glamdring Posted June 15, 2004 Share Posted June 15, 2004 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Soccer Posted June 16, 2004 Author Share Posted June 16, 2004 What can i say....Albion Rovers seem to almost be invincible...if only i could raid there good players Hopefully the players can return the 4-0 defeat on Albion when they play us at Firs Park in about six matches or so. 1st of December 2004 The monthly awards for November have been given out today with Montrose winning two out of the three awards while Albion Rovers took one. John Sheran of Montrose is the November Scottish Third Division Manager of the Month after leading his side into four matches and four victories. The club now sits in third spot only four points from second spot and the club who currently occupies that spot East Stirling. The other award won by a player contracted to Montrose was won by Keith Gibson who can now say he won the November Third Division Player of the Month award. The attacking midfielder has played excellently well over the past month putting in performances which could see him attract interest from larger clubs. The Scottish Third Division Young Player of the Month for November has gone to Albion Rovers, Darren Cross. The young winger has been a key component in the side who sits top of the table after fourteen round. One of his stellar performances includes the 4-0 drumming of 2nd placed East Stirling where he supplied three assists and came close to scoring himself. 3rd of December 2004 This morning when I sat down in my chair and looked over the documents on my desk I was given the biggest shock. Just this morning St Mirren had faxed me an offer of the empty managerial job at the Second Division club. After sitting and staring at the offer for over half an hour in shock that such a 'big club' like St Mirren would want me to be there manager I rejected the offer as I want to take East Stirling as far as I possibly can. Besides St Mirren may be in the third division season and with the way we are playing we may be in the second division. 4th of December 2004 The name Kevin Ramsey may not mean anything to you now but if I sign him from Celtic he is guaranteed to be a star up forward for the club. The twenty one year old Irish striker will be out of contract in six months so I approached him and offered him a contract to see if I can convince him to come to East Stirling. If Kevin accepts the offer he will join at the end of the season hopefully when we are moving into the Second Division. To boost the amount of money i can offer Kevin and increase our chances of him signing on the dotted line I have given Kevin Twaddle and Eddie Annand reduced contracts of £50 each till 2005. Kevin and Eddie were both happy to have their pay halved if it helps us bring in better quality players. After all the thinking about transfers and player contracts its down to the match this afternoon. We take on Dumbarton at Firs Park looking to add more misery to the underperforming side who was relegated from Division Two last season. After the 4-0 drumming Albion Rovers handed us in our last match it is absolutely essential to record a win today to once again build up the confidence as we move closer to the halfway mark of the season. December 4th , 2004 Scottish Third Division Game 15 (h) East Stirling V Dumbarton East Stirling (4-4-2) Jon Connolly- John Allison, Graeme McLaren, Michael Stewart, Alex McColl- Ross Jackson, Gordon Lappin, Dougie Polwart, Jamie Mackay- Derek Ure, Brian Crawford Subs: Ross Flitney (gk), Nico Herzig, Sam Kanu, Sean McAuley, Derek Ure Nico Herzig is fit enough now to partner Alex McColl while Michael Stewart is dropped from the first team onto the bench. We start well out of the blocks in this match after only three minutes we hit the front. Lappin and Crawford combine well on the left hand side of the midfield with the midfielder putting in a clever ball just over the head of a defender and Kelly connected his head with the ball and from two yards out he wasn’t going to miss. The ball was in the back of the net and we were 1-0 up. From then on Crawford and Lappin were both proving a handful for the Dumbarton defence as we looked to extend our lead. Any half chances for Dumbarton were snuffed out through the excellent defensive work of Herzig and McColl. The half time whistle blew with us in a commanding position but only with one goal on the board to show for our efforts. The second half flew by without incident and it has to be one of the most boring second halves in my managerial career so far. I made a triple substitution on the hour mark with Crawford, Polwart and Lappin being replaced by Annand, McAuley and Kanu. The changes changed nothing in regards to excitement. Dumbarton gave the fans something to cheer in the 90th minute but it was the East Stirling fans that were the ones cheering. Quinn got into an argument with the referee after a throw in decision didn’t go his way and he got a yellow card for his troubles. But Quinn didn’t learn his lesson and continued arguing received a second yellow card and his marching orders. After that we played the match out easily and took all three points. East Stirling 1:0 Dumbarton East Stirling Goals: Kelly (1) Dumbarton Goals: - MoM: Alex McColl (East Stirling) Rating-8 Subs: Annand on for Crawford (63`), McAuley on for Polwart (63`), Kanu on for Lappin (63`) Booked: Quinn(Dumbarton), Blair(Dumbarton) Sent Off: Quinn(Dumbarton)(Reason: Two bookable offences) Stadium: Firs Park Attendance: 1415 A win in a win but we really should have scored two or three after dominating the whole game. Dumbarton didn’t have any shots on goal and that was their downfall. This win boosts our confidence and continues to put pressure on Albion Rovers. We move within one point of the league leaders as we continue to push for promotion. In other matches in the Third Division Gretna defeated Elgin 4-1 while Montrose shocked the league defeating the league leaders 2-0. Peterhead thumped Berwick 5-0 while Stranraer condemned Queens Park to the bottom of the league with a 3-0 win over the side who calls Hampden Park home. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Soccer Posted June 17, 2004 Author Share Posted June 17, 2004 5th of December 2004 St Johnstone have filled their managerial position after Ian Evans agreed to join the club as manager. Ian is a fifty one year old Welshman who looks to be a solid manager in all departments. Once he was appointed he made it clear to the media and everyone at the club he intends to get St Johnstone promoted come the end of the season. 8th of December 2004 The Scottish League Cup Quarter Final matches were played this afternoon. In the old firm derby Rangers beat Celtic 2-0 with the goals coming from Robert Vittek and Peter Lovenkrands. SPL outfit Hiberian played out a 2-2 draw before needed to be separated by the dreaded penalty shootout which ended 7-6 in favour of the club from Edinburgh. Kilmarnock showed their quality putting three goals past Queen of the South to become the third team into the semi finals while Dundee United scored a 2-1 extra time win over fellow SPL side Livingstone to reach the last four. 9th of December 2004 Kevin Ramsey's transfer to East Stirling has died after the Scottish Football Association deemed the amount of compensation for the player to be in the range of around £250,000. Instead we have moved our attention to a seventeen year old Nigerian striker who was released by Chelsea a week ago. 10th of December 2004 The Inter-Continental Cup was fought out between Juventus and Boca Juniors. The Italians had all the answers to combat the Argentineans speed and skilful play. Pavel Nedved struck to put the Italian side in the lead before Marcelo Jose Salas extended Juventus's lead on thirty one minutes. That’s the way the scored remained with the side from Turin rarely troubled and they add another trophy to their already impressive glittering trophy room. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
glamdring Posted June 18, 2004 Share Posted June 18, 2004 £250,000 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Soccer Posted June 18, 2004 Author Share Posted June 18, 2004 Yes and where do they expect me to get that kind of money from!! Money doesnt drop out of the sky if you arent Celtic or Rangers Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Soccer Posted June 25, 2004 Author Share Posted June 25, 2004 Sorry to all/any readers for the lack of updates.....hadnt touched the computer for a whole four to five days which is a record for me! Anyway on with the season 11th of December 2004 Our first round of the Scottish Cup has finally arrived and now I realise that cups can be the undoing of good run in the league. The cup will be used to let some players who don’t get any game time have a run out on the park and it will be a good match for me to watch and see if anyone deserves a first team call up in the league. Our opposition is Cove Rangers who are a non league side. December 11th, 2004 Scottish Cup First Round (a) Cove Rangers V East Stirling East Stirling (4-4-2) Ross Flitney - Roddy Maughan, Graeme McLaren, Chris Reid, Michael Stewart- Scott Livingstone, Sam Kanu, Gerry Boyle, Jordan Leishman- Kevin Twaddle, Eddie Annand Subs: Jon Connolly (gk), James White, Gordon Lappin, Dougie Polwart, Stuart Kelly I wont talk about all the changes made to the squad because I am trying to get players who haven’t played much this season to play and that means changes in almost every position. On the bench I have kept a few first team players just in case we get into any bother. In the tenth minute of the match a massive shock to our game plan when Craig Reid is sent off after bundling over a Cove Ranger's forward inside the penalty area. Ritchie steps up to convert for the non league side but finds Connolly equal to the task but his parry went straight back to Ritchie who didn’t miss his second bite of the cherry. It was a massive shock for us to lose a man and go 1-0 down but we responded excellently. From the kick off a fast flowing attacking move had Kanu receive the ball and put a cross into the box. Boyle took control of the cross and shot powerfully at goal. The keeper responded acrobatically but couldn’t stop Annand score from two yards after the parry fell onto the feet of the East Stirling striker. It seemed after that goal that the match was pretty even until the thirty sixth minute. Kanu, Boyle and Livingstone were all involved in midfield in a neat passing triangle before providing a through ball for Annand to run on to and poke the ball pasted the keeper from the edge of the area to give us a 2-1 advantage. We held out till half time with Flitney in outstanding form denying the Cove Rangers strikers. The second half was just like most of the first with both teams pretty balanced until we scored a third goal with twenty minutes to go. Livingstone got free on the right and received the ball from a long McLaren pass. Livingstone stepped up into the area before picking out Annand who sidestepped and put the ball into the net past the advancing keeper with his instep. That goal marked Annand's hat trick and a great performance. We had to hold out the last ten minutes of the match with only eight players on the field after both Kelly and Annand left the field of player with injuries and I couldn’t replace them as my three substitutions had already been used. The ten minutes slowly ticked away and we were into the second round of the Scottish Cup. Cove Rangers 1:3 East Stirling Cove Rangers Goals: Ritchie (1) East Stirling Goals: Annand (3) MoM: Eddie Annand(East Stirling) Rating-9 Subs: White on for Maughan (64`), Polwart on for Leishman (64`), Kelly on for Twaddle (64`), Booked: White (East Stirling), Findlay (Cove Rangers) Sent Off: Craig Reid (East Stirling)(Reason: Denying an obvious goal scoring opportunity) Stadium: Allan Park Attendance: 1782 The red card in the first ten minutes of the match was a shock to my system but seeing the players respond how they did and dig deeper within themselves to still pull off a 3-1 victory is very satisfying indeed. Craig Reid will receive fine of one weeks wages for his stupid sending off which was lucky not to cost us the match. In other matches in the Scottish Cup saw Albion Rovers defeat Hamilton of Division Two 4-2 while the other Division Three sides in action including Montrose's 2-0 loss to Stirling. The outcome between Gretna and Elgin will need to go to a replay after a dull 0-0 draw. Both Eddie Annand and James White will miss the next cup match after receiving their second yellow card. Eddie's life doesn’t get any easy after picking up a damaged shoulder in the match against Cove Rangers and will be out for a week. While also today Berwick and Queens Park played out their round 16 match early with Berwick doing just enough at home to record a 2-1 victory over the side who sits bottom of the league. 11th of December 2004 Craig Reid came and had a chat with me today after I fined him one weeks worth of wages because of his dismissal against Cove Rangers. He agrees that the fine was warranted and will try and win me over by increasing his level of commitment in training. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
glamdring Posted June 25, 2004 Share Posted June 25, 2004 East Stirling resting players for cup matches Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Soccer Posted June 26, 2004 Author Share Posted June 26, 2004 Well we are higher in the table so as I look to win promotion I dont want first team players to be fatigued or get injured from cup matches 12th of December 2004 The draw for the second round of the Scottish Cup is scheduled for today. As always I send my trusty assistant, Alec Cleland, to attend the draw on my behalf. Alec comes back with news which isn’t great but I think we can do something with. We have been drawn at home to play Stenhousemuir from the Second Division in ten days time. Other Division Three ties include Alloa V Albion Rovers, Airdrie United/St Mirren V Peterhead, Stranraer V Ross County, Cowdenbeath V Elgin/Gretna, Queens Park V Berwick and Dumbarton V Forfar. 15th of December 2004 Our round 16 match is a visit to Peterhead who reside at Balmoor Stadium. Peterhead is sitting in 4th spot only four points away from the second position team, East Stirling (us), and we really need the win to continue pressuring Albion Rovers and move further away from the teams who are nipping at our heals. December 15th , 2004 Scottish Third Division Game 16 (a) Peterhead V East Stirling East Stirling (4-4-2) Jon Connolly- John Allison, Graeme McLaren, Nico Herzig, Alex McColl- Ross Jackson, Gordon Lappin, Sean McAuley, Jamie Mackay- Derek Ure, Brian Crawford Subs: Ross Flitney (gk), Michael Stewart, Sam Kanu, Tam McAllister, Stuart Kelly All the first team players are back in the starting line up after they watching a reserve team take apart Cove Rangers 3-1. We have a chance in the first minute of the game when a Jackson corner is cleared to the edge of the area to a waiting East Stirling player. That player is Herzig who shoots just over the bar to the relief of the scrambling keeper. Another Jackson corner taken ten minutes later produces a better outcome. The corner is swung in to the near post where a deft touch off the head of Crawford takes the ball into the near post and a goal. That’s his tenth goal of the season and Crawford is really starting to deliver. On the twenty minute mark McLaren pulls up gingerly and has to be replaced. Stewart takes his spot as a make shift left back. A minute later a Peterhead free kick was repelled by Mackay who passed to Crawford who sends Ure on his way through the centre of defence. Ure sprints before finally reaching the long ball and smashing it past the keeper and off the post and in. We are two goals to the good against a side who should cause us great problems. Peterhead creates a few opportunities before the break with Jones having a goal ruled offside and another Jones shot moving just over the bar. At half time Sam Kanu is brought on to get a piece of the action since Gordon Lappin was relatively ineffective in that first half. Four minutes into the second half Peterhead's start player, Bavidge, had a chance but wasted it well wide. Kanu fashioned another opportunity after a great run and smart turn allowed him space to apply his trade of excellent passing. This time was no different and his pass moved Ure into space before the striker's attempt at goal was palmed over the bar. With twenty five minutes to go I take off Crawford as he is suffering with a niggling injury and replace him with McAllister. The formation is then changed to a 4-1-4-1. After that chance of formation we couldn’t get out of our own half with Peterhead applying all the pressure and getting all the attempts at goal. They must have had at least 10 corners which were most the result of Connolly pushing attempts around the post or blocking shots when strikers were through on goal. But nothing was going to spoil our day when we jump to top of the league for the time being. Peterhead 0:2 East Stirling Peterhead Goals: - East Stirling Goals: Crawford (1), Ure(1) MoM: Nico Herzig (East Stirling) Rating-9 Subs: Stewart on for McLaren (20`), Kanu on for Lappin (45`), McAllister on for Crawford (66`) Booked: McColl (East Stirling), Ure (East Stirling) Sent Off: - Stadium: Balmoor Stadium Attendance: 1583 On this wet afternoon we triumphed over a side who should end up in the top five come the end of the season. We showed the grit, determination and skill that a side needs to win promotion and we played well as a unit. Peterhead are no easy beats but we made them look ordinary in the first half. The win takes us up to the summit of the Third Division until Albion Rovers play their catch up game. In the other match played today in Division Three, Dumbarton helped us extend our lead over Montrose to seven points by defeating them 4-0 at home. In the first round replays for the Scottish Cup the only two third division sides were playing each other. Gretna is showing that they don’t want to hit rock bottom again this season after defeating Elgin 3-1 to clinch a second round match-up against Cowdenbeath. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Soccer Posted July 1, 2004 Author Share Posted July 1, 2004 Lets continue on 18th of December 2004 Another one of our must win matches since we are at Firs Park. Berwick are the opponents today before our cup clash in a few days time against Stenhousemuir. December 18th , 2004 Scottish Third Division Game 17 (h) East Stirling V Berwick East Stirling (4-4-2) Jon Connolly- John Allison, Graeme McLaren, Nico Herzig, Alex McColl- Ross Jackson, Gordon Lappin, Sean McAuley, Jamie Mackay- Derek Ure, Brian Crawford Subs: Ross Flitney (gk), Michael Stewart, Sam Kanu, Tam McAllister, Stuart Kelly I name an unchanged side who aren’t full fit but with a cup match coming up I want to use my squad players then so it’s a catch twenty two because either way isnt how i want. The wet conditions were playing havoc with the players as they slipped and slided around the pitch. Herzig picked up a yellow card when he pulled back his opponent after losing his footing. On the half hour mark a Herzig free kick was headed behind for a East Stirling corner. The usual set piece taken, Jackson, swung the corner in only to have the referee blow his whistle and award a visitors a free kick against Crawford for pushing. Just before half time a long ball from Berwick was flicked on before Hutchison tapped in an easy finish to put his side 1-0 up against the league leaders. At the half time break I make it quite clear to the players that this scoreline is absolutely unacceptable and there will be a lot of hard work in training come the next few weeks. Tam McAllister and Stuart Kelly are put on at the expense of Sean McAuley and Derek Ure. Five minutes in the two substitutes were at the heart of our equaliser. McAllister picked up a loose long ball, near the right back position, and his long ball was flicked into the path of Crawford by Kelly. Crawford took two touches before slamming the ball past the keeper and into the net for a scoreline of 1-1. Jackson almost gave us the lead on the hour mark but his free kick was clawed away from the top corner by a diving Godfrey in the Berwick goal. We were heading for a draw and dropping two points at home as the clock ticked to ninety minutes. But in the first fifteen seconds of stoppage time Kelly beat his marker and ran down the left wing before putting in a cross to the near post. It didn’t look like it at first but Crawford got to the ball and glanced his header inside the post and us into a 2-1 lead with less than two minutes to go. The final whistle blew and in the eyes of the everyone in the stadium we stole all the three points but the way Berwick played didn’t warrant them taking all three points themselves. East Stirling 2:1 Berwick East Stirling Goals: Crawford (2) Berwick Goals: Hutchison (1) MoM: Brian Crawford (East Stirling) Rating-9 Subs: McAllister on for McAuley (45`), Kelly on for Ure (45`), Kanu on for Lappin (61`) Booked: Herzig (East Stirling), Crawford (East Stirling), Skelton (Berwick), McNicoll (Berwick) Sent Off: - Stadium: Firs Park Attendance: 1413 Today we didn’t play to our best but thankfully we didn’t need our best to take all three points. The wet conditions really affected my teams players' skills more than Berwick's players and that made us look second best. Luckily Crawford only needed two chances to score two goals and another win adds weight to the top two finish we so desperately want. In other matches Gretna made it a hat trick of wins in the league beating Dumbarton 4-0 at home while over at Montrose's ground two promotion candidates played out a 2-0 scoreline. Montrose at home were to strong for Peterhead winning 2-0. Queens Park defeated Elgin 3-1 but that still wasn’t enough to lift them off the bottom of the league and Stranraer played Albion Rovers at home and held Albion to a 0-0 draw. