Welcome back! We are now on Part 10 of ‘Born & Bred’ FM24 blog series. If you missed the last part, please catch up here or if you’re completely new to ‘The Regionnaire Challenge‘, then here is a link to the introduction. However, I can only sign players that are born/raised in the West Midlands. Basically the same concept as Athletic Club de Bilbao, where only players with Basque nationality are permitted to sign and play for the club…
A Recap…
So, the Peacocks made it back to back promotions having won the Midland Football League Division One last season. We go into season three of this series in the Midland Football League Premier Division and also get the opportunity to play in the FA Cup prelim rounds for the first time too. Also, at the Garden Walk we have our very own Star Boy in Birmingham-born Shilo Waldo, who has 54 goals in 64 apps. Can we keep him for season three?
A Squad Update…
We have now got 38 players on the books at the Garden Walk going into our third season. This does include 16 NewGen players that are in our u18s squad. Some familiar faces have returned to the club during the off season who have either played for me in the last two seasons or have actually played for Gornal in the past in real life. They were in Defence see’s Stafford-born Will Byers, Worcester-born Jamie Smith and Birmingham-born Kieren Westwood & Jamie Chisholm played for me. Also, Walsall-born Bekir Halil who played for the Peacocks in the 2010/11 and then again in the 2011/2021 seasons.
Also, new faces that joined during the summer were; Alfie Toland, Raajan Gill, Aaron Cole, Lee Grady, Kyle Carey, Kalum Hemmingway, Josh Hunt and Edilson Panzo-Antonio. A special mention for the last player Edilson as he was born in Walsall and started out as a Walsall youth.
| Started the season 2025/26 | ||||
| Name | Age | Position | Place of Birth | Club Started at |
| Raajan Gill | 32 | GK | Birmingham | Leicester City |
| Billy Spink | 28 | GK | Birmingham | Coleshill |
| Will Byers | 25 | DEF | Stafford | Stone OA |
| Aaron Cole | 32 | DEF | Burton-upon-Trent | Derby County |
| J’cee Abraham | 25 | DEF | Birmingham | Rotherham |
| Jamie Smith | 28 | DEF | Worcester | Worcester City |
| Jordan Till | 16 | DEF | Dudley | Gornal Athletic |
| Brad Dorrington | 16 | DEF | Dudley | Gornal Athletic |
| Michael Wells | 15 | DEF | Dudley | Gornal Athletic |
| Alfie Toland | 22 | DEF | Sutton Coldfield | Dorchester |
| Bekir Halil | 34 | DEF | Walsall | Dudley Town |
| Kieran Westwood | 29 | DEF | Birmingham | Cambridge City |
| Michael Franks | 16 | DEF | Dudley | Gornal Athletic |
| Mpho Nene | 17 | DEF | Dudley | Gornal Athletic |
| Jamie Chisholm | 24 | DEF | Birmingham | Mansfield Town |
| Tom Urwin | 32 | MID | Stoke-on-Trent | Stoke City |
| Sam Belcher | 32 | MID | Nuneaton | Coventry City |
| Dior Leese | 16 | MID | Dudley | Gornal Athletic |
| Sonny Parsons | 21 | MID | Coventry | Nuneaton |
| Craig Harris | 28 | MID | Shrewsbury | Bishops Castle |
| Jarrod Cadwallader | 16 | MID | Dudley | Gornal Athletic |
| Jamey Bald | 17 | MID | Dudley | Gornal Athletic |
| Haden Creaney | 15 | MID | Dudley | Gornal Athletic |
| Glenn Dodd | 15 | MID | Dudley | Gornal Athletic |
| Paul Piper | 15 | MID | Dudley | Gornal Athletic |
| Jack Bloom | 15 | MID | Dudley | Gornal Athletic |
| Shilo Waldo | 19 | MID | Birmingham | West Brom |
| Ashanti Ziglam | 19 | MID | Birmingham | CPA |
| Gregor Walwyn | 15 | MID | Dudley | Gornal Athletic |
| Selcuk Aydemir | 16 | MID | Dudley | Gornal Athletic |
| Kalum Hemmingway | 23 | MID | Sutton Coldfield | Sutton United |
| Kyle Carey | 28 | MID | Coventry | Coventry Sphinx |
| Lee Grady | 28 | MID | Shrewsbury | Carno |
| Josh Hunt | 31 | FOR | Hereford | Hereford |
| Connor Collins | 29 | FOR | Birmingham | Tividale |
| Paul Barker | 15 | FOR | Dudley | Gornal Athletic |
| Edilson Panzo-Antonio | 29 | FOR | Walsall | Walsall |
| Alex Maycock | 15 | FOR | Dudley | Gornal Athletic |
Preseason…
We saw an invasion of Welsh clubs come across the border to the Garden Walk. They all left empty handed and sent back to Wales. It was also a mixture of nonleague and football league sides too and getting results like some below, I have to say I am well impressed to say the least in these. Let’s hope we continue this into the upcoming season…
The Expectations…
Midland Football League Premier Division
We are mid-table after five games which includes two wins, two defeats and one draw. Our first game of the season ended in a 4-1 defeat to Chasetown at the Garden Walk and I thought it’s going to be this season we will struggle in the league in. But then in the next three games we draw against a tough Atherstone Town 1-1 before beating Wolves Casuals 4-2 and then demolishing Coleshill Town 7-0 with star-boy Shilo Waldo getting a brace in our biggest win so far this season. In the fifth league game saw us come up against our fierce rivals Dudley Town for the first time in this series and they bullied us despite us being the dominant side in much of that fixture. We lost 5-1 to The Robins, so I will be looking for revenge when they visit the Garden Walk later on in the season…
The FA Cup Run…
Our journey in this season’s FA Cup, sees us start it in the Extra Prelim Round and would have to win six games to even think about being drawn into the First round proper of this iconic competition. So, in the Extra Prelim Round we played Romulus at the Garden Walk. The club is in the league above us I think and we bullied them and won with ease 6-1 to set up another against a club who play in a higher league and see the match at home against Bromsgrove Sporting in Prelim Round. We went on to win that match 2-0 and then beat Ludlow 2-0 at the Ludlow Stadium in the First Qualifying Round to set up a Second Qualifying Round match against Highgate United at home. That’s three down, three to go and fingers crossed we can do it to bring in some funds for the club.
The Kits…
Shout-Out to Gerald Vella of SS style Fantasy kits and originals over on Facebook for doing this kits. These kits featured in one of my old FM20 saves, before I even blogged and found them in my emails and buzzing to import them in.
However, I have looking to freshen these up in the future…
Final Words…
All updates on this series will be posted on here, also on the Sports Interactive Community page & in the FM Library Discord channel…
In the meantime, please feel free to leave a comment with any feedback, questions and don’t forget to subscribe and hit the like button. All previous FM blogs can be found here and you can follow me over on X here…
CoxieFM 
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