British Gloryhunter!

[jt]

So my San Marino save lost its spark and not because of the national team but instead with the club side. Something about back to back 5-0 thumpings for no apparant reason but I am finally back with a save that i believe will stick. Taking inspiration from DrBenjyFM's Glory Hunter save, I am going to attempt to do something similar. My twist if you see it as a twist is to concentrate the glory hunter save on the UK and Ireland. So throw away Spain, Germany, France and Italy and replace with Wales, Northern Ireland, Ireland and Scotland. So for those that are unfamiliar with the save, you have 20 seasons to win as much as you can. To complete the challenge i will have to win

• English Premiership
• The FA Cup
• Scottish Premiership
• Scottish FA Cup
• SSE Airtricity League
• Extra.ie FAI Cup
• JD Cymru Premier
• JD Welsh Cup
• Danske Bank Premiership
• Sadler's Peaky Blinder Irish cup
• Europa Conference
• Europa League
• Champions League
• European Championships
• World Cup

Seems easy right? Well quite possibly but to give it a little bit more of challenge i am going to start unemployed with no coaching badges and sunday league experience meaning i can't just pick a top side and get trophies straight away.

I may also adopt two other rules for the save which will be

1. Only but British and Irish players (Essentially making it a home grown challenge as well)
2. I have to win the Euros/World Cup with two different teams and also all european tropies have to be won with seperate sides

For the time being i have no danger of European football and my scouting ability is pretty much limited to a 5 street radius so i cant see myself picking up any foreign recruits in the near future.

If people are interested, I can make a points system up if you want to play along too.

[jawzy]

Wales or Northern ireland it will be first then

[Robson]

Apr 5, 2021 15:51:07 GMT jt said:

Seems easy right? 

Actually, no.

[dalenichol]

Definitely an interesting wee challenge though, fair play and good luck!

[jt]

Portstewart Takeover

10 Points for Jawzy as we do indeed start in Northern Ireland. Portstewart FC is where I will start my managerial career having had their manager get headhunted by Harland and Wolff Welders (Yes that is a real team) and so i will start off in the Belfast Telegraph Premiership or otherwise known as the Northern Irish 3rd tier to the rest of us. There were a few other job interviews though. Wigan offered me an interview despite me not even applying which i thought was a little strange due to my non-existant reputation whilst Greenock Morton and Dover Athletic rejected me at Interview stage and so i find myself at Portstewart.

I am guessing many of you have not heard of Portstewart and that is for fair reason. Based in the Coastal town of the same name, the football club was founded in 1968 and have largely been in the lower levels of Northern Irish football never appearing in the top flight. They did get as high as the 2nd Division where they spent two seasons (2006-2008) and they were as low as the 4th division as recently as the 2016/17 season. Since returning to the 3rd tier they have recorded 7th and a 6th place finish which matches where the media think we will be this time around. The team are nicknamed the Seahawks which sounds quite impressive and we play our home games at the brilliantly named Seahaven ground completing the nautical theme and to make sure there is no doubt we are by the sea. The ground supposingly has a capacity of 1000, although judging by the picture below that could be a little bit of a stretch. As expected our facilities are a little on the basic side so don't expect the next George Best. Financially we have around £10k in the bank for now but i fully expect to be in the red sooner rather than later.

One of the reasons this was an interesting first step is the board have basically no expectations. In fact, I think me accepting the role is a bonus as the board just want us to be competitive whilst the Media have slightly higher expectations predicting a midtable finish. The league is made up of just 11 teams and we play two games against each side to make a 20 game season and with no relegation it really is a no-lose situation. On top of that we have 3 cup competitions as Northern Ireland seem to love a cup competition and as you can see we are just expected to be competitive. Essentially don't embarass the side. I have been handed a deal to the end of the season paying a whopping £300 per week.

Squad

In terms of squad the previous manager had started on the transfer front and if i am honest, he did a pretty good job as he has managed to get some pretty good teenagers in the door who based on their stats are already going to be starters for this side. Now our wage budget for the whole squad is just £213 per week and we were spending £160 of that already. I dont think i have ever seen a wage budget as low as that but when you look and see the whole team are on non contracts it makes a little bit more sense. In fact just our left back Mark Edgar is on an actual contract and he is taking home £80 per week by himself. There was still some work to do though as we only had one keeper and just one person capable of playing on the right wing and so i added two new faces by myself. Gareth Muldoon will provide competition between the sticks whilst Andrew Hall is another regen signed to provide options on the right flank. Both will rotate in and out of the side especially as i look to try and work out my best team and formation. The squad looks like the below

Tactics

Based on the team and the relatively low number of games to be played. 20 league games + probably 5 or 6 cup games if we are lucky, I am going to try and keep the squad quite small throughout to keep the side afloat and so a couple of the above may get cut but with the squad of 22 at my disposal and lower league management favouring simple formations we are going to set up in a classic 4-4-2 looking to capatilise on the fast wingers (12-14 pace) to try and get around teams and put the ball in the box. It means we will probably set up with a team like this

That will also be the first team starting my first league game based on a fairly positive pre-season where we beat lower level opposition whilst also putting together a good account of ourselves against our Parent club Larne where we lost just 2-0. Unfortunately the parent club arrangement is purely based on a friendly every year and so we won't get any preferential treatment when it comes to loan deals. It is also worth noting that team picked there has 5 players aged 16 or 17 in the first team line up as we are really doubling down on youth to get us through this league.