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Soccer Posted July 2, 2004 Author Share Posted July 2, 2004 22nd of December 2004 A good reality check playing a Second Division side who is currently sitting in mid table. The squad players get given another chance to impress and hopefully they do and help the club knock out Stenhousemuir and qualify for the third round of the Scottish Cup. December 22nd, 2004 Scottish Cup Second Round (h) East Stirling V Stenhousemuir East Stirling (4-4-2) Ross Flitney - Roddy Maughan, Graeme McLaren, Nico Herzig, Michael Stewart- Scott Livingstone, Sam Kanu, Gerry Boyle, Dougie Polwart- Kevin Twaddle, Stuart Kelly Subs: Jon Connolly (gk), Alex McColl, Jamie Mackay, Tam McAllister, Derek Ure A huge amount of changes to the first team with squad players giving a run out on the pitch. A few first team players have been used as a few squad players cant play due to suspension. The choice to use squad players backfired in the first four minutes when a corner was swung in and Carr attacked it and his header beat Flitney who was in no mans land. The rest of the half was boring with no chances being created by either side and we went into the break 1-0 down. Two changes at the half time break with Derek Ure replacing Kevin Twaddle and Jamie Mackay coming on for Scott Livingstone. Again no other chances were created and the Second Division club snuck away from Firs Park with a 1-0 victory. East Stirling 0:1 Stenhousemuir East Stirling Goals: - Stenhousemuir Goals: Carr (1) MoM: Kevin Gaughan (Stenhousemuir) Rating-8 Subs: Ure on for Kelly (45`), Mackay on for Livingstone (45`), McAllister on for Maughan (70`), Booked: Maughan(East Stirling), Lauchlan (Stenhousemuir) Sent Off: - Stadium: Firs Park Attendance: 1427 A pretty good performance by the players since most of the them don’t play regular first team football and they were against a higher class of opposition then they were used too. A major positive sees us being handed a cheque for £20,000 for the gate receipts of the two matches. In the Scottish Cup Second Round other Division Three clubs had mixed results with Albion Rovers defeating Alloa 3-1 away, Queens Park defeated Berwick 3-0 ,Gretna holding Cowdenbeath to a 0-0 draw on the road while losers were Dumbarton, Stranraer and Peterhead. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Soccer Posted July 3, 2004 Author Share Posted July 3, 2004 26th of December 2004 Another huge game in the context of a our season as we play third placed Montrose. Firs Park is the venue for this clash between two sides in the top three as we prepare to take three points and go ten points clear of Montrose in third spot. Again the bookies don’t favour us but we have proved them wrong after they felt we would be doing well to be anywhere off the bottom of the league come the end of the season. December 26th , 2004 Scottish Third Division Game 18 (h) East Stirling V Montrose East Stirling (4-4-2) Jon Connolly- John Allison, Graeme McLaren, Nico Herzig, Alex McColl- Ross Jackson, Gordon Lappin, Sean McAuley, Jamie Mackay- Derek Ure, Brian Crawford Subs: Ross Flitney (gk), Michael Stewart, Sam Kanu, Tam McAllister, Stuart Kelly All the first team players are back for this crucial league game as we look to get back on winning ways after the 1-0 cup defeat only four days ago. We were close to go behind in the fourteenth minute when Gibson got away from Allison and forced Connolly into a save before his next effort went just over the bar. Gibson put Montrose in front on the half hour after beating Allison for pace and running into the box before beating Connolly with ease. Crawford got us back onto level terms six minutes later after running onto a long ball by McLaren and chipping the advancing keeper. After the break Gibson almost scored again with his header dipping just over the bar. Allison created a chance after his run down the wing let him cross the ball to the edge off the box where Mackay was waiting before thumping a shot at goal. McGlynn saw it late but reached up and flicked the ball over the bar. On the hour mark Crawford got onto a another long ball and his chip almost beat the keeper for the second time but McGlynn was ready for it and clawed the ball away. Crawford was obstructed out on the left wing by Simpson who was booked by the referee. Jackson swung in the free kick and Mackay headed at goal only to see McGlynn equal to it and push it over. Deep into stoppage time we suffered a major blow when Herzig couldn’t keep up with Gibson and the Montrose striker made him pay rolling the ball through Connolly's legs and condemning us to a home defeat. East Stirling 1:2 Montrose East Stirling Goals: Crawford (1) Montrose Goals: Gibson (2) MoM: Graham Gibson (Montrose) Rating-9 Subs: Kelly on for Ure (61`), McAllister on for Mackay (61`), Stewart on for Allison (61`) Booked: Simpson (Montrose), Conway (Montrose) Sent Off: - Stadium: Firs Park Attendance: 1406 A lack lustre performance by the players today and again a cup loss has shot the players confidence to pieces and we were punished today. We deserved at least a draw but like we have done to other teams stealing all the three points when not deserving them. We stay on top of the table by one point and really don’t deserve to be there after this showing. In other matches Albion Rovers won 3-0 against Queens Park to close the gap on us while Dumbarton recorded a strong 3-0 home win against Stranraer. In the other match a five goal thriller was played out between Elgin and Berwick. Berwick came away with all three points on the road after they defeated Elgin 3-2. <pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> Holders - Stirling | Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | | Albion Rovers | | 18 | 12 | 3 | 3 | 45 | 19 | +26 | 39 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | | East Stirling | | 18 | 12 | 1 | 5 | 34 | 23 | +11 | 37 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | Montrose | | 18 | 10 | 3 | 5 | 29 | 19 | +10 | 33 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Berwick | | 18 | 9 | 3 | 6 | 36 | 34 | +2 | 30 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Peterhead | | 17 | 9 | 0 | 8 | 31 | 32 | -1 | 27 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Stranraer | | 18 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 27 | 20 | +7 | 26 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 7th | | Dumbarton | | 18 | 6 | 2 | 10 | 22 | 31 | -9 | 20 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 8th | | Elgin | | 18 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 23 | 27 | -4 | 18 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 9th | | Gretna | | 17 | 4 | 1 | 12 | 20 | 39 | -19 | 13 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 10th | | Queens Park | | 18 | 2 | 4 | 12 | 11 | 34 | -23 | 10 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre> While in the only Scottish Cup Second Round replay Gretna turned their home dominance into goals completely trouncing Second Division Cowdenbeath 5-1 to move into the next round. 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Dark_Soccer Posted July 3, 2004 Author Share Posted July 3, 2004 Note: In the last post we stayed on top of the table by one point until Albion Rovers result was confirmed Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Soccer Posted July 9, 2004 Author Share Posted July 9, 2004 World League Wrap Now for a quick look around the world's leagues as they reach the halfway stage. First we are off to Australia and the NSL. The top four are only separated by three points with Olympic Sharks sitting on top of the table closely followed by Newcastle United, South Melbourne and the Perth Glory. The two other sides making up the top six are Marconi and Northern Spirit. The side from New Zealand, The Kingz, look destined to finish bottom of the table after only picking up five points from a possible thirty six. Moving over into Europe and England sees the English Premier League at the eighteen game mark. Kevin Keegan's Newcastle United surprisingly top the table with forty points. Arsenal are only two points behind in second while Manchester United is four points behind with a game in hand. The teams who currently occupy the relegation spots are Watford, Leeds and Blackburn. Moving down a division into the Nationwide Division One which has had twenty three matches played. Millwall and West Ham currently occupy the two automatic promotion spots to the English Premier League. While in third Preston sits six points clear of its closest opposition Norwich who sit fourth while Bolton and Derby take the last two play off spots. The three teams who stare relegation in the face are Reading, Brighton and Grimsby. Leaving England and moving over to neighbouring France sees the French Division One in full flight. After twenty two games Marseille and Nantes are a notch above the rest as it looks to be a two horse race for the title. Seven points back Auxerre sits in third spot while Metz takes fourth spot another six points back. French Division Two football looks to be heading to Bordeaux surprisingly, Bastia and Laval. Down in the French Second Division the top three are a step above the rest as they look to win promotion to France's promised land. Guingamp, Le Harve and Beauvais look to be the three teams who look capable of winning promotion as they crush their opposition easily. While down the bottom of the table Gueugnon, Clermont and Grenoble try to keep their heads above water and struggle to gain enough points to avoid the drop. The Italian Serie A has changed since the last time we took a look at it. The league has expanded to twenty teams instead of the normal eighteen they have had for years. Inter Milan sits eight point clear of Juventus while the club from Turin has two games in hand. The two clubs from Rome Lazio and Roma sit in third and fourth spot as they look to qualify for the Champions League. Lecce, Napoli and Piacenza are the three teams in trouble this season and will need to have a massive change in fortune to survive the drop. In Serie B Torino looks a cut above the rest ten points above 2nd placed Genoa. Palermo and Siena are both fighting it out for third spot as both clubs have thirty four points but Palermo just edges it with goal difference. The teams looking at Serie C football next season are Messina, Arezzo, Cesena and Pisa. Over in Spain the surprise league leaders are Celta Vigo. Sevilla and Real Madrid sit a further one and three points back respectively as they look to fight it out for the title. Deportivo and Barcelona are both having disappointing seasons by their standards are they sit in 8th and 9th positions respectively. Espanyol, Mallorca and Leganes fill the three relegation spots and if any of these clubs want to stay up the team's performances out on the pitch will need to improve dramatically. The Spanish Second Division has the top three clubs way out in front of fourth spot. Atletico Madrid, Levante and Ceuta all look good to move up to the Primera Liga while the teams looking like moving below the Sequenda Liga are Elche, Getafe, Eibar and Poli Ejido Now back to our native Scotland and the Scottish Premier League is following the usual trend. Celtic and Rangers are fighting it out for the title and the teams below them are well below the two giants of Scottish Football. Celtic sits six points in front of rivals Rangers in the race for the SPL title. The club sitting rock bottom of the table is Kilmarnock with only fourteen points from eighteen games. In Division One Clyde, Queen of the South and Raith Rovers are the three teams who look to be fighting it out for the only automatic promotion spot to the SPL. Falkirk looks to still have a chance of avoiding the drop as they are only one point from safety but East Fife are rock bottom of Division One and are fifteen points from safety. The Second Division has a surprise leader Stirling who was promoted last season from Division Three. Stirling has won seventeen, drawn one and lost none out of its first eighteen games and sit twenty seven points clear of second placed St Mirren. Ross County and Airdrie United are the two teams who currently occupy the relegation spots. Down at the bottom of the closed triangle of Scottish Leagues is Division Three. Albion Rovers sits top of the stack with two more points than chasing East Stirling who sit surprisingly in second position. Queens Park sit bottom of the league and need to play well to save further embarrsement. 29th of December 2004 In the catch up games for Scottish Division Three saw Albion Rovers just squeeze a home victory over Gretna 1-0 and take back the top spot in the league. In the other match Elgin was held to a 2-2 draw at home to Stranraer. Airdrie United look destined to be fighting for their Second Division life if things don’t change quickly with the club sitting bottom of the table. The board has taken a step in the right direction, as far as the fans are concerned, by sacking Sandy Stewart. The thirty nine year old manager is rumoured to quickly get a job in another lower league side and the press are linking him with the vacant managerial job at St Mirren. 30th of December 2004 Our bad fortune continues with Sam Kanu out for a month after pulling a ham string in a routine training session. The young left winger was establishing himself nicely at the club and will be sorely missed in the club's push for promotion. Alec Cleland alerted me to the fact that Jordan Leishman's contract is in to its finally six months. After discussion with Alex and my coaches I have decided to not extend Jordan's contract as I don’t feel he has the ability to ever command a place in the first team. 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Dark_Soccer Posted July 10, 2004 Author Share Posted July 10, 2004 1st of January 2005 Welcome to the new year as we look to continue our great run of form, apart from the last two games, that has got us placed 2nd in the table. First we need to get to the awards for December. Montrose's John Sheran scooped the Scottish Division Three Manager of the Month for December. The Montrose boss led him team to three wins in four games and one of his wins was a shock 2-1 away victory over overachieving East Stirling. The Scottish Division Three Player of the Month has gone to a forward at Gretna. Martin Cameron won the December award after bagging three goals in his three appearances for his club. Another award to a Gretna player and it goes to Thomas Christie. The young midfielder won the Scottish Division Three Young Player of the Month for December after being in excellent form and scoring two goals in his last three appearances. While around Europe more awards were given out to the players who have shown great form over the last year. The World Player of the Year has gone to Javier Zanetti of Inter Milan. The defensive right midfielder has been a key component in the side as the blue side of Milan has stormed to a eight point lead over title favourites Juventus. While Lucio of Borussia Dortmund and Emerson of AS Roma take second and third spots respectively. The best attacking left back in the world has claimed the honour of being named the World Footballer of the Year. Roberto Carlos while being 31 has showed great form over the past year and is always one of the first names down on his manager's team sheet at Real Madrid. Roberto Fabian Ayala of Valencia took second while David Trezeguet of Juventus has taken third spot. The European Footballer of the Year award has gone to a Dutch legend who wears goggles. Edgar Davids of Juventus has lit up the park while playing in Serie A and his great ability has been recognised winning this award. Ruud Van Nistelrooy of Manchester United came second while just behind him was Walter Samuel of AS Roma in third. The European Goalkeeper of the Year is an Italian who plays for Juventus. He is no other than Gianluigi Buffon and while not only being an established first team player with his club side he is also the Italian national team number one in goal. Pablo Oscar Cavallero of Celta Vigo and Dida of AC Milan took second and third respectively. Gianluca Zambrotta of Juventus while applying his trade in midfield for his club side has taken out the honour of the European Defender of the Year. A hard working player in whichever position he plays Gianluca displays great bravery when challenging for the ball. The Frenchman Mikael Silvestre of Manchester United could feel aggrieved for only being runner up while Ivan Ramiro Cordoba of Inter Milan takes third spot. Manchester United's playmaker Kleberson has taken out the European Midfielder of the Year. The Brazilian beat off stiff competition from Pavel Nedved of Juventus and Ze Roberto of Bayern Munchen who came second and third respectively. Claudio Pizarro of Manchester United was given the honour of being the European Striker of the Year. The Peruvian has shown why Sir Alex Ferguson parted with £14.25M to bring him from Bayern Munchen to Old Trafford. While Hernan Crespo of Chelsea and Thierry Henry of Arsenal were the other two strikers who were named behind Pizarro in second and third spot respectively. After all the excitement of the awards we had to play our match against 9th placed Gretna. The last meeting between these two sides this season produced four goals as we ran out 3-1 winners on the road. This is another must win game as we are really in a different class than Gretna and if we don’t take maximum points it will be considered a failure. January 1st, 2005 Scottish Third Division Game 19 (h) East Stirling V Gretna East Stirling (4-4-2) Jon Connolly- John Allison, Graeme McLaren, Nico Herzig, Alex McColl- Ross Jackson, Gordon Lappin, Sean McAuley, Jamie Mackay- Derek Ure, Brian Crawford Subs: Ross Flitney (gk), Michael Stewart, Scott Livingstone, Tam McAllister, Stuart Kelly The only change to the side is Sam Kanu is dropped from the bench due to his injury and taking his place is Scott Livingstone who will give us the added flexibility as he can play on the right hand side of midfield. Our match against Gretna started off well with Jackson getting a chance to curl a free kick in at goal. Unluckily for Jackson the ball went just wide of the left hand post. Jackson was involved six minutes later when he robbed Maddison in midfield and played the ball down to Ure. The striker controlled the ball with his instep and ran into the box before putting a low cross into the box for Crawford. He needed only one chance as he buried the ball low past the Gretna keeper to give us a 1-0 lead. Connolly kept our lead intact with a point blank stop from Christie after the striker broke through our defence and let rip with a shot. We extended our lead on the twenty fifth minute when Jackson was allowed time and space to put in another cross before Crawford got his foot to the ball and turned it in. Tam McAllister was called upon to take McAuley's spot after he picked up an injury. On the stroke of half time another Jackson cross went to an unmarked Crawford but he didn’t know how much time he had and rushed his volley which struck the bar before hitting the keeper and rolling out for a corner. Into the second half and approaching the hour mark Crawford almost got an assist to his name when his pass across the area was slid at goal by Ure only to see the Gretna keeper stick out an arm and deflect the ball wide. After that chance I made two chances with Kelly coming on for Ure and Stewart came for McLaren as the left back was struggling with an injury. Crawford had his chance of a hat trick on the sixty fifth minute but his shot curled just over the bar. We had a chance to get our third goal from the spot after McAllister was clumsily brought down by Thomson. McAllister dusted himself off and stepped up before slamming the ball past the Gretna keeper to give us our third of the match. Christie got one back for the visitors with eight minutes left after an excellent ball found him in space before he weaved between defenders and drove the ball past the outstretched hand of Connolly. That was the last chance of the match and we won another match against Gretna this season 3-1. East Stirling 3:1 Gretna East Stirling Goals: Crawford (2), McAllister (1) Montrose Goals: Christie (1) MoM: Brian Crawford (East Stirling) Rating-9 Subs: McAuley on for McAllister (36`), Stewart on for McLaren (62`), Kelly on for Ure (62`) Booked: Holdsworth (Gretna), Christie (Gretna) Sent Off: - Stadium: Firs Park Attendance: 1407 An excellent performance from the players as we kept our impressive home record with a good victory over Gretna. Brian Crawford was impressive in front of goal when he was given chances and his two goals showed that he is started to regain good goal scoring form. Our victory keeps us two points behind league leaders Albion Rovers. In other Division Three league matches Albion Rovers easily disposed of Elgin with a 3-0 home win and Dumbarton scored four goals to win 4-0 at home to bottom placed Queens Park. Montrose won their home match at Berwick with a two goal margin and Peterhead beat Stranraer 3-1 to complete a sequence of all home wins for the teams this round. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
