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Cult/D&H Games are incredibly prolific: they've shifted more footy managers than Aston Villa! And the latest addition to their repertoire is a little cracker.

Soccer Rivals is based on a board game format with managers moving their counters around a Monopoly-style board. Three managers get to play, any of them human or computer-controlled.

The three teams all start out in an eight-team Fourth Division. With efficient management, you can be one of two teams promoted at the end of the 14-game season. Landing on lucky squares helps, enabling you to win wodges of useful cash with which to buy better players.

Before, and after, moving your computer around the board, you can change your team formation and swap players around to get defence, midfield and attack ratings to match your opponents'. A useful feature here is the Automatic Team Selection which selects the best players for your formation.

At the end of the day, the results simply scroll on, but there is an option to view highlights of any match. This is a simple, but amusing, sequence with a stick-man player flicking the ball up, chesting it down, etc, before shooting/heading it towards the unseen net - a 'goal' or 'saved' caption then appears.

If this was all there was to Soccer Rivals it'd just be another mediocre management game, but the board game aspect is a lot of fun, especially with three human players. There's loads of realistic features like crowd trouble, injuries, training, various team crises and dilemmas, even players being killed in plane crashes! Your footy fortunes can change overnight.

Presentation is excellent throughout with a clear, attractive board layout and easy-to-use menus. There's a useful save game facility, and even an option to switch control of any of the three teams (human/computer), mid-game. Invite a couple of footy-mad friends round and you'll all be over the moon. 85%

Landing on various board squares has the following consequences:

1. Utilities:
   Allow you to purchase one of three items - Seats (initial ground capacity of 10,000 can be increased up to 40,000), Security Cameras (to avoid costly crowd violence), or a Coach And Youth Team (allows players to join your squad from the youth team, also helps with training).
2. Player For Sale:
   A player is offered for sale to you and the other two managers. His position, skill rating and minimum sale price are shown. When playing with friends, they'll have to look away so you can enter your secret bid - no peeking!
3. Sell A Player:
   Sell as many players as you like (apart from injured ones) until you refuse an offer.
4. Lucky/Bad Day:
   You could win or lose thousands at the races, etc.
5. Squad Dilemma:
   Pot luck again. You could get a new player, someone could retire, or one of your players could have his skill increased/decreased.
6. Extra Training:
   Put any of your players through extra training to hopefully increase their skill rating. However, without a coach, it could also go down.
7. Crisis:
   Several players are lost. Definitely one to avoid.
8. Hit The Target:
   Gamble on this nifty subgame. Shoot the ball at the upwards scrolling targets. Hit one and you'll win thousands, miss you you'll lose thousands. There's three skill levels with more money at stake on the hardest.

Presentation 84%
Save facility, simple menus, thoughtful join-in option.

Graphics 40%
Erm, good for genre with attractive board!

Sound 0%
I didn't hear the whistle, let along anything else!

Hookability 85%
Dead easy to make your debut, son, "on me 'ead"!

Lastability 82%
More stamina than David Platt in tip-top form.

Overall 83%