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Not another football management game, there's so many of them and most of them are really boring. Not Football Manager 2: the original management sim that started out way back on the 8-bit computers brought new life to an old genre.

In comparison to the original Football Manager addictive games have given their original concept a worthy make over.

As the football manager you start by selecting your team. There's a large selection of teams to choose from the English football association, and once you have picked the team you want to manage, you start from the old fourth division and gain promotion to the championship title in each division.

You're given a starting squad and have to make do with them before you can start trading and picking the players you want on your team.

The first game you play is matched up with a CPU opponent and you have to select your starting eleven. The good thing here is that you can choose players out of position and also change your formation if you feel it's necessary. So you don't have to match exactly the same team as your computer opponent.

With each player there is a skill rating from one to nine: the higher the skill the better the player and they also have a fitness rating from 1 to 99, the higher the rating the fitter the player. When a player on your team has a fitness rating below 50 they become injured and can't play until they have recovered.

From here the game becomes simulated and you watch as the computer simulates how the game will unfold. This animation is pretty damn slow and can drive you bonkers, so I suggest you play this game in a CPC emulator with turbo function like WinAPE, as otherwise you'll get annoyed pretty quick.

The playing screen is divided into three sections but you only see one section of the playing field at a time, and when play starts its random, you could start anywhere on the pitch. This is no blight on the game as I think it helps manage your team better as you can see which of your players in a set position is performing well and those who aren't.

Half time comes along whenever the computer decides: there is no time limit, purely random. At half time you can make substitutes if you like or just get straight back into the action for a result. At the end of the game you are shown the result and where you are on the league table. You get to see your finances and make trades if you want to. Trading is easy and essential to having a team who can win titles. Selling those players with low skill levels and buying the players on offer with higher skill levels is generally the better way to go.

However, I found that some players with lower skill levels performed better than those with higher skill levels and I wonder if that was an oversight of the coders? You can have a fairly big squad too, which helps when you when you have to play the F.A Cup and League Cup games as well as the regular home and away championship fixtures. Usually the games are spread out in that you get a championship game, then a cup tie and so on until you get knocked out or win the cup titles. You play each team twice so a season can be a long one.

In between games you need to give the team training to improve their skills and fitness and I recommended that you space this out and don't train them every week. Also in between games you must manage the team's finances. If you go broke then it's game over and no manager wants their football club bankrupt. Once you win a trophy you get a management record with your list of titles which makes you feel impressed with yourself.

Graphically the game is dull, the drawings are an improvement on the original version, but still nothing too elaborate or exciting; probably for the better too as it's a simulated game. On the loading screen there is music of "Here we go, here we go..." which is nice but it's very mono sounding. In game there is some spot effects and cheers when you score a goal, but nothing to get you out of your seat.

Football Manager 2 is enjoyable because it doesn't try and re-invent the wheel and it's not complex: it sticks to the basics of football management. The only real blight is the game is rather boring when you have to watch the game unfold with no specified time limit. You could walk away for ten minutes, make yourself a tea or coffee, and it's still not half time. However, with turbo on with some emulators, the game is so much faster and more enjoyable.

Rise to the top of the table.

Graphics 43%
Poor but works for this game.

Sound 27%
Could have improved here but doesn't really matter.

Grab Factor 77%
First division and cups await.

Staying Power 64%
Nine levels, but oh so difficult.

Overall 81%
Best football management sim available for the CPC.