Plans

So i will probably race to the half way mark which i think falls nicely at the end of December and come back and give you an update of where we are. My contract runs to the end of the season and to be honest I am going all guns blazing for an instant promotion to the 2nd division where hopefully i will have done enough to perhaps attract the interest of a bigger 2nd Division side or even perhaps a small top flight save. The clock is ticking and having re-read my post i actually concur with Robson that i might have taken on a much harder challenge than i had thought especially with a time frame of 20 years. However, easy isn't fun

[jt]

Portstewart 20/21 Mid Season Report

Telegraph Championship 2

Time really does fly when you are having fun and its been a fairly solid start at the half way mark as we sit undefeated and top of the table. Now that sounds mightedly impressive and in a lot of ways it is but over the 10 games we have Won 5 and Drawn 5 as we hit peak inconsistency. Now part of that could be down to playing so many untested teenagers but equally it has been the teenagers that have shone the brightest in this team. I think all in all we have a tactic that works and is suiting us as our pace on the wings means we can get past people and if only our striking was a little more clinical we would be running away with this league.

Which we are not as we have dropped points needlessly. Opening day of the season we dominated Lisburn Distillery but we only came away with a 1-1 draw. Bangor saw my strikers put the boots on the wrong feet as we spurned decent opportunity after decent opportunity to draw 0-0. It was the same against Banbridge (2-2) and PSNI (1-1) where we just couldn't take our dominance and go onto win the game. From them 4 games thats 8 points that were fairly easily dropped. Admittedly in my other draw (2-2 vs Armagh) we did well to battle back from two goals down to get that point so at least we have won draw where we should have lost. Even in the games we have won we have made it hard for ourselves. The 4-3 win over Moyola Park being the one that sticks out in my head. We were 3-0 up and cruising at half time only to get pegged back to 3-3 and only a 96th Minute winner spared my team a complete rollicking.

As you can see it is still incredibly tight and we are going to need to go on a similar if not better run in the back half to take the only automatic promotion spot. Lisburn are the next game up and so if we can get a victory there we already give ourselves a little bit of breathing room. However, on our day we can beat any team in this league and that dream of promotion feels very real indeed.

Cup Competitions

It hasn't just been the league season that has gone well as we have fared well in all 3 cup competitions we have faced. The NIFL League Cup is the only one of the three that we are out of but we put up a massive showing in the competition. In the 2nd Round (The Round we entered) we were paired with Crusaders, who are plying their trade in the top division. Away from home and just 3 days after a tough league game and i thought we would get put aside quite quickly. When we found ourselves 2-0 down i thought Oh well its game over but how wrong i was. Young Connor Farrelly scored just before half time and then even younger Danny Cleary hit a rocket jsut after the break as we stunned Crusaders to level the match. They then got a man sent off and the match went all the way to penalties. There we missed our 2nd penalty but they then missed their 3rd and it went all the way to 9-8. Luckily for me we were the team to hit 9 as their keeper missed the decisive penalty to send us through and cause a Giant Killing (Well the Northern Ireland equivalent).

The 3rd Round saw us take on another top flight side in Dungannon Swifts and this game was in the middle of 3 matches in 5 days. A ridiculous fixture schedule considering how little number of games there are in the season. We were 3-1 in this tie with just 20 or so minutes to go but fatigue was starting to kill us and we even went down to 10 men as

extra fitness paid off and they were able to take the tie to extra time and to nab a winner to knock us out 4-3. The fact we had at least two killer chances to level the game still haunts me but the fact this is my only defeat so far still makes my day. The Irish Intermediate Cup (A sort of Johnstones Paint trophy with the 3rd tier, reserve sides of the big clubs and a bunch of lower league sides) has seen us progress through two rounds. First up were 5th tier side Dunmurry Rec who we beat fairly comfortably 2-0 with goals from Conlon and Farrelly. The 2nd round saw us play Dungannon Swift Reserves and this time we were able to hold onto our lead as we came away with a 2-1 victory thanks to a fairly late goal from Veteran Darren Henderson. That has set up a 3rd Round tie with non-league side Crewe Utd who in the last round beat Carrick Reserves 10-0 so perhaps not as easy as i would hope.

The final cup has been the Irish FA Cup and in the Fourth Round (1st Round we enter) we took on fellow 3rd tier side PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland) and we beat them handsomely 3-0 which was extra sweet as just two days earlier we had played the 4-3 Cup defeat to Dungannon Swift so we were properly a mix of knackered and playing our fringe players to get through. In the next round we will take on Harland and Wolff Welders and also the Man i replaced.

Results

Squad

So having had 15 games to assess the squad, I can confirm the old manager did a good job picking up players as some of his signings have really shone through. Connor Farrelly is the main striker picking up 9 goals and being the most consistent threat we have. Although 9 goals in 15 games isnt to be sniffed at he has still managed to miss a hatful of chances and could quite easily be on 15 goals this season. Still a nice quick striker at this level is all you need.

