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"Football is not a matter of life and death, it's more important than that!" - Recognise that most famous of footy quotes? Well anyway, whether you're an aspiring Bill Shankly or not you can now strut your stuff against the best managers in the game to see just how much you know about running a club. Will you rise all the way to cup glory? Or will you become the holder of the spaccer central trophy?

Match Of The Day is not a football sim (honest) it's a management sim. Which suits me just fine 'cos I think they're much more fun (oh god, some one who likes football management sims at last! - Big Al). You are given control of a sad team languishing in division four (my real life fave's Barnet) with the job of transforming them into something really special.

As manager there are a number of different methods of doing this: Train your lads to a high pitch of readiness, buy new players (or cosh 'em over the head and kidnap them... not!), sell duff ones for cash or, if all else fails, just sit back in your leather reclining chair with your sheepskin coat on and hope. A lot.

The last option is attractive but doesn't really work. Also you can't buy players if you don't have any cash so you need to keep a close eye on your team's expenses. The only way to make money is to keep up your gate receipts, and the only way to do that is to put on a good performance. It's a proverbial vicious circle.

When you think the squad is sufficiently trained and the dream squad is finally ready (or as close to it as possible) for the big game, you can select your finest team members and send them out onto the pitch to do battle.

Jim Rosenthal and Desmond Lynam present the game highlights to you, as you watch and cringe over your team's shortcomings with no direct control over them at all. After the game you're given the rest of the day's results and shown just where they leave you in the league placings. Now it's time to give your useless squaddies the abuse they deserve for the day's performance and it's back to business, training for the next match, scrounging players, listening to boring scouts (who actually look like boy scouts) and so on. It's all go as a footie manager isn't it?

The graphics used in the management part of the game are colourful but simple but then they don't need to be anything else. It's in the match highlights section where graphics really come into play. You're given an downward vertical view of the proceedings in true Kick Off style, and although the sprites are not exactly spectacular they do the job very well. Sound is really a bit of a non event but then it usually is in footy sims.

PLayability, always an important factor in any game is perhaps even more relevant in management sims where shoddy of difficult features quickly lead to boredom.

Label: Impulze Memory: 48K/128K Price: £10.99 Tape, £15.99 Disk Reviewer: Paul Anglin

I adore management sims and this is a very good one. It's very user friendly icon wise, and one of the most challenging and rewarding sims I've ever played. Jimmy and Des look great too. Ohh! What a bonus!