I have said it before and will say it again, I know NOTHING about football. Hardly ever watch it and my only knowledge seems to come from the sections just before and after the Soccerette on Soccer AM. Still for many years now I have been a fan of the Championship Manager games. Football Manager 2006 is the true successor to these titles.

It’s testament to my love for these titles that I shelled out forty pounds of my own money on a game that I have owned since last year on the PC. In my opinion, it’s money well spent. FM06 is every bit as good as the PC version – in fact, to all intents and purposes, it’s EXACTLY the same.

Everything else is as the PC – it uses the same database and features all the clubs and players that the PC does. My biggest surprise though was just how quick the game runs. Much has been made of the 360 vs the PC but FM2006 on the 360 runs much quicker than it does on my PC (2Gig Ram AMD 3800+) – everything is pretty much instant and the only real delays are when saving or loading a game.

I’ll not bother about the graphics as the game does not have any other than static text screens or the overhead match engine. The match engine though is fantastic – ok it’s basic – it’s nothing more than circle representations of the players, but they seem to move very realistically and certainly highlight your team’s strengths and weaknesses. With good imagination it really is like a game of football and that’s coming from someone who hardly watches one.

The one big addition to FM2006 on the 360 is the achievements – there are 50 of them available and with the exception of a handful, you really have to work for them - when they are awarded, you really feel like you have achieved something.

As you can tell I love the game – chilled on the sofa, joypad in hand, with your own music playing, it’s just a great experience. If a non-football fan can have this much fun, then you lovers of the game are in for a real treat.