Boss Fairs Confident as Blues Face Port Vale in Football Manager Cup
Thursday, 23rd Apr 2020 11:46

TWTD regular Joe Fairs is the man charged with seeing Town to a rare cup victory this evening when the Blues face Port Vale away in the opening match of the EFL Football Manager Cup.

Joe, who posts on TWTD as itfcjoe and also runs the ITFC_Academy Twitter account, was selected by the club to manage Town in the computer game competition which has got under way over the last few days.

“There are 54 EFL teams, 10 teams have got a bye through to the next round. Some of the 22 first round ties have already taken place, my game is today against Port Vale,” Joe explained. “Today’s set of games are the last ones of the first round and then we’re on to the second.

“Some of the clubs have got current players playing for them, Joe Lolley’s playing for Nottingham Forest and Lee Camp is playing for Birmingham.

“The ‘home’ team is responsible for everything and Port Vale are trying to arrange a stream and I would guess the Port Vale Twitter and the club will announce that later.”

Having won Champions Leagues with Town and other clubs Joe feels he plays the game to a good standard.

“I like to think I’m decent enough at it, I’ll find out later today!” he laughed. “I always just pick one team and have a long game with them and I very rarely have bad seasons.

“Sometimes it takes a lot longer to get to where I want to get to, but I’m always going forwards.

“I doing a game with Wrexham at the moment where I’m a little bit stuck in the Championship. I got there in three years, but I’ve now been stuck in it for two years because I’ve probably still got a League Two team while I’m there. It’s difficult.

“The game is a lot more realistic now in that you can’t turn a team into a Champions League team that easily.

“Even when you’re starting with a Championship team it takes three or four years to really get going in the Premier League because those big sides are just so far ahead of everyone, which is what you’d expect. You can’t really breakthrough as easily.

“I’ve not played games which have gone on for hundreds of years like some people, in the last one I played I took Lowestoft on and on and on and probably did about 15 years on that one and that’s probably the longest I’ve done for a long time. But I know some people run them for hundreds of years.”

As well as being a Football Manager player, Joe has also provided them with their stats on Town players for a number of seasons. However, he doesn’t believe that will benefit him in the competition.

“It must be about five years,” he added. “I don’t think that gives me any advantage because you set up the stats to help out with the potential of the young players.

“I’ve got to pick a team of our strongest XI and the reality is that if you were to load up the game and set the formation as 4-4-2 your team isn’t going to be particularly different to my team because you’re going to pick the same players as I do.”

Whereas Football Manager is usually a case of taking a team on over a season this competition is simply one match at a time.

“It’s just one-off games so it’s just a case of seeing how it goes,” he reflected. “I’m not sure how much of my squad is fit at the moment, I think the whole squad is fit and hopefully it is, and then you just pick your team from there effectively.

“I’ve said on Twitter that if anyone wants a game today give me a shout so I’ve got a couple of people lined up to have warm-up games with so I can make sure I’ve got tactics I can load on to it and things like that."

Unlike the Ultimate Quaran-Team Cup on FIFA, there are no handicaps to even up the teams with each side the strength it is in the game.

Joe, whose game this evening kicks off at 7pm, has not yet made the final decision on his team but is 90 per cent of the way there.

“I’ve basically got it,” he said. “I haven’t decided on a keeper yet and then I’ll have Chambers and Woolfy at the back with Garbutt and Vincent-Young as wing-backs and then as a holding midfielder it’ll either be Skuse or Downes, I haven’t decided yet.

“And then a midfield two of Huws and either Downes or Teddy Bishop depending who I’ve played deeper, and then Judge in behind Jackson and Norwood.”

He says it’s an honour to be representing the club and admits that with that comes some responsibility, particularly given the opposition.

“You do feel the pressure a little bit, especially because I’ve got what’s quite an easy game on paper,” he reflected.

“If I lose to Port Vale it’s going to be embarrassing. If we’d been drawn away against Leeds or someone like that and lost, as long as you don’t get hammered it’s not too bad. I’m feeling the pressure but looking forward to it.”

Photo: Joe Fairs

Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.