Speed was certainly something the old gaffer was looking for as Danny Cleary has dazzled on the left wing and i swear all 4 of his goals so far have been screamers from outside of the area. Behind him on the left flank at left back, Mark Edgar has been our main creative outlet bagging 7 assists and being a reassured presence at left back. Alongside him at centre back has been our best player so far and another one of our 16 year olds. Pierce Sullivan has slotted in brilliantly at the back and the amount of last gasp tackles and blocks he has put in has been superb.

Squad

To be fair most of the squad has been excellent which given our results so far is to be expected. Still there is some room for growth and i have secured the loan of right back Adam McConnville from Dungannon Swifts for the rest of the season with our right back Chandler Douglas being the only man of the first choice defence not averaging a 7.00 or above and also prone to the odd howler.

[jt]

Portstewart 20/21 End of Season

Telegraph Championship 2

That league table only tells half the story but it does give away the ending as we narrowly and I mean Narrowly came home at the top of the table to clinch Automatic promotion and my first piece of silverware of the save. 7 Wins and 3 defeats in the final 10 games was 1 point better than the first half and Lisburn Distillery gave us a real run for our money but the main objective of this season has been done.

To give the full story, in Gameweek 11 we had Lisburn Distillery and we dispatched them 3-1 to put us 4 points ahead with 9 games to go. We then went on to beat Armagh (1-0) before slipping up against Dollingstowne (2-3) putting Lisburn just a point behind us. We just about beat Tobermore 1-0 before losing 2-0 to Bangor. In that time Lisburn won every game bar one but also on top of that had started to play more games than us due to our cup exploits (More on that later!). It meant after 15 games we were 6 points behind Lisburn who had played 2 games more. The pressure was on as even though we had the games in hand, they had the points in the bag meaning we couldnt affort a slip up at all. The next two league games we won with ease winning 3-0 and 3-1 putting us level on points with 3 games to go. Then we lost to Banbridge 2-0. Completely out of the blue and allowing Lisburn to have a 3 point lead with two games to go. We needed them to slip up to win the title. Luckily their last two games were tougher than ours and so i knew we had a chance.

In Gameweek 19, we went and destroyed Moyola Park 5-2 whilst in the mean time Lisburn lost against Armagh (2-1) to put us level on points and ahead of Lisburn virtue of having a +1 better goal difference. We had scored more goals as well giving us an extra buffer going into the final day. They had Dollinstowne who were up in 4th whilst we played the PSNI who were near the foot of the table. We just had to match them for goals and we were home and dry. This last game was the most nerve wrecking i could remember

Lisburn went 1-0 up early in their game to put the pressure on but we took the lead in ours just a few minutes later through Joel Bradley to restore our advantage on goal difference. They then scored a 2nd to level things up but we responded pretty quickly with Lee Forgrave hitting a screamer out of nowhere. It was neck and neck and then we won a penalty. Up steps Darren Henderson whose record at this point was 100% from the spot. Surely we would go 3-0 up and extend our goal difference lead. NO! He hit the post and to make mattes worse Lisburn went 3-0 up before halftime. So at the halftime stage the goal difference is completely equal and we are just about holding the lead.

During the second half, we miust have missed 3 clear cut chances before finally forcing PSNI to put one in their own net to finally put us 3-0 up. Lisburn then went on and scored a 4th and going into the final 10 minutes i was nervously watching the Lisburn score to make sure they didnt score a 5th whilst watching my defence getting carved open like a Roast Beef joint at Sunday Dinner. Somehow we held on and somehow Dollingstown found a defence and we clinched the title on the final day of the season.

That wasn't the end of the season though

Cup Competitions

As we still had the Cup competitons as we competed in the Irish Cup and the Irish Intermediate cup. Starting with the Irish Cup we had Championship side (2nd tier, league above us) Harland and Wolff Welders in the 5th Round. They were being managed by Johnny Law who had left Portstewart in the Summer and had spent the last few weeks seemingly telling the press at every opportunity how bad a job i was doing. This was despite being top of the table at the time. Needless to say i enjoyed the 5-3 win as we claimed another scalp to set up a final 16 tie against Glenavon. Arguably one of the biggest sides in Northern Ireland and my god did we put on a good show as Corrie Burns a striker i signed to help give cover to the Godlike Connor Farrelly scored his first and only goal for us to put us 1-0 up. We gave a really good fight and probably should have gone 2-0 up but eventually we were pegged back and taken to extra time. Another lot of extra time followed and it was back to penalties but this time we couldn't beat the Premiership side as we lost 5-4 on Penalties to end our Cup run. A great run that was recognised at the end of the season.

However, there was success in the Irish Intermediate Cup as we beat Crewe Utd (3-1), Newtowne (4-1), Larne Olympic (4-1) and Dollingstowne (1-0) to secure a cup final against Moyola Park. A team we had beaten in two 7 goal thrillers already this season and we were suddenly the favourites for a first season double. We took that favourite crown and ran with it as we went 2-0 up in the first half we looked to be cruising to a victory. How wrong was I? As we lost our lead and had to go to Extra Time for the 4th time this season. It looked like we were destined for penalties but then Moyola Park scored a 3rd with just 6 minutes to go. Devestation, Rage, Anger, all of it was felt and so i did something i have never done before. I put the playing style all the way to very attacking, i lumped 3 forwards on, moved the wingers forward, moved the full backs forward and set everyone to attack attack attack. It worked as Connor Farrelly scored an equaliser to take us to Penalties for the 3rd time.

