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IFK Chelmsford City - MHopper

Written by MHopper

IFK Chelmsford City bagged the Jason Ivy Cup last season. We caught up with victorious manager MHopper and asked the new England manager a few questions...

Congratulations on winning the Jason Ivy Cup. In the final you had the edge on possession but were held to a 2-2 draw and at the end of 120 minutes Beercelona B took you to penalties (609394140) What were your thoughts going into the final, and did you have any fingernails left after the penalty shootout?

It was a pretty tough watch in all honesty. When the match started and I saw the ratings I was pretty happy but 2 minutes in and they score. Then barely anything happens for the next 80 minutes. I think there had been 5 chances after 80 minutes. Still, I expected a flurry of late changes and they duly arrived, goals in the 81st and 85th minutes put me ahead, finally some relief then Bam! they equalise in the 87th, and we go into extra time.

Now, by the 90th minute it was already around midnight here (I live in Sweden) and I have a toddler who’ll be up at 6am so I took the sensible decision and went to bed thereby avoiding all the stress of the penalty shootout!

I checked the result and then watched the replay of the shootout with my coffee the next morning in full knowledge that I had already won. I recommend this approach for the next World Cup should England actually get out of the group stage.

You were parachuted into the Ivy after losing to DiCanio's Delights in R3 of the Cup (608344690). Games like this with a weaker opponent marginally winning m/f and then only in the first half, with chance distribution skewed in their favour either make you shrug philosophically, or get onto global with a 'how did I loose' thread (sic). How difficult is it to keep a calm head when all about you people are losing theirs?

I slightly misjudged his midfield rating but I still had over a hundred hatstats on him and HTMS had me winning about 92% of the time. It’s just one of those things. *shrugs philosophically*

Have you a tune you'd like to recommend your fellow managers listen to whilst reading this interview?

Red Earth & Pouring Rain - Bear's Den
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_kTCDqtnm8)

Do you ride a Space Hopper, and is that the inspiration behind your user name?

My username actually comes from my old Popomundo character, Hattrick’s younger sister *plug* (http://www.popmundo.com) *plug*. My character was called Michael Hopper and well, I was kind of a big deal back in the naughties you know.

Just over a couple of months ago you forked out £4.2m on French GK Jezza Classy (386090816) In the penalty shoot-out in your final, he was beaten just once. Is that why he cost so much and just how high are his Set Pieces?

I know, what a purchase!

He has Titanic Set Pieces and we definitely saw them on display for the final.

I had a perfectly good Unpredictable keeper before him but for the 9 months that I had him he sustained 5 separate injuries spanning a total of 20 weeks. I know full well that there’s no such thing as an injury prone player in hattrick but he had to go!

Chelmsford FC are affectionately called the Clarets. We've heard you're quite partial to a claret yourself, but if you had to recommend a bottle of wine for under a tenner for a friend to impress his/her date, what would you choose?

For a bottle red I would recommend a Dao, from Portugal. (http://www.wineanorak.com/wineblog/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/alvaro-castro-dao.jpg)

What was the last book you read and would you recommend it?

Game of Thrones, since I was missing the TV show. (http://mac.h-cdn.co/assets/15/18/980x490/landscape-1430705095-sand-snakes.jpg)

Are you single or married, how did you meet your partner (or last conquest) and what do they think about your interest in this game?

I’m married and it’s kind of all thanks to the makers of this game!.

We met at a Popomundo meet in 2006 but she had a boyfriend, we met again in 2009 at another meet in London where we hit it off. Obviously being an ‘Extra lives’ game she just happens to be Swedish. She moved to England later that year, we’re now married with a 2 year old and we moved back to Sweden this July.

She kind of understands since we both played Popmundo, not that she’d ever want to play this but she understands and thats all I can ask for!

Perhaps you could tell us a little about the RL Chelmsford FC's season, best player, and future potential?

Chelmsford have been in the Conference South for some time now, often reaching the playoffs but going out in the semis, they finished 4th last year but again lost in the playoffs. They are however currently top of the league right now after a good start to the season. Hopefully they can keep it up! Chelmsford is a growing city who really deserve a good football team so I’m really hoping they can kick on and get into the Conference.

The biggest teams in Essex are Colchester and Southend so we could really do with another league side!

Since the end of last season, you decided to put yourself forward to become the next England NT manager and up against some fairly solid candidates you picked up the most votes and are going to become the next England NT manager. Could you please let us know anything about which of our players you're most keen to start working with, and why (with reference to the tracker linked on England's NT page as you've not got your hands on the buttons just yet)

I’m really looking forward to having a good look through all of our players, it’s going to be a lot of fun working with the best we have. Working with the NI U20 team, it was very restrictive in terms of players available to me so its going to be great to have the full NT experience this time.

There are lots of players I’m looking forward to working with, Rhys Ingram (392036287) being one of them as I’ve never worked with a player north of 500k TSI! And the goalie, again since I’ve never had a divine player.

It’s going to be fun putting a squad together and I’m relishing the challenge.

Let's go England!