charnley Posted July 22, 2004 Share Posted July 22, 2004 only read the first page so far and like it will read rest later, time permitting btw, your physion, L Gilogly is a she Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian of Nazareth Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 Laura Gigogly was a player in my most recent game Carry on with the good work, and good luck for promotion. Match reports still excellent. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Soccer Posted July 23, 2004 Author Share Posted July 23, 2004 Just because you two are bugging me ill post another part! Charnley: He or she whats the difference ....Thanks for telling me so i dont make that mistake again BoN: Nice to have a female playing in your team aye Thanks for the comments 2nd of January 2005 Two Scottish Premier League clubs sacked their managers today as the positions the clubs were in just weren’t good enough for the boards expectations. Hearts ended Arthur Cox's reign as the club was sitting in 11th spot only one point above the relegation zone. Aberdeen showed Steve Paterson the door after a string of bad results had seen the club drop to 10th spot in the Scottish Premier League. Jordan Leishman has accepted a contract to join Gretna as he follows ex team mate Robert Hare to the Division Three side. Jordan will join Gretna at the end of his contract on the 1st of July 2005. He never was given a extended run in the first team as I felt we had players who were better than him. I wish him well in the future and his time at Gretna. 5th of January 2005 Peterhead played Gretna in the catch up match of round 18. Peterhead continued their push for a promotion spot easily disposing of Gretna 3-0 at home. The win takes them within seven points of second placed East Stirling. 8th of January 2005 Aberdeen has appointed former Charlton boss Alan Curbishley as their new manager. Alan was sacked by former club Charlton as they were languishing down the bottom of Division One. The English manager has told the press he expects to consolidate this season and push for a top six finish next season. Our away visit to Stranraer has come quickly after a week of hard training and a busy schedule. We visit a club sitting in 6th spot and has had quite a inconsistent season so far with seven wins, five draws and seven losses. Even though this is an away match all three points really need to be taken to keep our buffer on Montrose and Peterhead. January 8th, 2005 Scottish Third Division Game 20 (a) Stranraer V East Stirling East Stirling (4-4-2) Jon Connolly- John Allison, Graeme McLaren, Nico Herzig, Alex McColl- Ross Jackson, Gordon Lappin, Sean McAuley, Jamie Mackay- Derek Ure, Brian Crawford Subs: Ross Flitney (gk), Michael Stewart, Scott Livingstone, Tam McAllister, Stuart Kelly An unchanged team is submitted today with all the players impressing in training and really helping their cause of continuing their run in the first team. We were lucky not to be a goal down after five minutes when Kerr found space on the left wing and put in a low cross to the near post. Aitken got his knee to the ball only to see Connolly alert and parry the ball away. Five minutes later Stranraer took the lead after a long ball found Kerr and a long shot rebounded off the post before Lurinsky ran in and scored an easy tap in with Connolly on the ground. With ten minutes before half time Crawford stole the ball off a Stranraer defender and slid the ball through to Ure. Ure touched the ball in front of him letting it to roll into the box before striking a shot which dipped just over the crossbar. Two changes at half time with Livingstone replacing Jackson and Mackay being replaced by McAllister. On the sixty five minute mark a long ball by Herzig was in the direction of Crawford. The East Stirling striker won the ball even with him being against two defenders and Ure took control before driving the ball past the keeper and scoring an equaliser. A carbon copy of the move was made two minutes later only with substitute Kelly unable to put the ball past the keeper. Connolly came to our rescue with three minutes left in the second half denying Cronin a goal after his powerful drive from the edge of the area. The final whistle blew and we had hung on for our dear lives after a three minutes of stoppage time pressure from Stranraer. Stranraer 1:1 East Stirling Stranraer Goals: Lurinsky (1) East Stirling Goals: Ure (1) MoM: Jon Connolly(East Stirling) Rating-9 Subs: McAllister on for Mackay (45`), Livingstone on for Jackson (45`), Kelly on for Ure (66`) Booked: Craddock (Stranraer) Sent Off: - Stadium: Stair Park Attendance: 1719 A potential two points dropped here today but Stranraer did have the better chances and should feel that they should have won the game. We didn’t have many chances today but thanks to the quality of our strikers that they don’t need many to score. We missed a good chance to go back on top and extend our lead over the third and fourth placed sides. In other matches Berwick were held 3-3 at home to Albion Rovers after being 3-1 up at half time while Dumbarton went to Elgin and won 2-0. Gretna and Montrose played out a goalless draw and Queens Park scored a shock 1-0 home win over Peterhead. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
charnley Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 i wasnt trying to be pedantic... its just that I wrote a story about 3 years ago on this forum called "Me and Laura Gilogly" where I took East Stirling to the UEFA Cup Final (lost to Anderlecht 1-0 in the last minute) and finally broke Celtic's dominance of the SPL after about 12 season. best of luck Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Soccer Posted July 23, 2004 Author Share Posted July 23, 2004 Charnley no thats fine....I'm happy you told me...i was only joking with my above comment. Was that story indexed into the CMS Story Archives? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
charnley Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 no idea to be honest I think Raptor and co. would have got it deleted as they were jealous of just how good it was it won an award if I remember correctly Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gino Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 It's still there. I had a search for it when i saw your name Charnley. Here we go. Me & Laura Gilogly Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnHibs73 Posted August 4, 2004 Share Posted August 4, 2004 I saw your thread and decided to start a game with East Stirling too!!!! 1st season I finished 7th in Div 3 2nd season I finished 1st in Div 3, getting to the 1/4 finals of both cup comps 3rd season I finished 1st in Div 2, getting to the final of the challenge Cup and the 1/4 finals of the Scottish Cup I've got about 5 games left of my season 3, I cant wait for what the First Division holds! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
garno Posted September 2, 2004 Share Posted September 2, 2004 any more updates? (one of the best i've read, i'm even trying to do it myself) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Soccer Posted September 2, 2004 Author Share Posted September 2, 2004 Garno just since you asked here you go.... 13th of January 2005 Alloa has finally made an enquiry about Jon Connolly after they have been following our goalkeeper for a few months now. I told them that I will consider an offer of £30,000 and if they don’t want to pay that don’t bother coming back with any lower offer. While another enquiry made by Airdrie United was made for me. The club sitting bottom of Division Two wanted me to come occupy their managerial position. I told them in no uncertain terms that I wasn’t interested. 15th of January 2005 In the Scottish Cup Third Round there was three division three sides still in the competition. Division Three was guaranteed to have one team in the hat for the fourth round with Albion Rovers playing Gretna. The ladder leaders exerted their authority early and defeated Greta 3-1 while in the other match with a division three side it was one of the biggest upsets. Queens Park had travelled to play Dundee United of the SPL and somehow managed to beat them 2-0. While the two giants of the SPL had comfortable victories with Rangers beating St Mirren 4-1 and Celtic defeating non league side Deveronvale 3-0. 16th of January 2005 One day after the massive shock of Queens Park defeating Dundee United the Queens Park board is rumoured to have given Andy Goram an ultimatum. If a poor result occurs in the next league match Andy Goram may join the manager merry-go round. 22nd of January 2005 After a long week of negotiations with Wimbledon and East Fife I may soon be able to bring Serge Makofo to East Stirling. The only problem is I have to sell Chris Todd to East Fife for £5,000 and in exchange for one of their players(they wouldn’t accept paying only £5K they wanted to give me a player as well) to finance the move for Makofo. On the pitch we have a home match to Queens Park. Our visitors are sitting bottom of the table but stole ahead of us in the transfer market. I was trying to loan Kevin Ramsey from Celtic only for Queens Park to beat me to him. A win over Queens Park on the pitch today may just make me feel a little bit better. January 22nd ,2005 Scottish Third Division Game 21 (h) East Stirling V Queens Park East Stirling (4-4-2) Jon Connolly- John Allison, Graeme McLaren, Nico Herzig, Alex McColl- Ross Jackson, Gordon Lappin, Sean McAuley, Jamie Mackay- Derek Ure, Brian Crawford Subs: Ross Flitney (gk), Michael Stewart, Scott Livingstone, Tam McAllister, Stuart Kelly No changes to the side for a second consecutive game. The players gave it there all last match and all deserve to play in another match and take all three points. The first half an hour of the match saw a few players get minor injuries but no real chances created. Even our first goal wasn’t from a chance we created but a mistake at the back by Queens Park. Ure pressured Wilson who passed back to his keeper, Gareth Williams, who put it just too far in front of himself for Ure to steal in and slot the ball into an empty net. Ure had another chance six minutes later when Herzig switched play to the right hand side with a wonderfully weighted pass to Jackson. He in turn crossed the ball in to Ure who had just enough space to get a volley in at goal. Williams this time made up for his error as he dove full stretch to his left and got his fingertips to the ball and diverted it around the post. A minute later we were hit on the counter attack with Keenan having all the space in the world to work in and he ran through our defence before giving a small pass of to his side. Ferry was waiting and thumped the ball into the roof of the net to equalise for the visitors. After being pegged back by Queens Park we really need to lift and put a few more goals on the board. Livingstone came on to replace Jackson who just didn’t cut it in the first half. The second half saw not one chance created for either side and we threw away all three points against the team sitting on the bottom of the table. East Stirling 1:1 Queens Park East Stirling Goals: Ure (1) Queens Park Goals: Ferry (1) MoM: Nico Herzig (East Stirling) Rating-8 Subs: Livingstone on for Jackson (45`), McAllister on for Mackay (62`), Kelly on for Ure (73`) Booked: Fallon (Queens Park), Keenan (Queens Park), Magee (Queens Park) Sent Off: - Stadium: Firs Park Attendance: 1412 A pretty boring performance from both sides today and we didn’t help our cause by throwing away two points. Queens Park played very defensively and we just couldn’t wear them down in the second half. The other results have gone against us and we may have been made to pay for not winning today. In other matches Albion Rovers continued to increase their lead over us by easily accounting of Dumbarton 2-0 while Gretna put three goals past Berwick to take all three points. Montrose kept up their promotion challenge with a 3-1 win over Stranraer while Peterhead was held at home 2-2 by Elgin. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
garno Posted September 3, 2004 Share Posted September 3, 2004 thanx for replying. how regular will the updates be? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Soccer Posted September 4, 2004 Author Share Posted September 4, 2004 Not exactly sure at the moment Garno since my exams start in 5 weeks but I should have a few updates up a week until the exams! 25th of January 2005 Hearts has appointed a relatively unknown manager by the name of Terry Burton. The forty five year old Englishmen is said to have excellent determination and can judge a player's potential well. His first task will be to keep Hearts in the SPL so that he can rebuild the squad for an assault on a top six spot next season. 29th of January 2005 Just before the match against Elgin I have received the good news that Sam Kanu is ready to resume full training. He wont play any part in today's match but I hope he will have built up his fitness enough to play in our next match. A good warm up before our giant clash against league leaders Albion Rovers is the away match to Elgin City. Elgin is sitting in 8th spot with only nineteen points accumulated thus far and their objective must be to salvage their season by finishing in a mid table position. I don’t mind if they do that but not at the expense of us not taking full points away from this match. January 29th ,2005 Scottish Third Division Game 22 (a) Elgin City V East Stirling East Stirling (4-4-2) Jon Connolly- John Allison, Graeme McLaren, Nico Herzig, Alex McColl- Ross Jackson, Gordon Lappin, Sean McAuley, Jamie Mackay- Brian Crawford, Kevin Twaddle Subs: Ross Flitney (gk), Michael Stewart, Scott Livingstone, Tam McAllister, Stuart Kelly Our commitment to the cause was shown as early as the first minute when Mackay went hard for a fifty-fifty ball but took out the player and received a yellow card for his desperation. Three minutes later McAuley won the ball in midfield before playing a ball out to the left wing. Lappin ran into the open space exploited by McAuley's creative pass and took a touch before putting a curling cross to the edge of the six yard area. With Crawford having metres on his marker he adjusted his body and volleyed the ball past Martin Pirie in the Elgin goal. We continued to push forward and on the twenty minute mark Jackson got free of his marker on the right side of midfield and put in a pin point cross onto the head of Crawford. The header has power and direction but Pirie managed to dive to his left and tip the ball over the bar. Tindal had a chance for the home team from a free kick five minutes before half time. It was a good effort and only just dipped over the bar. With a minute left in the first half stoppage time McLean was allowed time and space to run through the midfield area. When Herzig and McColl came to close the Elgin striker down he curled an effort from thirty yards which managed to beat Connolly as he despairing got his finger tips to the ball only to see it squeeze past him into the net. 1-1 at the half time break. Two changes at half time with Kevin Twaddle suffering with a niggling injury and Jamie Mackay on a yellow card I decided to replace them with Stuart Kelly and Tam McAllister respectively. Kelly had a chance three minutes into the second half and he almost repaid me only his shot curled just over the left hand upright with Pirie well beaten. On the fifty minute mark Allison produced a long throw to Jackson on the right wing before the right midfielder tapped a first time pass to Kelly. The striker was confronted by defenders and near the goal line but managed to get in a cross which was partially cleared by Tindal before Crawford smashed the loose ball into the roof of the net and us into a 2-1 lead. With twenty minutes left on the clock Lappin jinxed past his defender before crossing to Kelly who with a first time shot beat Pirie and gave us a 3-1 lead. Kelly almost doubled his tally for the day only to be denied by Pirie after a sloppy back pass didn’t reach its target. With eight minutes left Ogboke and McLean worked a one two with the finishing touch coming from McLean who brought his team back to striking distance at 3-2. I couldn’t believe the pressure Elgin City put us under in the last five minutes of the match as they pegged us in our own half and continued to create wave after wave of attacks. Luckily Bone and Ogboke put their chances wide and we held on to take all three points. Elgin City 2:3 East Stirling Elgin City Goals: McLean (2) East Stirling Goals: Crawford (2), Kelly (1) MoM: Brian Crawford (East Stirling) Rating-9 Subs: McAllister on for Mackay (45`), Kelly on for Ure (45`), Livingstone on for Jackson (73`) Booked: Mackay (East Stirling), McAllister (East Stirling) Sent Off: - Stadium: Borrough Briggs Attendance: 1637 Our performance today wasn’t at its best but we most of the chances we had and played our passing game well. If we were at our best Elgin City wouldn’t have stood a chance but today they came close to stealing a point so its not the best preparation before our gigantic show down with Albion Rovers in our next league match. We continue to stay four points behind Albion Rovers and with Montrose keeping the gap below us to two points. In other matches Albion Rovers scored two late goals to win 4-2 at Peterhead while Berwick held on for an hour of the match with ten men to take a point against Dumbarton with a 0-0 draw. Queens Park were edged out at home to Montrose 2-1 while Gretna edged out Stranraer by the same scoreline. After the Stranraer-Montrose match the Stranraer chairman, Robert Clanachan, relieved Neil Watt of his managerial duties at the club at bidded him good day. The media report that the sacking was due to overwhelming supporter pressure. 30th of January 2005 There was two approaches from separate clubs to talk to two officials at the club who currently occupy managerial positions. First Alec Cleland my assistant manager was approached by Airdrie United to take the vacant managerial job. If the deal does go through we will be given a measly £1,000 as compensation. While the other official was myself as Stranraer offered me their vacant managerial position. I flatly rejected the offer asking the chairman why I would want to do a stupid thing like drop down to a team whose quality is lower than my own. I think he was insulted as he promptly hung up on me. 