Football's coming home Andy Maddock brings you the first part of a two-part guide to running the best football team in the country

Ok, so it's embarrassing to admit that you are rubbish at Sensi. It's probably the most competitive game on the Amiga, but if you keep getting hammered at it by a six-year old then I think it's about time you read this, the first part of our complete Sensible World Of Soccer guide.

The best advice I can give to start with is to refuse to start with your favourite team. It may seem a strange way of playing Sensi, but it'll give you something to aim for. If you support Manchester Utd, start with someone like Bury so you can aim for that job. You'll be surprised how much longer you'll play the game.

However, whichever team you start with, whether it's Barnet or Blackburn, your first mission is to take a trip to the transfer market to pick up some bargains. Before that, though, you must look at your squad's statistics. Even though the game claims that a player's ability shouldn't be judged by the player's value, it helps immensely because, obviously, an £8 million player is going to be far better than a player valued at £250,000.

Start by putting all your unwanted players, that is the cheapest, on the transfer list and get as much as you possibly can for them - don't let them go at silly prices. Now, depending on what team you are you will be able to work out which price bracket you can allow for yourself.

If you are in division three, most of the players cost around £130-200,000. You need to get your players up to division two quality so you can remain ahead of the rest of the pack. The division two players have a price bracket of around £160-300,000. This is the price at which you need the players. You can part exchange some of your really poor players, but make sure you bring your price down in relation to this value.

Always start by adding strength to your weakest departments. Now, you must have a dabble with your squad and keep chopping and changing the players and their positions until you get as many 'ticks' from the computer as possible.

When you are happy with your team, make sure you have a spare player in each department Ð although not just any player. He must be, at the most, as good as your weakest player in the side. If anyone should get injured or a red card you can then replace him easily. Although injuries will occur regularly, both central defenders are strike partners and will rarely be injured at the same time. If they are, then that's football for you.

Don't forget to test formations. Don't bother messing around with tactics as they'll just mess your players up. Stick to the standard formations - try and go for a '5-3-2' and if you're losing, switch to 'Attack'.

Also, if a player should start rolling around on the floor in agony, check that he's alright by clicking on the sub bench. If the cross next to his name is flashing, sub him right away, but if it remains normal don't bother substituting because he may get better.

Hint: If you think your squad is really good and you begin to lose easy matches (in coach mode), rotate through the spare players to see if there is a good player you have left out. This is usually the case, especially if he's just returned from an injury or suspension and you don't know about it.

You can get the full run down on how to become a SWOS star in the September issue of Amiga Computing priced at £4.50

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