MVP: LWw

Team DPs: 8

LD are rivals to 1 teams.

More sleep!

Locomotive Darlington are based in the north east of England in the town of Darlington. They are named after the first public railway engine - the Locomotion 1 that ran on the Stockton-on-Tees - Darlington Railway from 1825.

The Rockets spent 11 ignominious but happy seasons in Divison 2 until romping to the division title in season 11. The first season in division 1 was a very successful one with the Rockets finishing 5th. In season 13 the Rockets couldn't live up to the previous seasons efforts but remained in the top flight for another season after finishing 8th. then in season 14 Locomotive finished bottom of the table.

Season 15 was spent building age 0-1 players, including a massive player swap for 0 6 GK Bava because he scouted so well. The season went better than expected with McBride placing the target the Rockets finished 5th - (un)fortunately? just outside the new top 4 play-off places. Season 16 - the draft was really good for max SL and there were two good runs in the cups the highlight of which was knocking the holders OPT out of the McBride Cup. In the league a couple of injuries to key players haltered our target of a top 2 finish but with victory in the play-off Locomotive were promoted to Division 1 for the second time! 

Season 17 Locomotive was selected to be one of the representatives of SFLSL in the SOS Cup. And although I loved the experience the group stage was too hard to get out of and we finished bottom. In pre-season a very lucky Draft, with both blind picks being age 2 players, meant LD did not require any TP which would have been a drain on resources. Although T-11 and T-17 were relatively low compared to the competition and I'd hoped for a good mid-table finish we went beyond our expectations and finished in our joint highest place in SFLSL - 5th!   

Season 34 update - fourth was the place we finished and then successfully won the playoff to return to the top flight once more. Looking at the stats for the season the points total was the second highest in Locomotive history and the most productive for goals scored with nearly a 50% increase on past seasons. Switching to a Winger based approach appears to be paying off, although it will be harder to maintain it in the tougher realm of Division 1.

Season 41 update - we finished 6th. We have good players in key positions but the defence is ageing and the midfield has lost it's high SL MA group of players. The norse gods are continuing to scout well but it does mean investing more in TP and I won't have enough to go around even after I contribute to Mark's SOS bank account next month. The attacking trio of FWs planned 2 seasons ago should be more effective this season. 

Season 43 update - finished 2nd bottom and relegated. We just shipped too many goals. Not enough quality defenders. Max SL is a bit of a curse. Scouting hasn't been that bad. A lot of the players have scouted over 30, but typically the DF was only 21. T-11 in Division 2 we're 3rd top and 5th in T-17. The midfield is fairly solid so we should do ok this year and return to Division 1 is the goal.

Season 44 update - finished 9th in Division 2. Definitely a season to resettle and start building the squad up again. I'm going for a a loaded front line this time around and have managed to acquire some promising forwards. Gk is going to be ok, defenders could use more support - max SL is still hampering efforts there although it's the age 0 midfielder who scouted 21 this season. The SFLSL Cup has been used to train up the forwards so hopefully by the time the league season starts we'll be competitive 

Season 45 update - finished 5th in Division 2 by just a point. I regret not risking EL more in the last couple of games, but I was making sure we would be competitive for the playoffs. The team that finished 4th got their hat in the ring but were unable to compete vs their Div 1 opponents.

The team has got into better shape for the new season, We have a good couple of forwards and a decent keeper,

Promotion is the goal.

Season 46 update - Locomotive stormed to the Division 2 title. The new  tactic of playing long ball with 3-4 forwards worked well. Max SL was ok last season but there are a few players coming through who won't improve the team. In the cup group games pre-league season we only dropped 2pts but Division 1 is a different challenge and we're already starting to get some random results 

Season 47 update - The return to Division 1 went quite well with a top 8 finish and qualification for the McBride Cup. Playing 4 forwards was intended to create more goals but we had one of the worst GF stats. The forward line and defence are looking ok but another draft has brought in keepers with a max SL of just 23, so Stronginthearm will be trundled out one more season.

This football obsessed fanatic was born in Manchester, raised in Stockton-on-Tees, educated at Sunderland University and then returned to Teesside as a civil servant.
I bought my first house (which is coincidently on George Stevenson Boulevard - the inventor of the Locomotive)and moved in with my fiance in March 2010. We got married on 7th May 2011 the same day Darlington were at Wembley lifting the non-league FA Trophy! Then in September 2012 we were happy to announce the birth of our daughter Emily who will no doubt try to distract me from SOS. And my walking talking toddler is doing just that although bless my mother-in-law, but she's managed to get her to try and say 'Goal for Darlington!' when kicking a little ball about the kitchen. She's now 2yrs old and will still shout Goal! but without the Darlington bit. I need to work on her defending though as it's much too easy to nutmeg her... Her TV watching is slightly inflencing my player name choices with Frozen now imbedded firmly in my head.

One of the first things I did when I received my first wages was to buy a season ticket for my local football side Darlington. C'mon Darlo!
Darlington were in the Football Conference in season 2011-12 having been relegated from League 2 of the football league (ye olde Division 4) a few seasons ago, however after some financial mis-management they finished at the bottom of the Conference and were officially wound up.

Darlington 1883 was then started up as a phoenix club and started life 3 divisions lower in the Northern league Division 1. Three promotions in four seasons have the club going in the right direction and a move back into town is expected some time this year. We currently groundshare with Bishop Auckland and I've only been to one game there so far.

Darlington FC have had such illuminaries as Gary Pallister, Robbie Blake, Bobby Petta, Arthur Wharton (the first black pro in British football), some guy called Jason De Vos and the one and only Marco Gabbiadini! Recent Darlo alumni have included Dave Wheater, David Stockdale, Dan Burn, Danny Graham and Matthew Bates who I used to play against when he was a kid. 

I've recently been watching The Expanse on Amazon Prime. Loved the What If? Marvel series on Disney+ And obviously watched The Mandalorian, Andor and Ashoka. 

They cancelled The Expanse after season 6! I've started reading the books now. Whilst I prefer paperbacks, the first volume available at my local library was an e-book and the next one an audiobook. Haven't watched The Acolyte yet.

My daughter started secondary school this week and my son his second year at primary. He's also started 121 swimming lessons. Work is busy and the summer holidays have also been busy. I've recovered from my feet injuries now so hope to start playing 5aside again,

Season 46 update - Have started the next series of What If? Watched the Acolyte which was ok but also quite boring and irritating. 

I'm up to the final book in the Expanse series and will be taking it on holiday next week to finish off. Haven't returned to playing 5aside yet as I had a chest infection over xmas and now I can't get a spot in the XI. 

Season 47 update - I finished the Expanse book series and it's short story collection which rounded off some storylines. I thoroughly enjoyed the series. I have a collection of books from birthday/christmas to read. Started Mr Norrell and Jonathan Stange but it's a bit of a trek getting going.

What I have enjoyed over the last few months is a podcast called the Adventure Zone - it's based on D&D but it's more story driven by an American group of brothers and their dad taking the mick out of each other. 

Still haven't returned to football. Time just hasn't allowed it with my MIL spending the last few weeks in hospital.