Welcome back! We are now on Part 15 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 in the West Midlands. Basically the same concept as Athletic Bilbao, where only players with Basque nationality are permitted to sign and play for the club…
Last season recap…
We have had a very decent season three in the series, which saw us enter the FA Cup for the first time in this save and managed to get into the first round proper after six games. In the league though, we failed to make it three promotions in a row losing in the semi-final of the playoffs to Bilston Town…
During the off season…
Buzzing to announce that I managed to tie down last season’s Hereford-born forward Josh Hunt for the upcoming season on a one year deal and Birmingham-born and the Peacocks Star-Boy Shilo Waldo on a appearance fee non-contract.
Shilo Waldo is the club’s longest serving player and has scored 76 times (71 of them league goals & holds the club record) in 96 apps in all competitions and is also the clubs captain too. Josh Hunt maiden season, he scored 31 times in 43 apps in all competitions and currently holds the record for most goals in a season by a player.
Has that I’m talking about records, former player Jayden Allamby-John still holds three records at the Garden Walk during his time at the club in first season of this series. They are the most assists in a season, that total of 28, Most PoM awards in a season = 8 and the highest average rating in 26 apps = 8.25. The former Saddler youth player was a class act for the Peacocks.
The expectations…
Be competitive in Cup competitions, how boring!!! But I want to try to win the Midland Football League Cup and also reach the first round proper of the FA Cup again. In the league, avoid relegation which will be easy after we have the same last season and we narrowly missed out on promotion losing in the playoffs.
Also, I was yet again headhunted by several clubs during this period too including the likes of Biggleswade United, Harrow and Leek. Of course, I said NOOOOOOOOOO….
Preseason…
Mixed it up a little and decided to play three u20s sides which two of the three worked in our favour, however in the final game, MK Dons truly beat us. That was our only defeat as we won the other three matches which included a 3-1 win over Welsh side Airbus UK.
The FA Cup draw…
For the extra preliminary round has been made and it will be against local rivals Tividale. This will please @TheFootiePost, who is a blogger of non league football, mainly Tividale. We have only met them twice so far in this series and both times they haven’t beaten us (3-1 & 1-0) so need to sort that out if we want to get to the first round proper of this competition this series. Also, if you are reading this pal. Next season in real life, we will have to meet up at a non-league at Tividale or Gornal pal…
The Squad…
We have roughly 40-ish players on the books at the Garden Walk with roughly at the moment in time about 20-25 are newgens. That’s a high number of newgens then the previous three seasons as I have tried to bring in real players mainly but at this moment of time that’s all I can attract. To be honest, I’d say 15 of them have come through the youth intake which makes in happy. Anyway, stop waffling and #GornalAyWe…
| Started the season 2025/26 | ||||
| Name | Age | Position | Place of Birth | Club Started at |
| Raajan Gill | 32 | GK | Birmingham | Leicester City |
| Alex Hodgin | 19 | GK | Kidderminster | AFC Mansfield |
| Lewis Fenney | 32 | GK | Birmingham | Cambridge City |
| Jordan Beddows | 17 | GK | Kingswinford | Moreton Rangers |
| Matty Franks | 16 | GK | Dudley | Gornal Athletic |
| Owen Bennett | 24 | DEF | Birmingham | Aston Villa |
| Jamie Smith | 28 | DEF | Worcester | Worcester City |
| Jordan Till | 16 | DEF | Dudley | Gornal Athletic |
| Michael Wells | 15 | DEF | Dudley | Gornal Athletic |
| Alfie Toland | 22 | DEF | Sutton Coldfield | Dorchester |
| Jamie Chisholm | 24 | DEF | Birmingham | Mansfield Town |
| Adam Walker | 18 | DEF | Telford | AFC Telford United |
| Neil Shannon | 16 | DEF | Dudley | Gornal Athletic |
| Ashanti Stearman | 18 | DEF | Stourbridge | Stourbridge |
| Lewis Downes | 16 | DEF | Dudley | Gornal Athletic |
| Jamie Parkes | 16 | DEF | Dudley | Gornal Athletic |
| Jamie Dorrington | 16 | DEF | Dudley | Gornal Athletic |
| Michael Wells | 17 | DEF | Dudley | Gornal Athletic |
| Gawayne Eastmond | 16 | DEF | Dudley | Gornal Athletic |
| Sam Leckie | 16 | DEF | Dudley | Gornal Athletic |
| Sam Melhado | 18 | DEF | Stoke-on-Trent | Port Vale |
| Andy Stockbridge | 18 | DEF | Birmingham | Bolton |
| Sam Belcher | 34 | MID | Nuneaton | Coventry City |
| Paul Piper | 17 | MID | Dudley | Gornal Athletic |
| Sonny Parsons | 23 | MID | Coventry | Nuneaton |
| Haden Creaney | 17 | MID | Dudley | Gornal Athletic |
| Kalum Hemmingway | 24 | MID | Sutton Coldfield | Sutton United |
| Paddy McKenna | 16 | MID | Dudley | Gornal Athletic |
| Akeem Vacianna | 18 | MID | Telford | AFC Telford United |
| Akeem Carnall | 18 | MID | Telford | Wrockwardine Wood |
| Gregor Walwyn | 17 | MID | Dudley | Gornal Athletic |
| Paul Martin | 16 | MID | Dudley | Gornal Athletic |
| Aaron Bell | 16 | MID | Dudley | Gornal Athletic |
| Chris Osborne | 16 | MID | Dudley | Gornal Athletic |
| Shilo Waldo | 22 | MID | Birmingham | West Brom |
| David King | 18 | MID | Halesowen | Halesowen Town |
| Dave Winterbottom | 16 | MID | Dudley | Gornal Athletic |
| Haden Truslove | 16 | MID | Dudley | Gornal Athletic |
| Jack Bloom | 17 | MID | Dudley | Gornal Athletic |
| Alex Maycock | 17 | FOR | Dudley | Gornal Athletic |
| Josh Hunt | 31 | FOR | Hereford | Hereford |
| Gary Edwards | 18 | FOR | Birmingham | Wrens Nest |
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 
One thought on “(FM24) Born & Bred ‘The Regionnaire Challenge’ – Part 15”