This time luck was on our side as we won 5-3 and secured a double in my first season. Shame it was the N.Irish 3rd tier and the equivalent of the Johnstones Paint trophy but if Carlsberg could make 1st seasons, this would be a Carlsberg season.

Results

Squad & Plans

An incredible 1st season and we are now 1 step closer to the top flight and being able to seriously challenge for the honours that make up this challenge. It is definately one of the best squad performances i have had on FM21 as so many players averaged over a 7.00. Pierce Sullivan led from the back and was just outstanding. I dont think i have ever seen such as high average rating for a centre half who hasnt scored goals. Normally to get that sort of average you would have seen the centre back get a load of goals due to the game always thinking goals = played good.

The Goals though came from two men. Connor Farrelly banged in 25 goals in 30 appearances, with a pretty much 50/50 ratio of the goals coming in the league and in the cup and he shows that stars dont always mean everything. Alongside him the veteran Darren Henderson did the target man role so well scoring 15 but assisting in 10 as we had a 40 goal striker partnership coming from just 32 games. There were others too such as Mark Edgar and Danny Cleary down our left hand side, Veteran Kyle Mcvey at the back rolling back the years. A truely great team performance.

Squad

So where do i go from here? Well there could be some movement in Northern Ireland as a number of Premiership sides have made their managers insecure and I am hoping in a shuffle there could be an opportunity that pops up. The most likely one right now is Carrick Rangers who have just been relegated to the same league that we will be playing in next season and they should be a much stronger bet for promotion. Saying that, it doesnt feel like there is a huge amount of difference in quality between the three leagues and I am hoping with some new additions we could put on a good showing and perhaps spring a surprise. My Contract is expiring and i have put off signing a new contract as i dont want to price myself out of a move but i am also painfully aware my reputation is still low despite the wins and i think that is mainly down to coaching badges. Luckily the cup income has kept the club in the black and in fact we even made a small profit this season and with that i have secured funding for some coaching badges to hopefully make me more attractive.
lly
Squad wise, we have a small team and the wage budget has gone up to a staggering £325 per week (50% increase) but we are going to have to scour the free transfer market and loan market to find players. Our low reputation compared to the teams in and around us could make it interesting. Realistically i need upgrades at GK, A RB, Another CB, two CM, another LM and a ST if we want to keep moving forward. We also had this happen. It is essentially just a change of ownership and no money got pumped in

Up the Seahawks and onto season 2

[jt]

Portstewart 21/22 Pre-season

Transfers

Well the first piece of business was that I didn't move and no one came anywhere near me, so i signed a 1 year extension to my contract ensuing my compensation was as low as it would possibly go just so money doesn't become a burden in case someone wanted to make a move for me. With that said and done, this window was one of the toughest I have ever faced. The combination of Attribute masking, poor player knowledge due to low stats, Rubbish scouts, having to rebuild my backroom team due to them all getting poached by bigger clubs plus a very low reputation made it hard. We have to had to bring in countless triallists to just see who could improve the team and that process is not only long but also so hit and miss. Often I would find one of three things would happen.

1. They were rubbish and not going to improve even the backup options we had
2. They were good but were wanting over £100 an appearance blowing our budgets out of the water
3. They were good and were affordable but also wanted by about 5 other clubs all with higher reputations than our own

So it became a chore trying to find players and in the end just 4 new faces joined the squad with two making way as i looked to keep the squad lean but well rounded and with a few options should we hit a bad run of form. So the first through the door was Caolan Brennan who joined on a free transfer having been released by one of the Premiership sides. He provides cover on the left wing to the faster Cleary but his double figures for crossing should come in handy as we look to carry on exploting the wings. The 2nd and only other permanent move was right back Jake Richardson who joins on a free transfer from Annagh United who were relegated to the 3rd tier last season. A solid right back option who can also play on the wings. He has great pace and physicals with a solid 9 in defensive stats. Not going to set the world alight but at least gives me two solid right back options moving forward.

The other two faces were both loan deals and both of whom play in central midfield as i bolstered my options in what was an area that was a little thin on the ground. The first incoming was 5"3 Dylan Sinnerton who joins on loan from Cliftonville for the next 5 months. He might be small in size but he can pass the ball and has good work rate and pace as i hope he can be a good creative outlet for us. The 2nd was 17 year old was Scott Atchison who joins from Crusaders and he will be here the whole season. On paper i dont think he is quite as good as Sinnerton but the scouts rate him higher but again he is another creative outlet from the centre of midfield. Leaving the club were both Ryan Doherty and Liam Bradbury who were last seasons back ups at left wing and right back respectively.

Ins / Outs

I am not entirely happy with the moves but it all felt really tough to compete in the market and with just a lot of meurgh players. I tried taking the best players from the league below but they all rejected my advances which i suspect is because of my very low reputation not being seen as a step up even though we play in the next division. Based on last season's cup exploits i would like to think the league is only going to be a small step up and we should have enough to survive. This time the League is 32 games long. With the 12 teams playing each other home and away before splitting into a top half / bottom half where you play each other team twice. The team at the bottom gets relegated whilst 2nd from bottom goes into a play-offs. At the other end its the same. One automatic spot with a 2nd spot playing a play-off with a team from the top flight.