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Dark_Soccer Posted September 4, 2004 Author Share Posted September 4, 2004 Its that time again as the first day of the new month arrives and the previous month's top performers are given awards to show off to all concerned. Albion Rover's boss, Peter Hetherston, led his team to three victories in the last four games. His seventy five percent success rate last month was enough for the board of panellists to award him January's Scottish Third Division Manager of the Month award. Iain Diack of Albion Rovers has taken out January's Scottish Third Division Player of the Month. His performances last month were exceptional scoring over a goal a game in his last four appearances. Peterhead's young nineteen year old striker, Ivan Petkova, has taken out January's Scottish Third Division Young Player of the Month. He has helped the club to reach the heights of fourth spot in the league and at the moment is considering a new contract offer from his club. Alec Cleland wasted no time in signing the contract to take over Airdrie United and he leaves East Stirling with all involved happy that he is progressing up the managerial ladder. I will now be looking for a new assistant manager. Not many people in mind at the moment but then again will I get another assistant manager who in their right mind would want to get that job in a Division Three side in Scotland. Only time will tell! 5th of February 2005 Our preparation wasn’t great for his clash against the league leaders but now an injury has interfered as well. Nico Herzig who has proved our rock at the back has gashed his leg in training and wont be available for this crunch match. If I was confident of overcoming Albion Rovers before today I am not as confident now because Herzig and McColl were the key to keeping the in form forwards at bay. February 5th ,2005 Scottish Third Division Game 23 (h) East Stirling V Albion Rovers East Stirling (4-4-2) Jon Connolly- John Allison, Graeme McLaren, Michael Stewart, Alex McColl- Ross Jackson, Gordon Lappin, Sean McAuley, Jamie Mackay- Kevin Twaddle, Brian Crawford Subs: Ross Flitney (gk), James White, Scott Livingstone, Tam McAllister, Stuart Kelly Since we have lost Nico Herzig, Michael Stewart comes off the bench to partner Alex McColl at the back while James White is recalled to sit on the bench for this match. The loss of Herzig didn’t look to have phased us as we took the lead with our first attack in the fifth minute of the match. When the Albion Rovers left back recieved a pass he looked to hoof it forward but Jackson stole in front of him and took the ball. Jackson played a smart through ball to the edge of the area to which Crawford beat his marker to and slammed the ball past the out rushing keeper and we had a 1-0 lead. Albion Rovers won a corner just before the half hour mark and Connolly had to give away another corner when a Diack header was directed at goal. The resulting corner was cleared but not far enough as the next attack coming from a Diack cross allowed Coulter enough time to get his head to the ball and powerfully head his side level. In the thirty seventh minute a quick change of defence to attack for Albion Rovers gave them their second goal with McManus being found by a long ball and his shot was drilled past Connolly and into the corner of the net. From the kick off we went straight down the other end looking for a goal with Jackson crossing to Crawford who didn’t strike his shot cleanly enough but still Chris Fahey in the Albion goal tipped it behind. The half time whistle blew and we had lost a 1-0 lead and were down 2-1. At half time I tweaked the formation to a 4-4-1-1 with Kevin Twaddle being replaced by Tam McAllister who would play just behind Crawford. We came close to an equaliser with only three minutes on the clock in the second half when Lappin was given space and his cross found Crawford who saw his header parried away. McAllister and Mackay both has long range chances in the second half but other than that we just couldn’t break down Albion Rovers as they took all three points and extended the gap between the two teams to seven points. East Stirling 1:2 Albion Rovers East Stirling Goals: Crawford (1) Albion Rovers Goals: McManus (1), Coulter (1) MoM: Brian Crawford (East Stirling) Rating-8 Subs: McAllister on for Twaddle (45`), Livingstone on for Jackson (63`) Booked: McLaren (East Stirling), Lappin (East Stirling),Cross (Albion Rovers) Sent Off: - Stadium: Firs Park Attendance: 1419 The class between the two teams is still huge as we were outplayed for most of the game today. Our goal came from a defensive blunder as Albion was caught cold but that doesn’t happen often. I am happy with the players and how they performed and even with the gap between the two teams we could have stole a point today. The win leaves us seven points behind Albion as they look to take out the Scottish Division Three Championship. In other matches Gretna defeated Queens Park for a 2-1 home victory while Montrose moved in to second place demolishing Elgin 4-1. Peterhead gave a impressive home performance by winning 5-0 against visiting Dumbarton while managerless Stranraer was outclassed at home as they went down 2-0 to Berwick. Queens Park has terminated Andy Goram's contract to manage the club after the 2-1 away defeat to Gretna. The board has finally said enough is enough and Goram is sent on his way. His record was pretty shocking after being in charge for twenty seven games he had only won six. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 5, 2004 Share Posted September 5, 2004 F*cking great. Very nice to read. A year or 2/3 ago was the last time I visit this site. Really enjoyed a story about Kidderminster Hariers then (from a guy named Raptor, funny to see he is now a mod), this is also a story I really like. Don't know if this is good Englsih, but I'm really in the story. Hope there are coming updates very soon. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Soccer Posted September 7, 2004 Author Share Posted September 7, 2004 Thanks 1896 however I'm not the one to be asking about what is good or bad english 8th of February 2005 The first semi final of the Scottish League Cup was played today. Rangers who sits second in the SPL take on Hiberian who sits just behind them in third. The gap between the two teams in the table at this moment is twenty points and you would think the teams had their spots switched around if you saw the scoreline. Hiberian rang rings around Rangers all day and won the match comfortably 3-0 with goals from Yannick Zambernardi, Noah Hickey and Kevin Thomson. 9th of February 2005 The second semi final of the Scottish League Cup was between Dundee United and Kilmarnock. Two sides whose only chance of winning any silverware from this season will be from one of the cups. Dundee United showed even though they sit bottom of the SPL they can still play attacking football. Charlie Miller scored a brace while Mark Kerr scored a goal on the stroke of half time to seal Dundee United's place in the final. 12th of February 2005 Its been over a week since our dramatic loss against Albion Rovers and now we look start to set things right by taking all three points from Dumbarton. We travel to Dumbarton as well as we look to take back second spot from Montrose. The home side is sitting in seventh spot quite comfortably ahead of the teams below them. February 12th ,2005 Scottish Third Division Game 24 (a) Dumbarton V East Stirling East Stirling (4-4-2) Jon Connolly- John Allison, Graeme McLaren, Nico Herizg, Alex McColl- Ross Jackson, Gordon Lappin, Sean McAuley, Jamie Mackay- Kevin Twaddle, Brian Crawford Subs: Ross Flitney (gk), James White, Sam Kanu, Tam McAllister, Stuart Kelly Nico Herzig has regained full fitness and is pencilled straight back into the first team at the expense of Stewart who drops out of the match squad. One change to the bench as Scott Livingstone is replaced by Sam Kanu who also has regained full fitness as he looks challenge Lappin for the first team left midfielder spot. A long goal kick by Connolly in the fourth minute found Crawford who allowed the ball to drop before half volleying a shot in at goal from just outside the box. Aaron Kerr saw it late but managed to palm it away and smother it at the second attempt. In the eleventh minute Lappin pulled away from the half way line before making his way down the wing and putting a cross into the box. Crawford beat his marker to the ball as he stooped to knock the ball in and claim his first goal of the match. With Dumbarton's continued pressure it was only a matter of time before we cracked and two minutes before half time we did. Smylie was put through on goal and he needed only that one chance to pass the ball into the net. Russell seemed to take his enthusiasm too far when he tangled with Mackay. Mackay said something to Russell when they were getting up and Russel promptly responded by punching the East Stirling midfielder in the face. The referee ran over and gave Russell a red card and time for an early bath in the dressing room. Sam Kanu is brought on for the ineffective Lappin who also has a yellow card while Twaddle comes off for Kelly. Dumbarton hit the front before the hour mark when Gordon rose highest from the corner and his header beat the man on the post and we were 2-1 down. We brought off Allison and threw on McAllister who would play behind the two forwards as we went all out for an equaliser. Boyle had a great chance for the home side when he was one on one with Connolly but our shot stopper got his body in the way of the shot and diverting it out for a corner. Kanu and Kelly combined well with the latter putting the ball into the back of the net only to see the flag up and the Dumbarton crowd cheer as one. The final whistle blew and we had been beaten by ten men who took their chances better than we did. Dumbarton 2:1 East Stirling Dumbarton Goals: Smylie (1), Gordon (1) East Stirling Goals: Crawford (1) MoM: Jon Connolly(East Stirling) Rating-9 Subs: Kelly on for Twaddle (45`), Kanu on for Lappin (45`), McAllister on for Allison (75`) Booked: McLaren (East Stirling), Lappin (East Stirling), Kanu(East Stirling), Russell(Dumbarton)(2) Sent Off: Iain Russell(Dumbarton)(Reason: Two bookable offences) Stadium: The Rock Attendance: 1684 I cant believe we threw away all three points today we had an extra man on the pitch. Dumbarton seemed to have all the answers even when Russell was dismissed and we just couldn’t get ourselves into the match. This win is really a big body blow to our promotion aspirations as Montrose could extend their lead over us to four points. In other matches Berwick won their home match 3-1 against Peterhead while a seven goals were scored between Elgin and Gretna with Gretna pulling off the away victory 4-3. In the fourth round of the Scottish Cup two division three sides were in action as they played in a tie against each other. Albion Rovers conceded two but scored four to move onto the next round at the expense of Queens Park. In other matches Arbroath of Division Two shocked SPL side Livingstone 1-0 and Falkirk of Division One smashed Hearts of the SPL 4-0. In the matches that the Old Firm were involved with saw Rangers edge out Dunfermline 1-0 while Celtic had no trouble disposing of Ayr 3-0. 16th of February 2005 In the other two matches of the Division Three round 24 saw Albion Rovers defeat Montrose 4-2 as they head towards the title and Queens Park defeat Stranraer 3-1 as they look to move off the bottom of the league. <pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> Holders - Stirling | Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | | Albion Rovers | | 24 | 17 | 4 | 3 | 63 | 27 | +36 | 55 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | | Montrose | | 24 | 14 | 4 | 6 | 42 | 26 | +16 | 46 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | East Stirling | | 24 | 14 | 3 | 7 | 44 | 32 | +12 | 45 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Berwick | | 24 | 11 | 5 | 8 | 44 | 43 | +1 | 38 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Peterhead | | 24 | 12 | 1 | 11 | 47 | 43 | +4 | 37 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Dumbarton | | 24 | 9 | 3 | 12 | 30 | 39 | -9 | 30 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 7th | | Stranraer | | 24 | 7 | 6 | 11 | 32 | 34 | -2 | 27 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 8th | | Gretna | | 24 | 8 | 2 | 14 | 32 | 50 | -18 | 26 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 9th | | Elgin | | 24 | 4 | 7 | 13 | 31 | 45 | -14 | 19 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 10th | | Queens Park | | 24 | 4 | 5 | 15 | 18 | 44 | -26 | 17 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre> Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Soccer Posted September 8, 2004 Author Share Posted September 8, 2004 18th of February 2005 Doncaster Rovers decided to enquire about my left back Graeme McLaren. I told them in no uncertain terms that he isn’t for sale and I wish that they don’t waste any more of my time on this matter. Graeme hasn’t been my best player over the last two seasons with the average rating of his two seasons being 6.45 and 6.73. Even so I feel his job at left back has been done well and he will be kept at the club for another season at least. 19th of February 2005 February 19th ,2005 Scottish Third Division Game 25 (h) East Stirling V Peterhead East Stirling (4-4-2) Jon Connolly- John Allison, Graeme McLaren, Nico Herzig, Alex McColl- Ross Jackson, Gordon Lappin, Sean McAuley, Jamie Mackay- Eddie Annand, Brian Crawford Subs: Ross Flitney (gk), James White, Scott Livingstone, Tam McAllister, Stuart Kelly Kevin Twaddle hasn’t reached the level of form I expect from him, for him to stay in the first team so as I drop him before replacing him with his old St Mirren team mate Eddie Annand. We almost took the lead in the fifth minute when a long ball by McLaren somehow was allowed to reach Crawford. The striker's excellent ability to strike a bouncing ball drew a save from Shane Herbert in goal as the ball was tipped onto the bar before rebounding out and being cleared. Just after the twenty fifth minute mark McLaren played a cross field pass, which even Roberto Carlos would have been proud of ,which found Jackson. He took one touch before beating his marker and swinging in a cross to Crawford who was outside the box. Crawford controlled the ball on his knee before firing an unstoppable shot into the top corner of the net. That was a milestone for him as he notches up his twentieth goal of the season. On the half hour mark Jackson's free kick on the left wing finds Lappin further up field all alone. The left winger, under no pressure, put in a cross which found Jackson, who had just run into the area after taking the free kick, and headed the ball over Herbert and in for a 2-0 lead to the home team. The trio of McLaren, McAuley and Lappin all had a shot at goal each before half time but all three shots had the one thing in common. They all were off target. Two minutes into the second half Mackay's tackle won the ball and he quickly played a long ball into the centre of the park. Crawford reached the ball before moving into the space allowed to him by the Peterhead defence. All that was left was to beat the keeper and Crawford did that easily toe poking the ball past the advancing keeper and into the net for a 3-0 lead and his second of the match. On the hour mark Annand and Lappin made way for Kelly and Kanu respectively as the latter two looked to have half an hour of good game time. When Molloy got free of McColl and Herzig it looked like we were going to lose our clean sheet but Connolly came to the rescue with a dive to his left and a relatively difficult save made look easy. Just before the final whistle went Crawford had a chance for the hat trick only to see his shot crash off the bar and go over. East Stirling 3:0 Peterhead East Stirling Goals: Crawford (2), Jackson (1) Peterhead Goals: - MoM: Brian Crawford (East Stirling) Rating-9 Subs: Kelly on for Annand (60`), Kanu on for Lappin (45`), White on for McColl (75`) Booked: Allison (East Stirling), Annand (East Stirling) Sent Off: - Stadium: Firs Park Attendance: 1425 A quite comfortable win for us as we rarely looked troubled and didn’t have step up a gear to combat Peterhead. The 3-0 win is an excellent confidence booster for the players as we head into the final third of the season and as the media calls it "the race to the finish line". All I can say is we will do our best to be second and not anything below that! In other matches Gretna at home held league leaders Albion Rovers to a 1-1 draw while Montrose won by a single goal against Dumbarton. Queens Park and Berwick played out a 1-1 draw while it rained goals with Stranraer defeating Elgin 6-1. Stirling has amazingly already mathematically won Division Two. The club who won promotion from Division Three last season has gone undefeated up until now and sits over thirty six points clear of second placed Cowdenbeath. Stirling has shown no mercy at home or away to the clubs in the Second Division as they have steam rolled their way to the top of the league and promotion with the season not coming to a close for another eleven more match days. 20th of February 2005 Twenty five games into the season Morton sits two points above the drop zone in 8th place. The chairman decided that the club wasn’t making the progress he would like and has dropped the axe on John McCormack. The local newspapers have been flooded with letters from supporters confirming their faith in the chairman and saying that the club needs a fresh face in charge. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Soccer Posted September 9, 2004 Author Share Posted September 9, 2004 23rd of February 2005 Morton named John McCormack's successor at a press conference. The new man in charge is forty six year old Englishman Rob McDonald. His first job is to help Morton avoid the drop down to Division Two before having the off season to strengthen the squad. 26th of February 2005 Our twenty sixth match of the league campaign sees us face a side who dropped from Division Two last season and doesn’t look like going back up this season either. Berwick sits fourth ten points off second placed Montrose and nine points off us. The win is crucial to extend the gap between us and any league position below us. Berwick is favoured to win this match and the bookmakers feel the result will be in favour of the home side by the odd goal. February 26th ,2005 Scottish Third Division Game 26 (a) Berwick V East Stirling East Stirling (4-4-2) Jon Connolly- John Allison, Graeme McLaren, James White, Alex McColl- Ross Jackson, Gordon Lappin, Sean McAuley, Jamie Mackay- Eddie Annand, Brian Crawford Subs: Ross Flitney (gk), Michael Stewart, Scott Livingstone, Tam McAllister, Stuart Kelly Nico Herzig damaged his shoulder yesterday and cant play today so he is replaced by James White while Michael Stewart moves up to sit on the bench. Brian Crawford has been in form over the last few weeks and I am looking to Eddie Annand to chip in with a few goals as well. Jeffrey and Ruddock both get their names in the referee's notebook in the first minute after disputing a throw in. We needed to take note that the Berwick side is really here to play and take all three points. Our first shot at goal came on the half hour mark when a ball by Crawford to find Lappin was picked up by McLaren instead who was moving forward at pace. The left back got into the area before a challenge from the defender put him off his shot and his shot went high into the stands. Three minutes later a Berwick throw was misjudged by McColl which allowed Jeffrey to shoot and crash the ball off the post and in. Berwick started to really trouble us as the match lead up to half time but luckily our defence and Connolly kept the ball out of the net as we hit half time only one goal behind. I needed goals in the second half so I didn’t mess around. A triple substitution was used at half time with Annand being replaced by Kelly, Mackay being replaced by McAllister and Lappin being replaced by Kanu. A long throw by Allison caused the Berwick defence headaches when McAuley flicked the ball to Kelly who volleyed just over from the six yard area. The second half was littered with yellow cards as the players really looked to exert themselves on the game. Our challenge was crushed in second half injury time when a corner was swung in and Murie beat Connolly to the ball to head home his team's second goal of the match. Berwick 2:0 East Stirling Berwick Goals: Jeffrey (1), Murie (1) East Stirling Goals: - MoM: David Murie (Berwick) Rating-9 Subs: Kelly on for Annand (45`), Kanu on for Lappin (45`), McAllister on for Mackay (45`) Booked: McNicoll (Berwick), Ruddick (Berwick), Jeffrey (Berwick), McColl (East Stirling), Jackson (East Stirling), McAuley (East Stirling), Mackay (East Stirling), McAllister (East Stirling) Sent Off: - Stadium: Shielfield Park Attendance: 1641 A poor away performance where we never got going and never looked like a team sitting in third spot in their respective league. It was good to see the second half performance as I felt the players were really raring to fight for each and every ball which probably explains why there was so many yellow cards given out. This loss is a huge blow to our promotion aspirations as it looks now that third spot might be the most we can hope for. In other matches Albion Rovers was held to a second consecutive draw at home to Stranraer 2-2 while Dumbarton snuck a late goal to defeat Gretna 1-0. Elgin defeated lowly Queens Park 3-1 while Montrose took advantage of our defeat to move four points clear with a 2-1 away victory over Peterhead. The media hailed Albion Rovers's unbeaten run after their draw with Stranraer. The bookmakers didn’t think Albion would be good enough to make win promotion when accessing the team pre season but now they feel Albion will finish the season as champions and will be playing Division Two football next season. After reading my physio's match report my promotion aspirations looked to have disappeared into a cloud of smoke. Brian Crawford fractured his ribs during the game against Berwick and will be out for at least three weeks. That means he will miss our crucial crunch tie against Montrose as we look to peg them back. To solve our striking problems I have promoted Paul Rodden to the first team squad after his impressive hat trick against Albion Rovers in the reserves 7-1 win. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Soccer Posted September 10, 2004 Author Share Posted September 10, 2004 1st of March 2005 The first day of the month has come again and the awards for the Scottish Division Three are given out. Peter Hetherston boss of Albion Rovers has won the February Division Three Manager of the Month award after he led his team to two victories out of four games. He only had a 50% winning record this month but I guess the panel see Albion Rovers on top of the table and that helps Peter win the award. Martin Cameron of Gretna had a great month scoring two goals in four appearances. That was good enough for him to win February's Scottish Division Three Player of the Month. Peterhead's Ralph Welch won the February Division Three Young Player of the Month after a great month in front of goal. He scored a brace in the five nil demolition of Dumbarton while assisting his teammates to get their names on the scoresheet. 5th of March 2005 The big day has come where the crucial promotion clash between Montrose and East Stirling is played. Montrose currently sit four points head of us in second spot and if they win today it would look to be a hill to steep for us. It has been a good season for us up till now and it would be disappointing to be seven points behind Montrose with only eight games left so we need to play our best today. March 1st ,2005 Scottish Third Division Game 27 (a) Montrose V East Stirling East Stirling (4-4-2) Jon Connolly- John Allison, Graeme McLaren, Nico Herzig, Alex McColl- Ross Jackson, Gordon Lappin, Sean McAuley, Jamie Mackay- Eddie Annand, Paul Rodden Subs: Ross Flitney (gk), James White, Scott Livingstone, Tam McAllister, Stuart Kelly Michael Stewart drops out of the match squad as Nico Herzig's shoulder is fine and he is raring and ready to go today. Paul Rodden replaces injured Brian Crawford after his good form in the reserve games. He will need all his good form to bag a few goals today. In the tenth minute a loose ball was picked up by McAuley, who passed ten yards up to Mackay. Annand made a run which was honoured by a long ball from Mackay which allowed Annand to run onto the ball and put a shot in at goal from the edge of the penalty area. Gary McGlynn in the Montrose goal was just equal to the task as he pushed the ball around the post for a corner. Fourteen minutes later another long ball from Mackay was flicked on by Annand into the path of Rodden. The young forward took a touch before blasting a shot at the keeper who pushed the ball away. A defender mishit his clearance a few yards outside the penalty area and McAuley was fouled on the edge of the area. Jackson took the free kick and dipped it in only to see the keeper pull off a top class save to deny the East Stirling midfielder at the expense of a corner. We didn’t put any of our chances away and Montrose made us pay one minute before half time when a corner wasn’t cleared properly and Carson struck a low shot from the edge of the area. The shot slipped past Connolly's out stretched hand and we were undeservedly 1-0 down. Sam Kanu was called upon at half time to add some pace on the left hand side of midfield while Lappin was taken off. Three minutes into the second half McAuley had to be taken off after a late tackle did some damage to the young midfielder. Veteran McAllister was put in place of the injured midfielder. With no chances being created I called upon Kelly to replace Annand up forward as we looked for goals. We just didn’t get going and we lost the match after we didn’t take our chances in the first half. Montrose 1:0 East Stirling Montrose Goals: Carson (1) East Stirling Goals: - MoM: Nico Herzig(East Stirling) Rating-9 Subs: Kanu on for Lappin (45`), McAllister on for Mackay (48`), Kelly on for Annand (70`) Booked: Conway (Montrose), Jackson (East Stirling), McAllister (East Stirling) Sent Off: - Stadium: Links Park Attendance: 1665 I was pleased with our first half as we created all the chances and should have gone one or two goals up but the Montrose keeper was in good form. Very disappointing to concede a goal so close to half time and against the run of play. The second half performance was dire from both sides as we didn’t get going. The loss extends the gap between the two sides with Montrose sitting pretty in second spot, seven points above us. In other matches Berwick cemented a top five finish with a 2-0 win over Elgin while Gretna destroyed Peterhead 5-1 at home. Albion Rovers showed the difference between top and bottom of the league defeating Queens Park 3-0 on the road while the match between 6th and 7th saw Dumbarton come away with a 2-1 away victory over Stranraer. 5th of March 2005 The axe has fallen on a Serie A manager after his club sits bottom of the table after twenty seven games. Piacenza chairman Fabrizio Garilli has given Luigi Cagni his marching orders after the club has only picked up fifteen points out of a possible eighty one points. The club now will be looking for a new manager to lead them away from the drop zone. 6th of March 2005 The English League Cup Final was played today between two giants of the English game Arsenal and Chelsea. Chelsea's £12.25M signing from Villarreal, Jose Mari, got the London giant off to a great start in the fifteenth minute before Damien Duff added his club's second two minutes later. Five minutes before half time left full back Wayne Bridge scored Chelsea's third goal of the match to leave Arsenal completely shell shocked. Arsenal pushed hard in the second half and maybe too hard after £10.5M recruit from Bayern Munchen Owen Hargreaves received his marching orders on the hour mark. After the dismissal the ten men from Arsenal conceded defeat and Chelsea was left celebrating its first major trophy since Gianluca Villia's was installed as manager for his second managerial stint at the club. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Soccer Posted September 10, 2004 Author Share Posted September 10, 2004 11th of March 2005 Piacenza has installed their new manager by the name of Bortolo Mutti. The fifty year old Italian has promised everyone at the club that he will help Piacenza avoid relegation from the top flight of Italian football. The manager has been given a contract until the first of July 2007 on a weekly wage of £14,500(it will be the days when i get a wage that high). 12th of March 2005 After the poor showing and loss to Montrose a week ago we just need to pick ourselves up and pick up as many points as we can. Our first port of calling is away to eighth placed Gretna. Our record against them over the past two seasons is quite good winning four, drawing two and losing only one out of the seven matches between the two sides. March 12th ,2005 Scottish Third Division Game 28 (a) Gretna V East Stirling East Stirling (4-4-2) Jon Connolly- John Allison, Graeme McLaren, Nico Herzig, Alex McColl- Ross Jackson, Gordon Lappin, Sean McAuley, Jamie Mackay- Derek Ure, Eddie Annand Subs: Ross Flitney (gk), James White, Sam Kanu, Tam McAllister, Stuart Kelly After a hard week of training for all the players at the club I have decided to make just one change. Rodden has been replaced by Ure who looks to regain form which he did have during the beginning of the season. We were given a warning of what Gretna can do after a quick throw gave Cameron a chance on goal from the edge of the area. His shot whizzed just over Connolly's head and thankfully the cross bar as well. On the fifteenth minute mark Herzig was left in no mans land when a long ball went over his head and Cameron ran onto it. The Gretna forward let rip with a twenty five yard rocket which Connolly had no chance with as it hit the back of the net. Cameron had another two long range chances before half time but both hit the wrong side of the net- the side netting. At half time Annand was replaced by Kelly while an unfit Mackay was replaced by McAllister. In the fifty third minute the chances paid off with a long ball from Lappin sending Ure on his way and he unselfishly played the ball across goal to Jackson who had a simple tap in to equalise for us. They say you are the most vulnerable after you score a goal and that saying applied here with straight from the kick off Cameron and Hawley played a one two with the latter with a simple tap in from the near post. On the seventh minute mark McAllister played a through ball for Ure who took the ball under control before blazing over. Straight from the goal kick McAllister intercepted the ball and ran past three defenders before showing Ure how to score a goal. His shot was hit low and hard and had enough power to beat the Gretna keeper to tie up the game 2-2. The match time ticked into stoppage time and the fourth official displayed three minutes on his board. As the time ticked to the ninety first minute Herzig intercepted a cross field pass and played the ball to substitute Kanu on the wing. The pacey left wing took one touch before utilizing his excellent vision and picking out Ure further down. Ure held the ball before playing the ball back to a moving Kanu who ran further down the left wing before putting in a cross to the near post. As the ball reached the near post Ure was forced to stretch and dive to the ball with his head. His head connected and sent the ball crashing against the post and went over the line and we had taken the lead with only two minutes left. The final whistle went and my players celebrated like they had just won promotion as in stark contrast the Gretna players were slumped with heads down and wondering how they lost. Gretna 2:3 East Stirling Gretna Goals: Cameron (1), Hawley (1) East Stirling Goals: Jackson (1), Ure (1), McAllister (1) MoM: Douglas Cameron(Gretna) Rating-8 Subs: McAllister on for Mackay (45`), Kelly on for Annand (45`), Kanu on for Lappin (72`) Booked: Thomson (Gretna), Thwaites (Gretna), Jackson (East Stirling) Sent Off: - Stadium: Raydale Park Attendance: 1683 Our performance today was so inconsistent with us playing excellent football in patches but dire football in patches. I really cant believe we won but thankfully my substitutions paid off and we have taken all three points today undeservedly. The win keeps us in touch with Montrose as we look to chase them until its mathematically impossible. In other matches Montrose kept up the seven point gap between 2nd and 3rd spot with a 2-0 away win over Berwick while Dumbarton scored the same scoreline away against Queens Park. In the other match of the day Stranraer scored two goals in their home match to defeat Peterhead 2-0. Albion Rovers and Elgin will play their match later on as Albion Rovers had Scottish Cup duty. In the Scottish Cup Albion Rovers defeated Arbroath 2-1 away as they continued their remarkable cup run. In other matches Celtic beat fellow SPL club side Kilmarnock 1-0 away, Aberdeen showed their class defeating Falkirk 2-0 and Clyde held Rangers to a replay after a surprising 2-2 draw. Ross Jackson has received a one match ban after the yellow card he received against Gretna pushed him over 16 disciplinary points. He will be sorely missed against Stranraer as his set piece ability is in my opinion the best we have in the team. Division One club side East Fife has been mathematically relegated after only picked up seven points from twenty eight games. The club is twenty five points below eight spot and safety but mathematically can only pick up a maximum of twenty four points. Manager Jim Moffat hasn’t been given any information on his future with the club though he does have another four years on his contract. 16th of March 2005 Paris Saint Germain has relieved the managerial duties from Vahid Halilhodzic after sitting in seventh spot and twenty three points from the summit after twenty nine games. The club's board said the reason for the sacking was the poor league position and that their goal of Champions League qualification didn’t look like it would be met. The catch up game between Elgin City and Albion Rovers ended in a 1-1 draw after the home side stunned the league leaders with an early goal. Albion now sit three points clear of Montrose at the top of the league but with a goal difference of eighteen more goals than the second placed club. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raptor Posted September 11, 2004 Share Posted September 11, 2004 <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by 1896: F*cking great. Very nice to read. A year or 2/3 ago was the last time I visit this site. Really enjoyed a story about Kidderminster Hariers then (from a guy named Raptor, funny to see he is now a mod), this is also a story I really like. Don't know if this is good Englsih, but I'm really in the story. Hope there are coming updates very soon. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> What was your previous username then? Welcome back btw Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Soccer Posted September 11, 2004 Author Share Posted September 11, 2004 Raptor i never though i would live to the day when you hijack my thread mate Carry on! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raptor Posted September 11, 2004 Share Posted September 11, 2004 I've just been observing it from my secret tree hut hideout for a while Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Soccer Posted September 11, 2004 Author Share Posted September 11, 2004 19th of March 2005 On the morning before our match against Stranraer Tam McAllister damaged his right shoulder in a light training session. The reason why we only have a light training session is so nobody hurts themselves but Tam had to just go and do that. The veteran midfielder will be out for at least a week maybe more. Another must win match at home today against Stranraer. The visitors currently occupy seventh spot on the ladder and have a great chance of reaching at least fifth spot come the end of the season. Our record against at home against Stranraer has been two wins, one draw and one loss so nothing spectacular. March 19th ,2005 Scottish Third Division Game 29 (h) East Stirling V Stranraer East Stirling (4-4-2) Jon Connolly- John Allison, Graeme McLaren, Nico Herzig, Alex McColl- Scott Livingstone, Gordon Lappin, Sean McAuley, Jamie Mackay- Eddie Annand, Derek Ure Subs: Ross Flitney (gk), James White, Sam Kanu, Dougie Polwart, Stuart Kelly After the stunning come back victory over Gretna two forced changes are made to the first eleven and the five players on the bench. Ross Jackson misses this match due to suspension and is replaced by Scott Livingstone while Tam McAllister misses the game with a damaged shoulder and is replaced by Dougie Polwart. We had our first chance in the third minute when Allison burst forward and passed the ball across the area to McAuley who put his shot just over the bar. On the fifteenth minute mark Moore intercepted a cross field ball by Livingstone and ran through the centre of midfield past McColl and Herzig and curled his shot past Connolly and into the net. Fifteen minutes later McLaren made a quick break down the wing before cross into the box. The Stranraer keeper went for the ball and dropped it to the feet of Ure who on the turn took a shot at goal. The shot smacked off the cross bar and went over. As the first half whistle blew we were 1-0 down. Since we were down 1-0 at half time I made three changes. Lappin came off for Kanu, Kelly on for Annand and Polwart on for McAuley. My players couldn’t get their shots on target as we continued to shoot from long range. Polwart and Mackay both had great chances to score but put their shots just wide. As the final whistle blew we dropped three valuable points. East Stirling 0:1 Stranraer East Stirling Goals: - Stranraer Goals: Moore (1) MoM: Paul Mathers (Stranraer) Rating-9 Subs: Polwart on for McAuley (45`), Kelly on for Annand (45`), Kanu on for Lappin (45`) Booked: Lappin (East Stirling), Sharp (Stranraer), Paterson (Stranraer), Moore (Stranraer) Sent Off: - Stadium: Firs Park Attendance: 1402 After looking over the game a few times I still cant see what really went wrong. We had fifteen shots to the visitors two and just on that stat we should have won the game without breaking stride. It was a complete shock result today and it may be the nail in the coffin which ends our promotion chances. In other matches Albion Rovers easily disposed of Berwick at home 4-1 while second placed Montrose beat Gretna 3-0. Dumbarton and Elgin played out a 0-0 draw and Peterhead and Queens Park played out a 1-1 draw. 20th of March 2005 Amateur English side Doncaster enquiry about our young left back Graeme McLaren. I talked the move over with Graeme and he says he isn’t interested in moving to a club who sits below the conference and in his mind it’s a step down from where he currently is at the moment. I therefore reject the enquiry telling the English side that Graeme is indispensable to the club which he is! Two Scottish Premier League sides went head to head in the battle for a trophy that they have only won a combined five times in their histories. Garry O`Connor got Hibs off to a great start ten minutes in and his team mate Tom McManus doubled the lead ten minutes later. Jason Dodd halved the deficit on the stroke of half time to give his club, Dundee United, a chance going into the second half. With neither club getting the ball into the net in the second forty five minutes Hiberian lifted the League Cup to end a wait for this trophy that had spanned up to thirteen years. Later on that day we added a new staff member to our ranks. English born Peter Sottrel joins our club as he takes up the rank of my most trusted advisor (assistant manager). At thirty eight Peter has not much going for him apart from his excellent motivational skills but at our level of the game not many more talented staff will join the club. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Soccer Posted September 13, 2004 Author Share Posted September 13, 2004 22nd of March 2005 Brian Crawford resumes full training today after being out for three weeks with fractured ribs. He should defiantly return to the first team for our crucial match against Queens Park if not he will at least get some game time coming off the bench. Another bonus for the club is that a young Wimbledon striker has finally signed for the club. Serge Makofo will join the club on the 5th of June. He has been a transfer target of mine for some time and when our negotiations broke down with Wimbledon the last time I thought I may not be able to sign the young striker. However we convinced the English club to part with their young 'diamond in the rough' with an offer of £8k + 50% sell on clause. 23rd of March 2005 Eleven days ago when Clyde held the giants of Scotland, Glasgow Rangers, to a draw at Broadwood Stadium all the pundits predicts Rangers to ease through in the replay. However that’s the thing about football that its so unpredictable. The replay saw Rangers held at 1-1 till the final whistle and the two periods of extra time. Clyde showed their composure in the shootout putting through three out of their four spot kicks to defeat Rangers who only had Emerson to put through his penalty out of his club's penalties. The Scottish Cup Semi Final pairs surprise packets Albion Rovers(SD3) at home to the other giants of Scotland, Glasgow Celtic(SPL). The other Semi Final sees Aberdeen(SPL) take on the shock winners against Rangers, Clyde(SD1). 