusty Wikipedia to help me a little. Hutchinson arrived for the 94/95 season. Get in. I did know something. Julian left at the start of that season. Gutted. Breacker and Potts were definitely there. Simon Webster earned 5 caps, he had to go. Sorry Simon. Alvin Martin step up! Mitchell Thomas wasn’t even listed in our 93/94 squad – he left in March of that season. I went for Burrows at LB. I couldn’t leave Tim Breacker out so he stepped in at RB for Brown. What about Potts!? Possibly Club Captain at the time according to Wikipedia? A tough decision but he will have to be our utility sub (I fear the outcry, I really do). I opted for Mike Marsh to replace Hutchinson – purely on appearances. I know, I should have put Pottsy there!!! For some reason I never changed Chapman for Morley. An oversight for sure. So the starting XI you’ll see now: Miklosko, LB:Burrows, CB:Gale, CB:Martin, RB:Breacker, LM: Holmes, CM: Bishop, CM: Marsh, RM: M Allen, LF: Cottee, RF: Chapman.
The Substitutes are: GK:Gerry Peyton, DF:Ken Brown, Steve Potts, Simon Webster, Mitchell Thomas, Keith Rowland, MF: Jon Moncur, Jeroen Boere, Peter Butler, FW: Trevor Morley, Alex Bunbury.
Note: Jon Moncur is actually a season too early but I wasn’t going to argue and have him removed from the game!
So, over to you, discuss. How did I do? What would your starting XI be for that season? You can change the formation, so would that make a difference (I have no idea what we played that season)? Am I fool to leave out Potts?
If you do decide to download the game from the App Store and want to use this guy’s 93/94 database, it’s easy. Visit this link on your mobile and click the button in the top right and click “Direct Download”, once loaded you will see a link that says “Open in ‘TitleChallenge’”. Then it’s done. Simple.
I make no apologies for the hours/days/weeks you will lose to this game and take no responsibility for any broken marriages! It is highly addictive. The friend I mentioned who lived opposite Don Hutchinson? He just won the title after 15 seasons with the Hammers….
Link to the site:
Link to the Users Forum