Friendlies

To help we booked ourselves a fairly busy pre-season as we looked to take on a range of teams to see where we were and to be honest it threw out some rather strange results.

As you can see, it started off with some tight affairs with a goal in it either way before exploding into a goal-fest as both Corrie Burns and Connor Farrelly getting among the goals before a rather torrid last friendly against Donegal Celtic who were just promoted into the league below. With Burns and Farrelly both playing well, I am going to start both together, Initially i will try Burns out as a target man to replace the aging Henderson but he is a little bit smaller than i would like (5"11) and i may go with two advanced forwards if it doesn't work out in what will be our only change to the tactic that won us the double last season.

Can we survive? Will we go up? It could be anyone's guess if i am honest but i'm looking forward to finding out

[jt]

Portstewart: October 2021

Bluefin Championship

So with the season now resetting itself after Covid, we had an earlier start and we have raced through the first 11 games of the regular season and now is a good time to give you an update on where we are and how we look with 11 games to go before the league split. It is safe to say, things are going very well indeed.

I guess i was right in thinking that the step up wasn't going to be huge but to get to the top so quickly has surprised me. In fact if we hadn't of mucked up our last two league games we could have been 5 clear at this point. Just one look at the goals for column tells you one of the big reasons why we are here as we have smashed goals in for fun bagging 31 in just 11 games meaning we are just short of averaging 3 goals a game. Now we have needed it as we do also have one of the leakiest defences but our conversion rate is sitting at a sky high 26%. We are lethal if given a chance and that is all down to the two strikers. I said i might need to move Corrie Burns to an advanced forward alongside Connor Farrelly so playing two advanced forwards and my god has it worked. Corrie Burns has 14 goals in 11 appearances in all competitions whilst Connor Farrelly has 16 in 13 games meaning between the two of them they have already bagged 30 goals in just 13 games in all competitions. It is insane and also probably not sustainable but right now i am enjoying it.

One look at the fixture list tells you that games are not dull and as things stand i have to be thinking about a top 6 finish and getting into the Championship group. Can we hold on to this form... doubtful as the sustainability of these two just can't be possible but we have to believe. In fact Connor Farrelly's record since he signed last season is 41 goals in 43 games. I have to tip my hat at Johnny Law for signing him and i bet he wishes he had him as he sits (Harland and Wolff Welders) bottom of the table.

Squad

NIFL League Cup

Meanwhile we have started our cup campaigns with NIFL League Cup. The draws have been pretty kind to us, as we beat Knockbreda 2-0 in the 2nd Round before beating Annagh United 3-1. It sets up a quarter final with BallinaMallard who sit just behind us in the league and with there only being two top tier sides in the competition still we actually might have a chance of adding another cup to the competition.

A cracking start to life in this league and the possibility of back to back promotions catapulting me into the top flight and a big step closer to starting to hunt down the trophies needed for this challenge is certainly possible.

[chaodck]

You and your challenges JT, I would've never thought of something like this hhaha. Good start to your career, instant promotion and leading the next division right away, with that your reputation will surely go up and up which will net you a better job to take a knock at that first piece of silverware. Good luck mate.

[jt]

Portstewart: January 2022

Bluefin Championship

Could we keep up the early season form? Well yes and no. We still sit top of the table but our points haul of 18 from 11 games showed we had some challenges as the draws started to stack up as the goals slowed down a little bit too much. It was always going to happen as Farrelly and Burns were on a level that was simply unattainable for a whole season unless you are Messi or Ronaldo. So two young Irish strikers in the 2nd tier of Northern Ireland were always going to be hard pushe but Farrelly's 30 goals in 27 games and Burns 21 goals in 25 still makes them a deadly duo for this division.

As you can see it is still a little tight at the top and the one automatic promotion spot is far from secured. Ballinamallard are a good team as we found out in the League Cup (More on that later) and with a Championship group a small run of form can really change everything. Saying that i suspect we should have enough to get a top 3 spot and at least a chance of promotion. Whether i can keel Farrelly and Burns firing on all cylinders is another thing. If we can't i need to sure up a defence that in terms of average rating are performing well but we still have one of the leakiest defences in the league. Luckily our attack of 54 goals in 22 games is deadly and our we can score one more goal than you attitude is at least paying off for now.

Cup Competitions

Whilst the league has been going on we have been working away at the domestic cup competitions. First up we had our NIFL League Cup Quarter Final against promotion rivals Ballinamallard. We went 2-0 up early on with Conor Farrelly bagging both and it looked like for sure a Semi-final place was in our hands but we inexplicatly fell apart in the 2nd half and we ended up losing 3-2 and going out. It was a blow that did dent our league form a little bit but at least i can say i lost to the eventual winners with Ballinamallard winning the whole competition despite being in the 2nd tier!

The Sadlers Peaky Blinders FA Cup also started and we have made fairly light work of getting to the 6th Round as we beat Lisburn Distillery 2-0 and then Annagh United 2-1. Meaning we have inflicted a 2nd cup defeat this season on poor Annagh United. In the 6th round we go away to Glentoran in what will be a tricky encounter but so far against the top flight sides we have done well.

