The Ruthless, Blackmoor, The North
Blackmoor United
The club that never gives an inch, and has built forty years of trophies on it.
The club
Blackmoor United were formed in 1897 by a colliery owner who wanted a side that would not be pushed around, and they have delivered on the brief with a thoroughness nobody could call accidental. The club motto translates as we take. It is carved above the players' entrance in letters a foot high, which visiting sides tend to photograph on the way in and think about on the way out.
United's method has never been a secret and has never needed to be. They press from the first whistle to the last, they contest everything, and they extend no courtesy of any kind. Referees have been briefed about Blackmoor for a century. It has changed very little, because there is nothing to catch: the club simply plays at the outer edge of what is allowed, all game, every game.
The uncomfortable part, for everyone who dislikes them, is how well it works against half the league. Any side that will not answer back is a free afternoon at The Fortress, and Blackmoor have made a long and profitable career out of exactly those fixtures. Their problem is the other half, and the club's own supporters will tell you it is the same problem every year.
On the pitch
Blackmoor defect in every duel of every match. The press never lets up, the challenges arrive early and often, and the side never once opts to contain. Against a naive opponent it is overwhelming and the chances are free. Against anyone who returns it, the game becomes a fight in the middle third where nobody can build, which is the trade United have always been willing to make.
Never gives an inch. Full-on pressing that winds everyone up. More on Always Defect.
The Fortress
The Fortress, 41,800, the largest ground in the league and the least welcoming by design. The away section sits in the corner with the shallowest rake and the worst view, the tunnel is deliberately narrow, and the pitch is cut short of the maximum permitted width. None of this is denied.
The supporters
The Fortress is loud, hostile and entirely unapologetic. The home end's standard greeting for a referee's first booking is a sarcastic ovation. Their own players are not spared either: Blackmoor supporters boo softness before they boo defeat.
The manager: Vic Savage
A centre half of considerable local fame and a permanently contested disciplinary record, then straight into management at thirty-one. Appointed at Blackmoor by a board that interviewed nobody else.
Savage is the most successful manager in the league by trophies and the least liked by a wide margin, and he treats the second fact as evidence for the first. He is a fluent, quotable interviewee who has never given ground in a press conference, and his standard response to a question about his side's conduct is to ask what the score was.
As a coach he is better than his critics allow. The Blackmoor press is organised rather than wild, the timing of it is drilled hard, and Savage has an excellent eye for the exact opponent his method will destroy. Half the fixture list is a free afternoon for him and he has never once let his players treat it as one.
He also knows precisely where the method fails, which is against anyone who returns it, and he has never adjusted. His argument, made repeatedly and without embarrassment, is that a strategy which cannot be exploited by soft sides is worth more than one that occasionally draws with hard ones.
"Nobody has ever thanked me for a fair game. They thank me for the cup."
Approach: Press for ninety minutes, contest everything, concede nothing, apologise never.
Squad
| # | Player | Pos | Apps | Goals | Assists |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leah Fernández | GK | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | Kai Almeida | LB | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | Nadia Novak | CB | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | Rúben Petrov | CB | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | Noor Nielsen | RB | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 6 | Trent Larsson | LM | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 | Anya Traoré | CM | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 8 | Marcus Diallo | CM | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 9 | Maya Mensah | RM | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 10 | Youri Adeyemi | ST | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 | Zara Kovač | ST | 0 | 0 | 0 |