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It's a funny old game, innit Saint? Why sit in front of the telly, watching England being thrashed by some team or other when you could be stuck in front of your computer, doing exactly the same thing? That's what Tracksuit Manager is for.

Tracksuit Manager comes from the same team who designed The Double. No, don't start groaning as faint memories of very low marks come streaming through the old grey matter. Slow though it was, The Double was, and still is, one of the most realistic football management games. Tracksuit Manager picks up where The Double left off and adds a lot to it, and when I say a lot, I mean a lot. Like match tactics and newspaper reports and, ooooh, loads more.

You, as coach of the England football squad (or any other squad you may care to manage) have to 'try' and lead your team to victory in the Nations Cup and the biggy, the World Cup. After signing on, you start out your managerial duties by first selecting a squad from a hundred English players. If you so wish, you can check out a player before you recruit him and you'll be told such details as how good he is at heading, passing, shooting, tackling, etc, plus how fit and confident he is, along with his home team. I have been assured that all statistics are correct at the time of writing and have been approved by FIFA. England kept being knocked out of the World Cup. Need I say more?

Between matches you are given a large array of options to play around with. The game displays all matches played over the last four years of the two cups, and that includes friendlies set up by you or other teams. All these matches are displayed in your diary, and it's with this that you can check ahead to your next match, or arrange a game or tour on any day you like, with any team that's free on that particular day, at home or away. If you aren't playing on a day where others are, and this happens very frequently, you can watch other matches or simply advance the date. This results in the matches being played, normally, in under two seconds and the goals and goalscorers being displayed Football Director-like and the next day's matches being displayed.

When a team you are due to play is playing, you can send your scout down to watch the match, and after a day, he'll come back with a very comprehensive report on the two teams involved, with details such as formation, attacking and passing style etc, plus full player reports on all the players in the two squads. Over one thousand players are held, along with the 55 countries. Still, enough of the boring technical stuff. The day has come, the match is here. What happens?

Well, before you can go and play, you have to have between 15 and 22 players in your squad. Once you've made your mind up, select the Play option, and it's off you go. This is where the game surpasses any others of this type and proves Goliath Games are a programming force to be reckoned with. First, select the eleven players that are going to be out there. Then select the Team Tactics option. With this, you can change the way your team will play, with a depth never before seen. From the basics like changing formation and game style (attacking or defensive) down to marking and passing styles. All these do have a drastic effect on how the game goes. Select long passing, and the enemy may intercept too easily. Select aggressive tackles, and players may get sent off.

Now, you've just watched the match, and you see that Lineker keeps moving down field too much. Pull him to one side by using the player tactics option, and tell him to stay up. Or give him someone to mark. Or tell him to take the penalties and corners. Almost anything, in fact. With the player tactics command, you can plan out a very intricate strategy very easily. Once all that is done, you watch the match. The match is the best I have ever seen. No amazing 3D graphics of spectacular shots. No incredible replay action, instead you get a running match commentary on exactly what it happening. Not just "Williams scored in the 20th minute" but real commentary on what's going on. This makes the game incredibly atmospheric. Play it for six hours non-stop, get to see the semi-final of the World Cup, find yourself 2-1 down with fifteen minutes to go, and you'll see what I mean.

After every match you play, you'll see a report on the game by the two popular newspapers, the Daily Slag and the Sporting Knife. Headlines such as "Tony Brings Us Victory" or "Dillon Must Rethink" appear frequently, and there is usually a big difference of opinion between the two papers.

Tracksuit Manager is the most playable game of its genre that I've come across. Controlled completely from the joystick, the options are selected from a menu bar at the bottom of the screen. As well as controlling options in the game, you can also control the game speed, right down to the speed of the match. Using the joystick, you can accelerate and decelerate gametime so the game takes everything from eight seconds right up to the full 90 minutes. A very useful touch, and surprising that no-one else thought of it before. The whole look of the game is very professional, with the screen set up as windows and boxes. If the colour scheme doesn't suit you, fine, change it with keys 1-5.

Altogether, an excellent first release from Goliath and one of the most frustrating, fun, compelling, exciting and addictive games I've ever played. It seems that this time, the Goliath beat David.

Just one more thing. Why is the manager on the game packaging Ali Mcloud?