Squad / Results

Transfer Activity

There has also been a little bit of activity, mainly due to the dangers of playing with a squad on month to month contracts. We lost Andrew Hall who was fed up sitting on the bench, whilst young midfielder Dylan Thomas decided to go to Knockbreda for more game time. Dylan Sinnerton's loan spell ended when his contract at this parent club expired. However, i was able to re-sign him on a permanent non contract deal meaning we still had him. We also released Lee Forgrave who was complaining about lack of first team football.

So we resigned Sinnerton but also added the loans of Dylan Martin and Conall Murray to help bulk out the squad for the remainder of the season. We also signed young Stuart McClelland who was playing for Banbridge Town in the 3rd tier to give us another option at the heart of the defence

So can we hold on?

[jt]

Portstewart: 21/22 End of season

Bluefin Championship

18 Points from 10 games. That was our performance from the Championship group. Was it enough to win the title or would we slip into the play-offs. Well in the end it was enough but only because Ballinamallard had an absolute collapse at the end of the season losing 4 league games on the bounce, including a title decider against us meaning we had the title and our 2nd promotion on the bounce tied up with one game to go.

The goals did slow down but so did the goals against us as we laboured on. Connor Farrelly went completely off the ball and if it wasn't for Corrie Burns we could have been in a little more trouble than we were. When we lost to Ballinamallard in the 5th game week, we slipped to 2nd and to be honest I thought we had blown it. However, that victory for Ballinamallard triggered a 4 game losing streak for them whilst we just about picked ourselves up to get the points we needed. From the 3rd tier to the Top tier in just two seasons.

Peaky Blinders FA Cup

The league performance should have been enough but not for this side. I am no tactical genius but somehow I have stumbled on something that has turned this side of part timers into a decent cup side. When i left you we were in the last 16 of the FA Cup and a tie against Glentoran was in front of us. I spoke about Corrie Burns being a hero during the final stages of the season and he was here as he got the only goal of the game to send us to the Quarter Finals for a 2nd straight season. There we were paired with Portadown (who at the time were talking about me taking over) and i'm glad i didn't apply as we sealed a 2-0 win with Connor Farrelly (70) and Corrie Burns (84) completing a comfortable victory.

Now onto the Semi-finals we had Crusaders (who went onto be crowned Champions of Northern Ireland) and just like last season we took Crusaders all the way to extra time where once again, you guessed it Corrie Burns scored a winner to send us to the Final of the Irish FA Cup and my first chance to knock a trophy off the list. Standing in our way were Coleraine, our local rivals from a first ever Irish FA Cup. After sealing the league title, the boys were confident and it was star centre half Pierce Sullivan who scored from a Mark Edgar Free Kick before Corrie Burns sealed the deal to win the Final 2-0. A 2nd double in 2 seasons and most importantly the first of 15 trophies sealed and delivered in just my 2nd season. 14 Trophies to go in 18 seasons as we move to the top flight and we have European football for the first time as we enter the Europa Conference.

Squad / Results

Thoughts

A fairy tale season and it shows that so far there really isn't a lot of quality difference between the different flights in Northern Ireland. So far our record against the Top tier sides has been phenomenal but doing that week in week out is going to be a differnt gear. Half of the top flight is professional and so far we have been semi-pro with no contracted players. To help the board have upped the wage budget to £1200 per week and it will be a busy pre-season for us. Getting to the season preview we are 1000-1 for the title, considering the next side are 450-1 we have a massive gap in quality.

Corrie Burns (28 goals) and Connor Farrelly (33 goals) were the massive catalysts for the season and without them we would have been no-where near the top of the table. Can they step up? I dont know. Pierce Sullivan was our player of the season as a centre-half but again, Is he good enough? It is that question that I am thinking about, Do i stay and give it a go or do i move? Now that I am in the top flight i dont really want to drop down divisions as I dont want to have to build myself up again until I can knock out another trophy. The problem is, there isn't much around and a little jaunt in the Europa Conference could be fun.

What should i do?

[jt]

Portstewart: 22/23 Pre-season

So spoiler alert... we are still at Portstewart.... for now at least. There wasn't really any movement in the summer. Our best bet for a move was a Welsh Premier league side and also going ove the border to Ireland but none of the clubs even decided to interview me despite my application. To be fair at the time our rep was just under 1 star but we have since completed our coaching badges which has now bumped me to a 1 star reputation. The club immediately funded another coaching badge so i fully hope to be at a new club before the end of this season

Transfer Window

So why the rush to leave. Well quite simply this season is going to be hard. The transfer window was tough, with our reputation being so low. Players would actually reject the chance to come and play at a top flight club to go play for a 2nd tier side. Simply our reputation has not caught up with our position and in the end it has led to a window where we have bought players in but none of them make us a deeply better side.

Outgoing wise, all of the loan deals from last season went back to their parent clubs whilst veterans Darren Henderson and Kyle Mcvey retired from playing football. Both were back-ups last season so their only real loss is that they were our two leaders dynamics wise. Back up keeper Alan Buchanen decided to join Tobermore United to get more game time and we were facing starting the season with a squad of just 15 or so players. Partly due to my attentions being a little bit too focussed on trying to leave rather than build the squad up. Still i moved the current squad to real part time contracts and went on the hunt for some new faces.