26th of March 2005 Fellow Division Three side Stranraer has appointed their new manager. He comes out of the wilderness after being unemployed for four months since his stint with St Mirren was cut short by the board of directors. John Coughlin has a huge amount of time to rack up experience and know how as a manager as he has only just reached forty one years old. If we have any hope of pushing our way into the top two we need to take maximum points for the rest of the season by starting here today away to bottom of the league, Queens Park. Our opponents record in the past five games is very poor with two draws and three losses. Hopefully they aren’t full of confidence and we can turn them over with relative ease[/daydream over] March 26th ,2005 Scottish Third Division Game 30 (a) Queens Park V East Stirling East Stirling (4-4-2) Jon Connolly- John Allison, Graeme McLaren, Nico Herzig, Alex McColl- Ross Jackson, Gordon Lappin, Sean McAuley, Jamie Mackay-Derek Ure, Brian Crawford Subs: Ross Flitney (gk), James White, Sam Kanu, Dougie Polwart, Stuart Kelly Ross Jackson is brought back into the first team, though I did have some harsh words with him about his recent performances, at the expense of Scott Livingstone. While Eddie Annand has been dropped to allow Brian Crawford to resume his position in the first team. In the first ten minutes it was apparent that Queens Park was here to win and win well. Their aggression at the ball was there for all to see and maybe they went to far with the referee issuing two yellow cards to Sangster and Fallon. Crawford almost announced his return to the first team in style on the thirteenth minute only for his shot to be parried over the bar by the Queens Park keeper. We fell behind in the fifteenth minute when a Magee cross wasn’t dealt with by our central defenders and Clarke stole in to head his side into a 1-0 lead. Clarke struck another blow to our promotion aspirations before half time when a cross came in from the left wing and Herzig was too slow to react as Clarke stole a yard in front of him and finished easily. The half time team talk wasn’t nice I can tell you and none of the players on the pitch showed any right to stay out there. However I didn’t want to throw any substitutions on right away so the first eleven went back onto the pitch for the second half looking to redeem themselves. Three minutes into the second half McAuley rose highest from the corner and headed his side into a 3-0 lead and practically stitched up the three points. With only five minutes into the second half Clarke completed his hat trick after Magee unselfishly centred for his team mate to power home his third. Straight from the kick-off we went right up to the other end and attacked the Queens Park defensive goal. We knew it wasn’t our day when Ure was one on one with a keeper and blazed his shot into the bar and out. We did better in the last half an hour and even managed a consolation when Kelly centred the ball for Crawford who headed home his first of the night and our first of the night. However that goal was a mere consolation as the final whistle was blown and we had been defeated 4-1 by the bottom side in the league. Queens Park 4:1 East Stirling Queens Park Goals: Clarke (3), McAuley (1) East Stirling Goals: Crawford (1) MoM: Leon Clarke(Queens Park) Rating-10 Subs: Polwart on for McAuley (61`), Kelly on for Ure (61`), White on for McColl (61`) Booked: Fallon (Queens Park), Sangster (Queens Park) Sent Off: - Stadium: Hampden Park Attendance: 1717 So another pathetic performance against a team lower than us and I am started to get really frustrated at my team's inability to continue our early season form. We seem to not be interested in the game and we aren’t even doing the fundamental things right. Between now and the next game the players will be getting a work out and a really long look at this game on the video. In other matches Albion Rovers stormed to a 7-1 win over Dumbarton, who sacked their manager afterwards, while Berwick was surprisingly beaten at home 3-1 by Gretna. In other matches Elgin City defeated Peterhead 4-2 at home while Stranraer was easily disposed of by 2nd placed Montrose 3-1. <pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> Holders - Stirling | Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | | Albion Rovers | | 30 | 20 | 7 | 3 | 81 | 33 | +48 | 67 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | | Montrose | | 30 | 20 | 4 | 6 | 54 | 28 | +26 | 64 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | East Stirling | | 30 | 16 | 3 | 11 | 51 | 42 | +9 | 51 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Berwick | | 30 | 13 | 6 | 11 | 51 | 53 | -2 | 45 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Dumbarton | | 30 | 12 | 4 | 14 | 36 | 48 | -12 | 40 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Peterhead | | 30 | 12 | 2 | 16 | 52 | 60 | -8 | 38 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 7th | | Stranraer | | 30 | 10 | 7 | 13 | 45 | 42 | +3 | 37 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 8th | | Gretna | | 30 | 10 | 3 | 17 | 43 | 60 | -17 | 33 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 9th | | Elgin | | 30 | 6 | 9 | 15 | 40 | 57 | -17 | 27 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 10th | | Queens Park | | 30 | 5 | 7 | 18 | 25 | 55 | -30 | 22 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre> Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 15, 2004 Share Posted September 15, 2004 <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Raptor: What was your previous username then? Welcome back btw <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> KVO or KV Oostende, i'm not sure because I use this two always. I didn't react a lot, because my English was really bad that time. Reading is no problem, but writing... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Soccer Posted September 16, 2004 Author Share Posted September 16, 2004 Dont worry 1896 alot of people whose first language is English can't write well! 30th of March 2005 Rangers, the only Scottish side still in the European Champions League, went over to Holland and fought for a credible 1-1 draw with PSV Eindhoven. In the other quarter final matches the two English sides Manchester United and Liverpool both fought out away draws with Juventus and Betis respectively. Back in Holland, Ajax was defeated well by Bayern Munchen to leave the German giants with two away goals to take back to Munich. 1st of April 2005 The first day of the month and the usual ritual of the awards being handed out to the outstanding player, young player and manager of the past month. Graham Gibson of Montrose has won the Scottish Third Division Player of the Month for March. His form in the past month has been incredible with him having a hand in the club's good fortune and incredible league position of second from the top. League leaders Albion Rovers have the new Young Player of the Month for March in the shape of young Graeme McCaul. Graeme receives the award for a second time in consecutive years in the month of March. While being a midfielder McCaul had a great month bagging four goals and assisting in many more. There can be no disputing the new Manager of the Month for March. He is none other than John Sheran of Montrose and his side have had an excellent month racking up a maximum number of twelve points out of twelve. Montrose seem to be putting a little winning steak together with the past six games all had three points taken from them. 2nd of April 2005 Just a quick look to Scotland's match against Andorra in the World Cup Qualifying. The Scots showed great promise putting away six goals and keeping a steely defence which needed to only deal with a total number of zero shots. 6th of April 2005 Another match for Scotland in their campaign to qualify for the next World Cup which will be held in Germany in 2006. The Scots travelled over to play their lower ranked opponents Austria, who are 89th compared to Scotland's 48th. The rankings didn’t mean much once the football got underway and the Scottish side finished up on the wrong side of a 5-3 scoreline. Kevin Kyle was the Scots hero with a brace while Markus Jank and Markus Schopp did the big damage for the Austrians with two goals each. 9th of April 2005 Well a game against the ladder leaders is always a good way to test the strength of character of the squad you are currently managing. Our record against Albion Rovers has been poor since my arrival at Firs Park with Albion taking the honours of six wins and two losses to our obvious two wins and six losses. However there is always hope when you step out onto the football pitch but if we do get knocked over today Albion will clinch promotion to Division Two. April 9th ,2005 Scottish Third Division Game 31 (a) Albion Rovers V East Stirling East Stirling (4-4-2) Jon Connolly- John Allison, Graeme McLaren, Nico Herzig, Alex McColl- Ross Jackson, Gordon Lappin, Sean McAuley, Tam McAllister-Derek Ure, Brian Crawford Subs: Ross Flitney (gk), James White, Sam Kanu, Dougie Polwart, Stuart Kelly Jamie Mackay hasn’t been showing his usual dazzling form over the past couple of weeks and I have decided to give him a rest today with Tam McAllister coming in to take his spot. What can I say about McAllister's recall to the first team apart from it was a stroke of luck. The veteran converts his first shot into a goal in the first two minutes after Herzig stole the ball in midfield and gave it to McAllister. He then proceeded through the league leaders defence before slamming it past the keeper into the roof of the net. In the thirteenth minute we were almost brought back to Earth when a Silvestro corner was flicked towards goal only for Connolly to block with his legs and Herzig to clear. Connolly this time denied Silvestro when he let a rocket go from outside the box though his parry fell straight to McManus who passed the ball past Connolly to level the game at 1-1. Into the second half and McAllister disposes the Young Player of the Month of March, Graeme McCaul, before lashing in a short which Fahey in the Albion goal held comfortably. In the sixty fifth minute Albion hit the self destruct button when Herzig passed the ball to McAllister and his long ball forward towards substitute Kelly was intercepted by the Albion keeper. However his clearance went no more than three metres right to Kelly, who couldn’t believe his luck, shooting straight into an empty new from twenty five yards. Again our joy was short lived after only five minutes of going ahead McManus found space and time to beat his marker before crossing into Braford who side stepped the ball home for an equaliser. Bradford hit his second goal nine minutes later after a Silvestro free kick was only half cleared and the Albion player pounced on the error, knocking the ball past Connolly to give his side the lead for the first time in the match with only eleven minutes to play. That goal was the back breaker and we just couldn’t get back into the match as our slim chances of promotion disappear and Albion realise theirs. Albion Rovers 3:2 East Stirling Albion Rovers Goals: Bradford (2), McManus (1) East Stirling Goals: McAllister (1), Kelly (1) MoM: Tam McAllister (East Stirling) Rating-8 Subs: Kanu on for Lappin (62`), Kelly on for Crawford (63`), White on for McColl (62`) Booked: Calderwood (Albion Rovers), McCaig (Albion Rovers), McCaul (Albion Rovers), Allison (East Stirling), Herzig (East Stirling), Crawford (East Stirling) Sent Off: - Stadium: Cliftonhill Attendance: 475 What can I say apart from thank god we dont play them in the league next season! A courageous effort by the players today who really did make me proud. We were up against a team high in confidence and just couldn’t hold onto the lead when we grabbed it. I send my regards to the Albion Rovers manager as he prepares for Division Two football next season and they totally deserve it after their good performances this season and the past three seasons where they finished just outside the two promotion spots in 3rd all three times. My other good regards goes to Montrose who also secured their promotion today as well with their result which will be stated below. The top two both confirm their promotion to the Second Division with Albion Rovers defeating us 3-2 while Montrose sneak a 1-0 away win over Elgin City. Berwick keep the pressure up on us for third spot with a 4-1 home demolition of Stranraer while Dumbarton and Peterhead played out a scoreless draw. The last match of the round saw Queens Park win the battle of the bottom three defeating 8th placed Gretna 3-1 at Hampden Park. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 17, 2004 Share Posted September 17, 2004 That's bad luck. I hoped that you get promoted. A new season in the Third Division again. Maybe you got more luck next year. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Soccer Posted September 17, 2004 Author Share Posted September 17, 2004 10th of April 2005 After a quick talk with the coaches before training this morning it has been brought to my attention that two players aren’t training as hard as they could be. Michael Stewart and Eddie Annand are the two players mentioned and after a harsh quick talk with the two players I issue both of them with an official warning. They both say that the warning is warranted and I could defiantly see Michael improving his attitude from that minute onwards. Over in Spain change has started at Deportivo with their manager Irureta sent on his way after the Spanish 'giant' currently lies twenty four points off the title winning pace in 11th place. Barcelona look likely to follow Deportivo's lead of sacking their manager Frank Rijkaard for a poor league position and not performing to board expectations. More on the Barcelona situation as it unfolds or doesnt unfold. 13th of April 2005 Rangers continue their European adventure as they drew with PSV 1-1 at Ibrox before becoming the eventual winners with a 3-2 shootout win. Bayern had no trouble of sending Ajax back to Holland with a humiliating 3-0 defeat and an aggregate loss of 5-0. Manchester United showed Juventus they are a very formidable oppoent when playing at Old Trafford scoring three with two late Ruud Van Nistelrooy penalties to send the Italians packing with a 4-1 aggregate loss. The other English side Liverpool finished up with a scoreless home draw against Betis which sent the club on Merseyside through to the semis of the cup competition. Its gone from bad to worse for our midfielder Sean McAuley. He didn’t have a particular good game against Albion Rovers and he has now been ruled out for a week. He suffered an ankle injury in training today and this puts him out of home clash with Dumbarton. 16th of April 2005 Well its mathematically impossible to win promotion this season so now its all about consolidating our third position and building on our squad before next season. Our match against Dumbarton isn’t what I wanted straight afte a match against Albion because our form against Dumbarton since they were relegated from Division Two has been one win and two losses. Hopefully we can square the ledger today against a side who has only recently appointed an new manager after the old manager found himself out after not performing to the board's expectations of promotion. April 16th ,2005 Scottish Third Division Game 32 (h) East Stirling V Dumbarton East Stirling (4-4-2) Jon Connolly- John Allison, Graeme McLaren, Nico Herzig, Alex McColl- Kevin Twaddle, Gordon Lappin, Jamie Mackay, Tam McAllister-Derek Ure, Brian Crawford Subs: Ross Flitney (gk), James White, Sam Kanu, Dougie Polwart, Stuart Kelly With Sean McAuley out for a week Jamie Mackay is recalled after sitting out our match against Albion Rovers due to poor form. Hopefully the week on the sidelines will set him straight and his form will begin to come back up to its best. Another change to the first team saw Ross Jackson axed after two poor performances in the past two games. In his place comes Kevin Twaddle who can play on the right wing and he should add some pace on the right. Our first chance was created in the fourteenth minute when Ure won the ball in midfield and played a great ball over two defenders to Crawford. Our leading goal scorer took the ball in his stride and shot at goal. The shot was pushed away for a corner by the Dumbarton keeper. The resulting corner, swung in by Lappin, was met by the head of Herzig and the ball flew off his head into the net past the despairing keeper. With twenty three minutes on the clock a long ball by McLaren found Ure on the left wing and his silky skills took him past his marker. Ure crossed the ball onto the head of Crawford and the Dumbarton keeper was beaten for the second time in the match with a powerful, well placed header into the net. Connolly kept our two goal lead intact spreading himself well when O`Donovan got free from his marker. We did concede a goal nine minutes before the break when a corner was swung in and our defence didn’t pick up Collins. The Dumbarton centre back placed his header past Connolly to halve the deficit. Lappin got his second assist just before the break when he swung in another corner and this time McAllister got his head to the ball and our two goal cushion was established again. Into the second half Dumbarton cut our lead to a goal for the second time in the game when again O`Donovan is left on his own and he pounces on a loose ball. The ball is knocked past the out rushing Connolly who was given no chance to keep the ball out of his net. Dumbarton's way back became so much harder on the hour mark when Russell commits simulation and is given his second yellow card and sent for a early bath. In only a minute of having an extra man we re-established our two goal cushion when substitute Kelly headed the ball to Ure who curled a shot around the keeper and into the net. The time ticks away and our fifth goal never looks like coming as we just play the game out comfortably to add an extra three points to our point tally. East Stirling 4:2 Dumbarton East Stirling Goals: Herzig (1), McAllister (1), Crawford (1), Ure (1) Dumbarton Goals: O`Donovan (1),Collins (1) MoM: Nico Herzig (East Stirling) Rating-9 Subs: Polwart on for McAllister (60`), Kelly on for Crawford (60`), White on for McColl (60`) Booked: McLaren (East Stirling), O`Donovan (Dumbarton), Russell (2)(Dumbarton) Sent Off: Russell (Dumbarton)(Reason: Two bookable offences) Stadium: Firs Park Attendance: 1430 The scoreline favours us by the end of the game but it was quite disappointing that when we took the lead we gave it up again - twice in the match. However we did play quite well so I shouldn’t be too negative. The win keeps us away from Berwick as they look to steal our third spot. In other matches 8th played 9th and it ended in a drew between Gretna and Elgin City while Peterhead helped our situation scoring a 2-1 win at home to Berwick. In the only other match of the round Queens Park picked up their seventh victory of the season which was over Stranraer 1-0. The Scottish Cup took priority today as Aberdeen and Clyde played out a 0-0 draw as Clyde looks to defeat another Scottish Premier League side after their famous win over Rangers in the quarter finals. Albion Rovers kept up their impressive performance in the cup holding Celtic to a 1-1 draw at home but it looks like they will be knocked out in the replay back at Celtic Park. My physio reported after the match that in the closing minutes of the game Jamie Mackay had picked up a groin strain and will be out for around three weeks. This isn’t a major blow though it does leave the choices for central midfield a bit thin. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Soccer Posted September 20, 2004 Author Share Posted September 20, 2004 17th of April 2005 Back to the Spanish managerial sackings and Valencia has joined in on the party. Mr Mane was at the club for just over 330 days but has now been shown the door after their poor performances this season. The Spanish 'giant' sits in 7th spot nineteen points below top placed Real Madrid. However this sacking comes thirty days after Valencia clinched their seventh Spanish Cup with a 2-0 win over Second Division club Tenerife. 20th of April 2005 The match between the top two, Albion Rovers and Montrose, from the last round of league matches was played today after it was postponed due to Albion's commitments to the Scottish Cup tie against Celtic. Albion showed why they were sitting proudly on top of the table edging out Montrose in a 3-2 thriller played at Montrose's home ground. Back over to Spain and Deportivo has revealed the name of their new manager to a crowd of waiting journalists outside the front of their stadium, Riazor. The man in the hotseat is no other than former assistant manger of Sevilla, Ignacio Villanueva. He comes highly recommended by his former boss at Sevilla and by what I can tell he deserves the praise he gets. More on Spain as it happens. 