Mud & Glory: Grassroots Boss

Free to try: pre-season and your first three games, then a one-off £6.99 Season Ticket.

Take a village club from the very bottom of the football pyramid to the top flight, a season at a time.

You start at step 7: a muddy pitch, a tea hut, part-time players who work Saturdays and a board that just wants to stay up. Pick the team, set it up to play, and climb six levels and 152 clubs, one promotion at a time.

YOU PICK THE TEAM
Eight formations and five team instructions: mentality, pressing, tempo, width and the defensive line. The match engine rewards reading the opponent: sit deep and hit a side that pushes up on the counter, press a side that can't pass, go wide against full-backs who don't defend. The right plan lets a small club beat a big one.

ON THE TOUCHLINE
Every match is played live, as 2D highlights or as text commentary. At half-time, around the hour and with a quarter of an hour left, you make the calls: substitutions, the shape, a shout from the touchline, the team talk.

THE CLUB TALKS TO YOU
The chairman, the volunteer groundsman, your assistant and the local Gazette write every week from your real results. Players have day jobs, ask why they aren't playing, and want one more season. A rival manager has a dig in the paper in derby week.

BUILD THE CLUB
Transfers, free agents and trialists, contracts, scouting, a youth intake every summer, staff, and a ground that has to pass grading before the league lets you go up. The board sets the budgets; a wage bill that bites after relegation is your problem.

CUP NIGHTS
Two cups: the Challenge Cup for all 152 clubs, with replays in the early rounds and the cameras at the big ties, and the Counties Shield for the lower levels, straight to penalties at 90 minutes.

A CAREER, AND A LEGACY
A career lasts up to 35 seasons, then your manager retires and goes on the Managers' Wall. A trophy cabinet, club records, a page for every season and a Hall of Fame of the players you brought through. Up to five careers at once, kept in iCloud between your iPhone and iPad.

CHALLENGES AND THE WEEKLY
Six short challenges, from the great escape to youth only. Every week, a new scenario that's the same for everyone, with a Game Center leaderboard.

MADE FOR IPHONE AND IPAD
Laid out for the iPad in both orientations, with a sidebar and two-column screens, and for every iPhone down to the small ones.

Everything is made up: every club, town, league, player, crest and business. No real names, no licences.

THE SEASON TICKET
Free to try: pre-season and your first three games, in any career. Then a one-off £6.99 Season Ticket unlocks every match of every season, the challenges and the weekly, in every career you start, for good, on your devices and your family's. No subscription and no ads, ever.

Optional extras for Ticket holders: cash from a Local Sponsor or a Takeover for the club you're managing, and Job for Life. Money is never wins: the wage cap still holds, players still have to want to come, and careers that use one are marked Backed. Extras are never used in challenges or the weekly.