The first person through the door was Jack Ferguson who joins from Lisburn Distillery as our new No.1 keeper. He was the best we could get and provide a slightly more well rounded option to Gareth Muldoon who has until this point performed fairly well. Andrew Wilson joins from Armagh City to give us another option on the right of the midfield. He isn't as quick as i would like but technically he is solid and should give us another option out there. Thomas Logan and Tre Sterling both joined to fill our ranks in the centre of midfield. Sterling could be a find having been on an amateur contract at a non-league Northern Ireland save. Both will compete and get plenty of minutes in an area we are still a little weak for my liking. The final permanent transfer was Aaron Mclaughlin who comes in as another right back for the club. Its been a problem area since the start of the save with neither Douglas (Season 1) or Richardson (Season 2) really doing enough for me. He is a tad better but at least we are well covered.

The squad was still paper-thin and to bolster it we loaned in 4 players to give us some squad depth. None are great with David O'Malley being the best of the lot. The others joining were Jordan Larmour, Ryan Hamill and Odhran Skelton.

Ins

Europa Conference League

So the one advantage of staying is I got a little taste of European football and it was just a little taste as our obvious lack of ability was always going to limit us. We did get past one round though as the 1st Qualifying round saw us paired with Fiorita of San Marino. We had an early scare in the 1st leg at home as we went 1-0 down but back back-up striker Zach Barr scored a hat-trick to give us a 3-1 victory in the first leg. The first leg also saw Jack Ferguson save a last minute penalty to keep the two goal lead. Back over in San Marino there was no such scare as we easily scored a 3-0 victory with Corrie Burns bagging a brace and Jack Conlon getting a goal.

That set up a 2nd qualifying round tie against Kilmarnock of Scotland and here we were outclassed. A 3-0 defeat in Scotland was followed by a 2-1 defeat at home and there was the end of our European adventure. An adventure that has managed to pump around £150k into the bank balance leaving us healthier than ever before

Domestic Competitons

Domestically it has been a mixed bag and we certainly haven't been outclassed in the competition yet. In fact our opening day defeat against Crusaders was only because we conceded a 94th minute goal and it was a similar late goal against Cliftonville that saw us lose that game. In between we picked up a nice 4-1 victory over fellow Promoted side Ballinamallard and a 2-0 win over Dungannon Swifts. It is a long season though with 38 games but so far it has been ok.

In the NIFL Cup we got past the first round beating Donegal Celtic 6-3 in an entertainign back and forth game to set up a tie with Loughgall in the next round.

Results

Thoughts

A better than expected start to the season as i genuinely thought we might get pumped. Luckiliy for us 8 of the 12 Premiership sides (including us) are Part time with the other 4 being full time. We just need to take one game at a time and prey we stay injury free as we are not well stocked for depth. When 17/18 year olds from Linfield are rejecting the chance to come on loan to you, to play first team football to drop down a league to play for a side in the 2nd tier, it was always going to be tough on the recruitment side of role.

Do i expect to be here at the end of the season? No not really. For me to cross off any more of the trophies from the challenge with the League being the next most obvious one, it will take me 3-4 seasons to be able to compete realistically and I can't wait that long. Hopefully one of the larger clubs has a bad start to the season and I can get a Job Interview to go, or alternatively I am looking over the border and at Wales as the most obvious next choices. Realistically in Scotland, I would only get a League 1 side whilst in England I would be Vanarama National at best. Both of them options to me feel a little too far away from trophies i seek

[jawzy]

May need to go England, to get the rep boost to open other doors elsewhere otherwise that 20 years will be up and very few things ticked off?

[jt]

Apr 29, 2021 21:34:41 GMT jawzy said:

May need to go England, to get the rep boost to open other doors elsewhere otherwise that 20 years will be up and very few things ticked off?

I am slowly coming to that conclusion. Just need to work out what is the best time to Jump. I think if i can get a lower Championship / Upper League 1 then i could make a surge from there. At the moment based on rep i think i could probably get a top Vanarama National role and at a push League 2. The other option is to try and cross into Scotland earlier where the move to a 2nd tier side wouldn't be that far off and would come sooner than the Championship role. In fact Scotland is scaring me as I am going to have to get either the Celtic or Rangers job to get that done quickly. In fact, Wales is not going to be a breeze, TNS dominate the league as they are the only Professional side and are winning the league by a country mile.

Come to think of it.... this challenge is a lot harder than i imagined and thats despite me having relatively quick success!

[jt]

Portstewart: December 2022

A quick little update after the first round of fixtures as the League goes on a small hiatus due to the 2022 World Cup.

Squad / Results

So far we are doing Ok and it looks like I should be able to secure safety even at this early stage of the season with Ballinamallard really struggling with the promotion and they look anchored to the only automatic relegation spot. We could still get drawn into a play-off battle but based on the results so far we look like we can be a mid table side for the rest of the season. We can compete with most of the teams in the league and on a good day we can steal a victory mainly thanks to Corrie Burns who has carried on his incredible form at the end of last season and he already has 17 goals in 16 appearances this season across all competitions.

We did though annoyingly go out at the Quarter Finals stages of the NIFL League cup as we were beaten 4-3 by 2nd tier side Knockbreda which saw us rotate our team a little and I reckon that is the main reason we are not sitting in the Semi-finals and possibly just one game away from a 3rd different cup competition. Either way the League is the one I need to cross off and that is where I am going to be concentrating until I can find a new club.

Talking of new clubs, there has only been a few Irish clubs come available and all of them didnt even offer an interview when I applied. Perhaps I am being unreasonable with where I think i can go and perhaps I need to consider the 2nd tier in the Rep of Ireland as a next club but we will see how things go further into the season.

Transfer wise we signed Irish striker Chris Lyons on a free transfer to give us another good option. At the moment he is behind Burns and Farrelly in the pecking order but Farrelly's place could be up for grabs sooner rather than later. We also saw 3 of the loan contracts get cancelled by the parent clubs after they all sat on the bench not getting a game meaning we have a paper thin squad and half the clubs in the league are pissed at me for not playing their generally awful youngsters. So i went and finally got the board to spend some money

Which means we now can produce our own awful youngsters for the first time. I can't wait to see the dregs of our first ever youth intake later in the year.

[jt]

Larne F.C Takeover Report

So my Portstewart journey has come to an end and I have made the first move in this Journeyman game and I am staying in Northern Ireland and Larne F.C are hopefully the club that will allow me to tick off the League and move onto one of the other four nations. They took awhile to even offer me an Interview but eventually i got one and i was offered the roles. Having not even got an Interview at TNS in Wales just a few weeks earlier I was a little nervous I was going to get stuck at Portstewart but this came along.

History

So Larne F.C are a Professional Northern Irish Club plying their trade in the Danske Premiership and are based in the eastern coastal town of Larne. Founded in 1889 the club plays at the 2000 capacity Inver park. They play in a red Kit with a rivalry against Carrick Rangers and Ballyclare Comrades. As a club they have finished a record six times runners up for the Northern Irish FA Cup (Including an in-game 2021 runners up medal) and twice runners up in the NIFL League Cup which is a record in both competitions for the most final appearances without winning. In the 2020/21 season in game they even came runners up in the League and last season it was a 5th place finish.

The club's only real success was in 2018/19 when the club won the NIFL Championship (2nd tier) to get themselves promoted back in the first tier. This came after PurpleBricks co-founder Kenny Bruce bought the club and pumped money into his boyhood club

State of play

It is that last statement that makes Larne a very interesting club. They are loaded with £9m in the Bank. I have been given a transfer budget of £4.6m and the club pays out £46k per week on wages. To put that into perspective, that is enough transfer budget to pretty much buy all of the other clubs in the league and that weekly wage budget is more than what i was spending on Portstewarts whole squads salary. In fact, our wage budget is more than double the next teams. We are the PSG of this league money wise and now i must go and win this club its first league title. Something the board want to happen in 2 seasons time. For this season, it is all about finishing in the top-half of the table and waiting for next season. I take over at exactly the half way mark with the table looking like this

We are just about in the top half with the European spots being a distant memory so it is essentially 19 games to try and explore a formation that will work for this team. My real aim is to win the title next season and move on to something bigger. For this season, all i can hope for is the FA Cup, with Larne navigating the 5th round fairly comfortably and setting up a 6th round tie against Portstewart of all teams. Squad wise, we have a massive first team that needs some real chopping down especially as we are around £5k over out wage budget. The strength of the team seems to be the defensive areas with the likes of Dan Happe, Danny Amos and Aaron McCarey highlighting some of the quality we have here. At first glance we are short of some strikers that can bang the goals in and the League table seems to tell the same story with our goals for certainly a lot less than the sides sitting above us. We have the funds to go out and buy big and it is January but i think i will look to make just a few small changes for now and allow the bigger deals to happen in the summer.

Portstewart summary

So time is up with Portstewart, not before managing my 100th game at the club and progressing in the Northern Irish FA Cup. It was a great run with 4 trophies to my name and two promotions but it did really feel towards the end that the club was stuck. Form was dipping and without Corrie Burns we would have been in some real problems in the league. His 23 goals at the time of my leaving meaning he had hit 51 goals in just 18 months for us. Without him and we would have been in some serious problems. Our lack of reputation was always going to make it tough to recruit and that was the case in the summer and our lack of strengthening meant we were winning points mainly because other teams were being wasteful. I wish them luck but I wouldn't be surprised to see them get dragged into a relegation battle but now it feels like the Challenge is really beginning!

[jawzy]

Oooooh a club move, to Larne, are they still backed financially? (any notes of him cutting back funds?)

[jt]

May 5, 2021 18:50:44 GMT jawzy said:

Oooooh a club move, to Larne, are they still backed financially? (any notes of him cutting back funds?)

In game it looks like it. 18 months ago, they had a sudden injection of cash (Around £9m) for no reason that i can see. There are no debts or loans and they didnt progress in Europe so nothing that would account for that money being there. This should be as long as i dont balls it up see me complete Northern Ireland in the next season and then off to somewhere else

[jawzy]

Gonna be going gung ho in the transfer marketto try bring in a few of the exceptional players for this level, regardless if it leaves the future of the club in huge financial loses (though while the tycoon there, that wont exactly happen