23rd of April 2005 Before the game I offered Brian Crawford a new contract for another two seasons so that there is no chance he would leave us at the end of next season. His weekly wage of £100 will stay the same but he gets a signing on fee of £2k. Brian seemed optimistic about the deal but he still said he would like to take a day or so to think about it before signing the contract. Our second consecutive home match sees us entertain 9th placed, level of goal difference with 10 placed Queens Park, Elgin City. Everything that matters, therefore excluding the bookies, favours us to take all three points with us having home advantage, we have the better record out of the nine games with four wins, three draws and two losses. The bookies give us Elgin City odds of 1-6 to claim victory today. April 23rd ,2005 Scottish Third Division Game 33 (h) East Stirling V Elgin City East Stirling (4-4-2) Jon Connolly- John Allison, Graeme McLaren, Nico Herzig, Alex McColl- Ross Jackson, Gordon Lappin, Sean McAuley, Dougie Polwart-Derek Ure, Brian Crawford Subs: Ross Flitney (gk), James White, Sam Kanu, Tam McAllister, Stuart Kelly With Jamie Mackay out Sean McAuley comes straight back into the first team for today's match. Dougie Polwart gets a run out today as well at the expense of Tam McAllister who sits on the bench for this game. Marshall threatens out goal in the first three minutes as his header flashes just wide of Connolly's right hand upright. We get our first goal on the board in the twelve minute when Allison throws the ball in and Twaddle takes it down the wing. His pace allows him space and time to pick out Lappin who uses his head to knock the ball past the outstretched hand of the keeper and in for his first goal of the season. Lappin is at the heart of the move that creates our second goal. He hassles Tindal on the left wing before stealing the ball and passing to Ure. The striker takes the ball in his stride before sending a cross low to Crawford. The ball flicks off a Elgin foot and falls kindly to McAuley who drills home our second goal from the edge of the area. Three minutes later McAuley scores his second from the exact same area of the ground after Lappin plays the ball to him. This time Pirie in the Elgin City goal got his hands to it but the shot was too powerful to keep out and we get our third. A minute later Elgin City show they have some resistance when McLean is fed the ball and his quick turn tricks McLaren and gives the striker some time and space. He squares the ball to Marshall who chips the ball up and volleys it past Connolly to bring the score back to 3-1. By the hour mark our two goal cushion is still intact so I give Flitney half an hour in goal allowing Connolly to take a breather- from what I don’t know. Three minutes later Lappin and McLaren combine well for the latter to strike a shot just over the bar. Our forth finally came in the seventy third minute when Twaddle was played onside and his run into the box was unchallenged. He took his time before crossing to Ure who took a touch before side footing the ball past Pirie and into the net. Flitney got a few touches in the final minutes but nothing which troubled our young keeper. The game was heading for the ninety minutes when we hit our fifth of the afternoon. Lappin played the ball to Ure who beat his marker as he ran into the box before crossing to Kelly. The cross took a deflection of an Elgin City player and this deceived Kelly's marker who missed the ball allowing Kelly to knock the ball in from only four yards. The game ends and we have recorded our second highest win ever just below our 6-1 win over Gretna this season. East Stirling 5:1 Elgin City East Stirling Goals: McAuley (2), Lappin (1), Ure (1), Kelly (1) Elgin City Goals: Marshall (1) MoM: Sean McAuley (East Stirling) Rating-9 Subs: Flitney on for Connolly (60`), Kelly on for Crawford (60`), White on for Herzig (60`) Booked: Smith (Elgin City) Sent Off: - Stadium: Firs Park Attendance: 1413 A magnificent performance today and this is the type of way we need to play week in week out to move from a third placed side to a side in real contention for promotion. Flitney did well in his half hour saving a few headers and a shot showing he can handle the division and could take over from Connolly if we need him too. After seeing the result of the Berwick game below we move eight points clear. In other matches Dumbarton held Berwick to a 1-1 draw at home while Gretna and Stranraer played out an exciting 3-3 draw. Montrose showed Queens Park how to play football with a 2-0 victory while Albion Rovers gave a footballing lesson to Peterhead as they crushed their opposition 3-1. 27th of April 2005 All of Scotland stopped today as Rangers took on Manchester United in a battle of Britain in the European Champions League Semi Finals. The English side showed their class scoring four times with a Van Nistelrooy brace, a single each from Pizarro and Giggs. Rangers never got going and they succumbed to a 4-0 home defeat and are staring elimination in the face. In the other semi England didn’t have such a good time with Bayern Munchen winning 3-0 at home to Liverpool. Renato, Santa Cruz and Makaay struck a goal each to almost guarantee a place in the final of Europe's most prestigious cup competition. While overshadowed by Rangers Champions League game the Scottish Cup semi final replays. Celtic ended Albion's dream of reaching the final with a 3-0 win. Maloney got a hat trick to send Celtic on it's way in search of the club's thirty fifth Scottish Cup. In the other semi Clyde got another large scalp defeating Aberdeen 2-0 to move into the final to face Celtic. On a minor note Brian Crawford signed on the dotted line to extend his time at the club. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Soccer Posted September 21, 2004 Author Share Posted September 21, 2004 29th of April 2005 Back to Spain and Valencia appoint their new manager infront of the waiting Spanish press. Jose Manuel Otxotorena was assistant as Zaragoza before being offered one of the biggest jobs in Spanish football. He grabbed the job with two hands however he did express his regret leaving his former club. Jose starts his managerial career with Valencia in 4th position and a chance to at least salvage their season by finishing in 3rd. 30th of April 2005 Our final away trip of the season gave us Peterhead at Balmoor Stadium. We only need one more point to clinch third spot or for Berwick not to take maximum points from their last three games. Peterhead has been a team we have done well against with four wins, one draw and two losses over the past two seasons. However those two losses were quite large 5-0 and 7-2 away defeats. April 30th ,2005 Scottish Third Division Game 34 (a) Peterhead V East Stirling East Stirling (4-4-2) Jon Connolly- John Allison, Graeme McLaren, Nico Herzig, Alex McColl- Ross Jackson, Gordon Lappin, Sean McAuley, Dougie Polwart-Derek Ure, Stuart Kelly Subs: Ross Flitney (gk), James White, Sam Kanu, Tam McAllister, Brian Crawford The past few games Crawford hasn’t been performing at his best and Kelly has seized his opportunities when given them so for today's match the two players will switch positions with Kelly starting and Crawford warming the bench. The match was quite tight as the two sides just tried to see how each other were playing. We eventually had the first chance in the twenty third minute when Ure was put through on goal but his shot skidded just wide of the post. Our second chance came seven minutes before half time when Ure and Kelly played a intelligent interchange with the latter hitting a rocket from the edge of the area into the roof of the net past an unsighted keeper. We extended our lead two minutes before the break when Lappin's corner wasn’t cleared far enough and Herzig chipped the ball back in the area. Ure was waiting unmarked and his quick thinking allowed him to prod the ball past Herbert in the Peterhead goal to get the second goal for East Stirling. Into the second half and our next chance didn’t come till the hour mark. Lappin swung in another deadly corner which was easily won in the air by Kelly. The header flew like an arrow into the net and Kelly had his second of the match. After that goal Flitney got another substitute appearance replacing Connolly in goal. Peterhead got one back nine minutes later when a long ball found Bavidge, an on hold transfer target, who rounded Flitney and passed the ball into the net for his side's first of the game. By the end of the game we held our two goal lead comfortably and the last kick of the game saw Flitney dive to his left and make an easy save. Peterhead 1:3 East Stirling Peterhead Goals: Bavidge (1) East Stirling Goals: Kelly (2), Ure(1) MoM: Gordon Lappin (East Stirling) Rating-8 Subs: Flitney on for Connolly (60`), Crawford on for Kelly(60`), McAllister on for Polwart (60`) Booked: Good (Peterhead) Sent Off: - Stadium: Balmoor Stadium Attendance: 1595 Another nice convincing win today to clinch third position in the table and show the whole of the division how much we have improved from last season's pathetic final position of ninth. Kelly did well today scoring a brace and really showing me that he can be a good striker for the club if given the chance. In other results Albion Rovers defeating Gretna at home 2-0 to become Champions of Division Three while Berwick also won 2-0 at home to Queens Park. Dumbarton edged out Montrose 3-2 at home while Elgin City also edged out Stranraer at home by the same scoreline. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Soccer Posted September 23, 2004 Author Share Posted September 23, 2004 1st of May 2005 Here we are at the first of the month and again the awards for last month are given out to those deserving. Keith Gibson of Montrose has deservedly taken out the Scottish Third Division Player of the Month for April. The twenty three year old midfielder has put in his best performances of his career over the past couple of weeks. The Scottish Third Division Young Player of the Month for April has won by an East Stirling player. Derek Ure is the man deserved of this award due to his excellent performances over the past month scoring three goals. Peter Hetherston of Albion Rovers has won another Scottish Third Division Manager of the Month. He led his side to four wins out of four this month and clinched the league Championship. 7th of May 2005 Well it’s the league season is all over for us now with nothing to play for apart from pride. We have already done enough to keep third spot from Berwick who are our opponents today. Today is just about us showing Berwick we are far better than they are and to continue our good run of form to finish the season on a high. May 7th ,2005 Scottish Third Division Game 35 (h) East Stirling V Berwick East Stirling (4-4-2) Jon Connolly- John Allison, Graeme McLaren, Nico Herzig, Alex McColl- Ross Jackson, Gordon Lappin, Sean McAuley, Dougie Polwart-Derek Ure, Stuart Kelly Subs: Ross Flitney (gk), James White, Sam Kanu, Tam McAllister, Brian Crawford The match squad both the first team and the substitutes remain unchanged for this match. The first chance wasn’t created till the half hour mark but it was worth the wait. A interception by McColl allowed Polwart to play a long ball over to Twaddle on the right wing. He sidestepped his way to the by-line before crossing into the box. Ure got there first and his half volley found its way into the net through the gaping hands of a shell shocked keeper. With that goal we went into the first half only created that chance but having keept Berwick restricted to a total of no chances. Kelly picked up an injury in the first half so I replaced him during the break with Crawford. To describe our second goal theres only one way to describe it by saying "it was sloppy but they all count". Forty five seconds into the second half and we double our lead. A quick counter attack and a few lucky bounces allowed Ure to take a shot on goal. The shot was parried away but Ure got to it first and drew the keeper out before squaring it to Crawford. The pass was deflected away but still Crawford got to the ball and knocked it in for our second goal. The icing on the cake came seventeen minutes from time when we won a free kick on the edge of the area. Despite the gallant efforts from the Berwick keeper and the wall there was no denying the wickedly curling free kick from McAuley which found the back of the net to make it three nil. East Stirling 3:0 Berwick East Stirling Goals: Ure (1), Crawford (1), McAuley (1) Berwick Goals: - MoM: Graeme McLaren (East Stirling) Rating-9 Subs: White on for Herzig (60`), Crawford on for Kelly(45`), Kanu on for Lappin (60`) Booked: Twaddle (East Stirling), Hampshire (Berwick) Sent Off: - Stadium: Firs Park Attendance: 1407 An excellent game for the neutral here today with a few stunning strikes however it was even better for anyone associated with East Stirling Football Club. We played well but most of all we defended exceptionally well. We didn’t allow Berwick to have any space at all and this is something we need to work on for next season to really turn ourselves into a team who could easily win promotion. In other matches Gretna surprisingly defeated Dumbarton 3-0 while Montrose was held at home 3-3 by Peterhead. Queens Park won the battle of the cellar dwellers with a 1-0 win over Elgin City while Stranraer felt the brunt of Albion Rovers losing 5-2 at home. 11th of May 2005 Jamie Mackay has returned to full training after his three week groin strain. He returns with a chance to feature in our last match of the season. Rangers's dream run in the Champions League has finally come to an end at the hands of Manchester United. The team topping the English Premier League easily beat Rangers at Old Trafford with Solskjaer and surprisingly Ferdinand on target to take United through to the final by a whooping 6-0 on aggregate. Liverpool has the chance to play United in the final however only could manage a 1-1 draw at Anfield against Bayern Munchen which sent the German side through to set up a great European Cup Final. Who could forget when Manchester United stole the European Champions League Trophy from the grasp of the Germans in 1999 will this be time for revenge? Only time will tell! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
glamdring Posted September 24, 2004 Share Posted September 24, 2004 Great to see this story still going. I'm afraid I don't have time to catch up with it just yet (first login since beginning of August), but I will do as soon as possible Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Soccer Posted September 24, 2004 Author Share Posted September 24, 2004 14th of May 2005 Well here we are coming to the final match in my second season in charge of East Stirling. Whatever the outcome today we have reached a position not experienced by this club since they were relegated back to Division Three back in the 1993/1994 season. However Montrose come to Firs Park to see if they can put a negative slant on our celebrations. They themselves have already seal promotion and today's match is all about pride and respect between the two clubs. May 14th ,2005 Scottish Third Division Game 36 (h) East Stirling V Montrose East Stirling (4-4-2) Jon Connolly- John Allison, Graeme McLaren, Nico Herzig, Alex McColl- Ross Jackson, Gordon Lappin, Sean McAuley, Dougie Polwart-Derek Ure, Stuart Kelly Subs: Ross Flitney (gk), James White, Sam Kanu, Tam McAllister, Brian Crawford The team stays unchanged for the final game of the season as we look to finish our season with a five match winning streak. Lappin almost put us on the scoreboard on the twenty minute mark from a free kick however his radar was just off as the ball skimmed just over the crossbar. Three minutes later Ure and Kelly fashioned another chance but the former couldn’t keep his cool with the advancing keeper placing his shot just over. Montrose had one chance near the end of the half with Grimes however the striker couldn’t increase the angle due to Herzig's close marking so the shot went wide. A minute into the second half and we were again on the prowl for a goal. A quick throw in from Allison was flicked into the path of Polwart by Kelly and the midfielder struck a shot which flew just over the bar. We were angered soon after when McAuley scored a goal from thirty yards or so we thought he did. The linesman told the referee that a player was offside and that it shouldn’t count. However the rule is the player is only called offside if he is interfering and there is no way he was so it’s a frustration to me and the boys because they have been working and working for a goal. With sixteen minutes left another chance from long range was close to finding the target with Polwart's shot hitting the backside of a Montrose defender and wrong footing the keeper. Although he just was able to get his hand to the ball and smother the ball on the second attempt. In the end the spoils were shared and Montrose were lucky to escape with their pride intact. The players did a lap of honour around the ground as the 1412 fans who came to see the game gave applause to their heroes. It was a nice experience for the players after the previous poor seasons. East Stirling 0:0 Montrose East Stirling Goals: - Montrose Goals: - MoM: Gary McGlynn (Montrose) Rating-8 Subs: White on for McColl (60`), Crawford on for Ure (45`), Flitney on for Connolly (60`) Booked: Allison (East Stirling), McLaren (East Stirling), McColl (East Stirling), Herzig (East Stirling), Ferguson (Montrose), Webster (Montrose) Sent Off: - Stadium: Firs Park Attendance: 1412 Everyone would say that it was a good performance for us to take a point off a side who won promotion but with us having nine shots to only four we should have taken all three points. We would have if the linesman could interpret the rules in the right manner. All in all a good season has drawn to a close. To wrap the season up in other matches Albion Rovers didn’t have their minds on the game as they were beaten 1-0 at home by Queens Park who finish in 10th spot on goal difference. Dumbarton edge out Stranraer 2-1 at home while Elgin snuck a 1-0 win over Berwick to miss out on the tag of wooden spooners. The last match saw Peterhead and Gretna who finished 6th and 7th respectively play out a exciting 0-0 draw. The yellow card Nico Herzig picked up in our game against Montrose has put him over the limit for disciplinary points. He will now serve a one match ban next season which I will look to get him to serve it in a cup match next season. Our season was rewarded by the Scottish Football Association in anyone's terms-money. Our final position of third has given us a huge cheque of £50,000 to place into the club's bank account. 25th of May 2005 The second best competition in Europe had its final played today. Newcastle lined up against Roma to decide who would take home some silverware for the trophy room and keep the board happy. The game stayed deadlocked till the full time whistle so the extra time was called. The quick thinking of Viana and Chopra put Shola Ameobi through on goal to stroke home his second goal of the season and send his club and the club's fans into ecstasy on the world stage. 28th of May 2005 The Scottish Cup gave Celtic the chance to not leave the season empty handed. Clyde tried to be the final nail in Martin O`Neill's season but his players responded well. At the end of the ninety minutes Celtic had Henrik Larsson's clinical finishing which earnt him two goals here today and his side their thirty third Scottish Cup in their history. 1st of June 2005 John Allison announced his retirement from the game of football today saying that he would like to continue coaching at the club. His shoes will be easily filled by our up and coming right back Roddy Maughan who was left out of the first team a bit this season. Kevin Twaddle has also chosen today to announce his retirement from football. However he hasn’t decided what he will do after his playing career comes to an end and will most likely not stay on in a coaching role. The most prestigious European competition final is played today. The runners up in German, Bayern Munchen, take on the English Champions Manchester United. The English side would rue their chances as Bayern took one of theirs through Michael Ballack five minutes before the referee blew his whistle to end the match. Bayern turn their season with this victory which shows they can compete with the world's best while United and Alex Ferguson was denied another fantastic treble. The Germans also ruined United's treble which would be ease their painful memories of 1999. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Soccer Posted September 24, 2004 Author Share Posted September 24, 2004 Nice to hear from you again Glamdring and I will give you time to get back up to date with the story when I finish posting this season. I have exams coming up so I wont be back posting until after November 24th when exams are over Next up Wrapping the Season Up and Worldy League Wrap....Stay Tuned Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Soccer Posted September 24, 2004 Author Share Posted September 24, 2004 Wrapping The Season Up Now just to officially wrap our season up a few statistics. First our first team squad and their general info. <pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> | Pkd | Inf | Name | Nat. | Age | Caps | Goals | Form | Morale | Cond. | Value | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | GK | | Connolly, J | SCO | 24 | 0 | 0 | 6-6-7-8-6 | Superb | 100% | £3K | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | DR | Ret | Allison, J | SCO | 34 | 0 | 0 | 7-8-6-7-7 | Superb | 100% | £0 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | DL | Wnt | McLaren, G* | SCO | 21 | 0 | 0 | 8-8-7-9-7 | Superb | 100% | £6K | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | DC | | McColl, A | SCO | 18 | 0 | 0 | 6-6-7-8-6 | Superb | 100% | £1K | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | DC | | Herzig, N | GER | 21 | 0 | 0 | 9-6-8-7-7 | Superb | 100% | £2K | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | MR | Ret | Twaddle, K | SCO | 33 | 0 | 0 | 7-8-7-8-6 | Superb | 100% | £0 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | ML | | Lappin, G | SCO | 24 | 0 | 0 | 7-9-8-6-4 | Very Good | 100% | £1K | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | MC | | McAuley, S* | SCO | 25 | 0 | 0 | 7-9-7-7-7 | Superb | 100% | £22K | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | MC | | Polwart, D* | SCO | 24 | 0 | 0 | 7-7-7-7-7 | Superb | 100% | £4K | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | FC | | Kelly, S | SCO | 23 | 0 | 0 | 7-8-8-5-7 | Superb | 100% | £6K | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | FC | Inj | Ure, D | SCO | 20 | 0 | 0 | 8-8-7-8-6 | Superb | 58% | £18K | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | SB1 | Wnt | Flitney, R | ENG | 21 | 0 | 0 | 9-4-9-8-7 | Superb | 100% | £3K | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | SB2 | | White, J | SCO | 24 | 0 | 0 | 6-6-6-7-7 | Superb | 100% | £1K | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | SB3 | | Kanu, S | SLE | 20 | 0 | 0 | 7-7-7-6-7 | Superb | 100% | £2K | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | SB4 | Inj | McAllister, T | SCO | 33 | 0 | 0 | 7-8-8-8-7 | Superb | 100% | £0 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | SB5 | | Crawford, B | SCO | 26 | 0 | 0 | 7-4-7-8-7 | Superb | 100% | £6K | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | | Ret | Annand, E | SCO | 32 | 0 | 0 | 7-4-7-6-6 | Poor | 100% | £5K | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | | Loa | Boyle, G | SCO | 23 | 0 | 0 | 6-7-6-7-7 | Superb | 100% | £4K | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | | | Jackson, R | SCO | 25 | 0 | 0 | 5-3-8-4-4 | Very Poor | 100% | £1K | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | | Trn | Leishman, J | SCO | 25 | 0 | 0 | 7-7-7-7 | Superb | 100% | £1K | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | | | Livingstone, S | SCO | 25 | 0 | 0 | 6-7-7-7-7 | Good | 100% | £3K | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | | | Mackay, J | SCO | 23 | 0 | 0 | 7-5-7-6-7 | Superb | 100% | £4K | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | | | Maughan, R | SCO | 24 | 0 | 0 | 7-6-7-5-5 | Superb | 100% | £14K | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | | | Reid, C | SCO | 21 | 0 | 0 | 4-3 | Very Good | 100% | £1K | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | | | Rodden, P | SCO | 22 | 0 | 0 | 4-8-8-10-6 | Okay | 100% | £2K | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | | | Stewart, M | SCO | 20 | 0 | 0 | 8-6-7-7-8 | Superb | 100% | £1K | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre> Next the ins and outs over the past season. <pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> Transfers In | Date | Person | From | Fee | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6.6.2004 | Allison, John | Elgin | Free | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 9.6.2004 | Flitney, Ross | Free Transfer | Free | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 9.6.2004 | McColl, Alex | Free Transfer | Free | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 24.6.2004 | McAllister, Tam | Elgin | Free | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3.7.2004 | Annand, Eddie | St. Mirren | Free | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 11.7.2004 | Twaddle, Kevin | St. Mirren | Free | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 31.8.2004 | Herzig, Nico | Wimbledon | £8K | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 7.10.2004 | Kanu, Sam | Free Transfer | Free | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 25.1.2005 | Byle, Les | East Fife | £0 - P/Ex | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | | Total | | £8K | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre> <pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> Transfers Out | Date | Person | To | Fee | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 12.6.2004 | Hankinson, Michael | Free Transfer | Free | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 12.6.2004 | McCulloch, Gary | Free Transfer | Free | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1.7.2004 | Hare, Robert | Gretna | Free | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 31.8.2004 | Baldwin, Chris | Peterhead | £2K | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 25.1.2005 | Todd, Chris | East Fife | £5K - P/Ex | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | | Total | | £7K | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre> This season described in one word is inconsistent. We started the season quite strongly winning the pre season cup before having a good time reaching the Challenge Cup Third Round. Our form kept up until after the next year before we started losing key games and dropping points in winnable games. While in our last five games we knew we couldn’t win promotion it was still pleasing to end the season with a five game undefeated streak which consisted of four wins and one draw. Our lowest league position was 5th which last season was our highest position so it’s a definite improvement. We managed a huge win this season beating Gretna 6-1 at Firs Park. Our highest goal scorer was Brian Crawford with 24 goals(21 in the league). The player leading the assists for the club was Ross Jackson with 12. As you know we finished in third spot which helped our bank balance to a healthy £275,000. The end of season league table is shown below and doesnt it look nice for us to be near the top . <pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> Holders - Albion Rovers | Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | C | Albion Rovers | | 36 | 25 | 7 | 4 | 97 | 41 | +56 | 82 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | P | Montrose | | 36 | 22 | 6 | 8 | 64 | 37 | +27 | 72 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | East Stirling | | 36 | 20 | 4 | 12 | 68 | 49 | +19 | 64 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Berwick | | 36 | 15 | 7 | 14 | 59 | 61 | -2 | 52 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Dumbarton | | 36 | 14 | 6 | 16 | 44 | 60 | -16 | 48 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Peterhead | | 36 | 13 | 5 | 18 | 59 | 70 | -11 | 44 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 7th | | Gretna | | 36 | 11 | 6 | 19 | 52 | 69 | -17 | 39 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 8th | | Stranraer | | 36 | 10 | 8 | 18 | 54 | 60 | -6 | 38 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 9th | | Elgin | | 36 | 8 | 10 | 18 | 46 | 67 | -21 | 34 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 10th | | Queens Park | | 36 | 9 | 7 | 20 | 31 | 60 | -29 | 34 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre> The awards given out for the year's performers were handed out today. The Scottish Third Division Player of the Year award will be sitting on the mantle of Albion Rover's Iain Diack's bedroom or somewhere on a mantle i suppose. Graham Gibson of Montrose took second place while Paul Kerr had a good season in a team who didn’t at Stranraer. The Scottish Third Division Manager of the Year award went to the manager whose team won the league. Peter Hetherston of Albion Rovers took the honour while John Sheran of Montrose took second place. I was lucky enough to take third spot in what is a great honour in my short career so far. Our fans voted on their player of the year. The choice was our striker Brian Crawford. He added 24 goals to his tally of 18 from the season before. At twenty six years old Brian is coming into his prime now and we will be looking to him for over 24 goals this season in our assault on the top two positions in the league. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Soccer Posted September 27, 2004 Author Share Posted September 27, 2004 World League Wrap Now with Season 2004/2005 at an end its time to go around the leagues and see who has managed to collect silverware expectedly and unexpectedly and the teams who find themselves down on their luck moving down a division. Australia First to Australia and the league ended with South Melbourne sitting on top crowned as Minor Premiers. Perth Glory were another nine points back in second place while the other teams making the finals in the top six were Marconi, Olympic Sharks, Newcastle United and Brisbane Strikers. Down at the bottom of the league saw the 'wooden spoon' go to Adelaide United who could only manage three wins all season. However in Australia coming top doesn’t mean anything because the top six are involved in a knockout series to determine the real 'champion'. The final was between the Perth Glory and Olympic Sharks which featured an upset when the boys from Perth went home with a 2-0 loss. <pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> | Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | M | South Melbourne | | 24 | 16 | 5 | 3 | 41 | 22 | +19 | 53 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | | Perth Glory | | 24 | 11 | 11 | 2 | 38 | 23 | +15 | 44 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | Marconi | | 24 | 12 | 4 | 8 | 35 | 26 | +9 | 40 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | C | Olympic Sharks | | 24 | 11 | 6 | 7 | 39 | 33 | +6 | 39 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Newcastle UFC | | 24 | 10 | 7 | 7 | 37 | 28 | +9 | 37 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Brisbane Strikers | | 24 | 10 | 5 | 9 | 41 | 39 | +2 | 35 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 7th | | Parramatta Power | | 24 | 9 | 7 | 8 | 36 | 31 | +5 | 34 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 8th | | Melbourne Knights | | 24 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 30 | 31 | -1 | 32 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 9th | | Northern Spirit | | 24 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 30 | 33 | -3 | 29 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 10th | | Sydney Utd | | 24 | 7 | 7 | 10 | 27 | 35 | -8 | 28 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 11th | | Wollongong Wolves | | 24 | 7 | 1 | 16 | 20 | 36 | -16 | 22 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 12th | | Kingz | | 24 | 5 | 5 | 14 | 30 | 43 | -13 | 20 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 13th | | Adelaide Utd | | 24 | 3 | 6 | 15 | 18 | 42 | -24 | 15 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre> NSL Challenge Cup: Perth Glory England Up to England now and the English Premier League is over for yet another exciting season. Manchester United proved too strong for title competitors Arsenal and Chelsea finishing nine points and ten points clear respectively. Newcastle, Liverpool and Manchester City will all be experiencing European football next season which will defiantly be much appreciated in the stands. They say if you get over forty points you wont be relegated well this season the magic number was only thirty points as Sunderland escaped the drop by one point. The three sides falling into the Nationwide are Portsmouth, Leeds United and Watford. <pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> | Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | C | Man Utd | | 38 | 29 | 4 | 5 | 100 | 34 | +66 | 91 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | | Arsenal | | 38 | 25 | 7 | 6 | 87 | 40 | +47 | 82 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | Chelsea | | 38 | 24 | 9 | 5 | 97 | 47 | +50 | 81 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Newcastle | | 38 | 24 | 3 | 11 | 79 | 58 | +21 | 75 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Liverpool | | 38 | 21 | 8 | 9 | 74 | 51 | +23 | 71 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Man City | | 38 | 20 | 7 | 11 | 68 | 50 | +18 | 67 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 7th | | Southampton | | 38 | 17 | 8 | 13 | 66 | 69 | -3 | 59 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 8th | | Tottenham | | 38 | 16 | 9 | 13 | 64 | 64 | 0 | 57 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 9th | | Birmingham | | 38 | 15 | 10 | 13 | 60 | 63 | -3 | 55 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 10th | | Middlesbrough | | 38 | 15 | 8 | 15 | 47 | 55 | -8 | 53 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 11th | | W.B.A. | | 38 | 16 | 4 | 18 | 55 | 61 | -6 | 52 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 12th | | Aston Villa | | 38 | 14 | 9 | 15 | 67 | 69 | -2 | 51 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 13th | | Everton | | 38 | 12 | 11 | 15 | 67 | 67 | 0 | 47 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 14th | | Leicester | | 38 | 11 | 12 | 15 | 66 | 68 | -2 | 45 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 15th | | Blackburn | | 38 | 9 | 9 | 20 | 57 | 77 | -20 | 36 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 16th | | Fulham | | 38 | 8 | 9 | 21 | 46 | 73 | -27 | 33 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 17th | | Sunderland | | 38 | 7 | 9 | 22 | 41 | 72 | -31 | 30 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 18th | R | Portsmouth | | 38 | 6 | 11 | 21 | 50 | 77 | -27 | 29 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 19th | R | Leeds | | 38 | 7 | 4 | 27 | 49 | 91 | -42 | 25 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 20th | R | Watford | | 38 | 6 | 5 | 27 | 39 | 93 | -54 | 23 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre> Down a league into the Nationwide Division One and there was a few surprises in who won promotion come the end of the season. Norwich took the division title and Millwall runners up condemning a few bigger named clubs to playoff spots. West Ham, Coventry, Preston and Wolves filled the play off places and contested the right to play Premier League football next season. The less known club won out, Preston, defeating West Ham in the playoff final 2-1. Clubs who didn’t have such a good season and will be not playing in this division next season are Walsall, Reading and Grimsby. <pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> | Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | C | Norwich | | 46 | 29 | 6 | 11 | 90 | 57 | +33 | 93 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | P | Millwall | | 46 | 28 | 6 | 12 | 87 | 52 | +35 | 90 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | West Ham | | 46 | 26 | 10 | 10 | 90 | 60 | +30 | 88 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Coventry | | 46 | 26 | 8 | 12 | 87 | 61 | +26 | 86 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | P | Preston | | 46 | 24 | 11 | 11 | 80 | 57 | +23 | 83 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Wolves | | 46 | 23 | 11 | 12 | 82 | 59 | +23 | 80 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 7th | | Nottm Forest | | 46 | 22 | 12 | 12 | 81 | 52 | +29 | 78 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 8th | | Bolton | | 46 | 20 | 14 | 12 | 82 | 56 | +26 | 74 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 9th | | Derby | | 46 | 20 | 13 | 13 | 79 | 67 | +12 | 73 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 10th | | Crewe | | 46 | 20 | 9 | 17 | 83 | 74 | +9 | 69 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 11th | | Bradford City | | 46 | 19 | 11 | 16 | 64 | 58 | +6 | 68 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 12th | | Wigan | | 46 | 19 | 10 | 17 | 77 | 70 | +7 | 67 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 13th | | Ipswich | | 46 | 18 | 9 | 19 | 56 | 63 | -7 | 63 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 14th | | Charlton | | 46 | 17 | 10 | 19 | 66 | 73 | -7 | 61 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 15th | | Sheff Utd | | 46 | 16 | 8 | 22 | 57 | 72 | -15 | 56 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 16th | | Stoke | | 46 | 14 | 9 | 23 | 58 | 74 | -16 | 51 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 17th | | Cardiff | | 46 | 15 | 6 | 25 | 58 | 82 | -24 | 51 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 18th | | Rotherham | | 46 | 12 | 14 | 20 | 74 | 91 | -17 | 50 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 19th | | Crystal Palace | | 46 | 14 | 7 | 25 | 48 | 64 | -16 | 49 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 20th | | Sheff Wed | | 46 | 12 | 12 | 22 | 62 | 79 | -17 | 48 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 21st | | Brighton | | 46 | 12 | 11 | 23 | 55 | 81 | -26 | 47 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 22nd | R | Walsall | | 46 | 11 | 10 | 25 | 51 | 80 | -29 | 43 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 23rd | R | Reading | | 46 | 12 | 6 | 28 | 51 | 88 | -37 | 42 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 24th | R | Grimsby | | 46 | 8 | 7 | 31 | 39 | 87 | -48 | 31 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre> League Cup: Chelsea FA Cup: Manchester United Community Shield: Chelsea France Moving South from England and we go down to neighbours France and their top division of football. Nantes did just enough to win the league this season moving five points clear of Marseille in the last few games. Auxerre and Lyon were both disappointingly two digit amount of points off the pace as they took third and fourth places respectively. Not everyone can enjoy such a good place in the league and unfortunately three teams had to leave the promised land of French football. Laval, Toulouse and Bastia were mathematically relegated a few games before the season came to a close and no doubt they will all be looking for a swift return to the top flight. <pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> | Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | C | Nantes | | 38 | 24 | 7 | 7 | 69 | 37 | +32 | 79 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | | Marseille | | 38 | 21 | 11 | 6 | 74 | 50 | +24 | 74 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | Auxerre | | 38 | 19 | 10 | 9 | 74 | 48 | +26 | 67 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Lyon | | 38 | 15 | 17 | 6 | 68 | 56 | +12 | 62 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Paris-SG | | 38 | 17 | 10 | 11 | 61 | 45 | +16 | 61 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Metz | | 38 | 17 | 8 | 13 | 55 | 54 | +1 | 59 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 7th | | Montpellier | | 38 | 17 | 6 | 15 | 64 | 55 | +9 | 57 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 8th | | Rennes | | 38 | 16 | 6 | 16 | 56 | 55 | +1 | 54 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 9th | | Lens | | 38 | 14 | 11 | 13 | 57 | 57 | 0 | 53 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 10th | | Strasbourg | | 38 | 13 | 12 | 13 | 64 | 62 | +2 | 51 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 11th | | Caen | | 38 | 13 | 12 | 13 | 62 | 61 | +1 | 51 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 12th | | Lille | | 38 | 14 | 9 | 15 | 60 | 61 | -1 | 51 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 13th | | Monaco | | 38 | 14 | 7 | 17 | 62 | 60 | +2 | 49 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 14th | | Saint-Etienne | | 38 | 14 | 7 | 17 | 55 | 60 | -5 | 49 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 15th | | Ajaccio | | 38 | 11 | 11 | 16 | 57 | 73 | -16 | 44 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 16th | | Bordeaux | | 38 | 9 | 15 | 14 | 51 | 61 | -10 | 42 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 17th | | Sochaux | | 38 | 10 | 11 | 17 | 53 | 71 | -18 | 41 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 18th | R | Laval | | 38 | 8 | 12 | 18 | 49 | 71 | -22 | 36 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 19th | R | Toulouse | | 38 | 8 | 7 | 23 | 43 | 72 | -29 | 31 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 20th | R | Bastia | | 38 | 6 | 11 | 21 | 42 | 67 | -25 | 29 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre> However those three teams will be playing down in the French Second Division next season. This season Guingamp won the league by a slim margin of two points over Le Harve who will also be joining them in Division One in the coming season. Beauvais managed to fend off Troyes to take the last promotion spot and will find themselves playing amongst the giants of French football next season. All the three teams going down put in a good fight but they just couldn’t get enough points on the board to escape the drop so Angers, Lorient and Grenoble will find themselves in the lower leagues next season. <pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> | Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | C | Guingamp | | 38 | 22 | 10 | 6 | 64 | 40 | +24 | 76 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | P | Le Havre | | 38 | 23 | 5 | 10 | 65 | 42 | +23 | 74 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | P | Beauvais | | 38 | 20 | 10 | 8 | 65 | 45 | +20 | 70 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Troyes | | 38 | 20 | 7 | 11 | 61 | 41 | +20 | 67 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Niort | | 38 | 20 | 7 | 11 | 62 | 49 | +13 | 67 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Nice | | 38 | 14 | 15 | 9 | 56 | 45 | +11 | 57 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 7th | | Istres | | 38 | 15 | 11 | 12 | 49 | 47 | +2 | 56 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 8th | | Nancy | | 38 | 14 | 12 | 12 | 54 | 46 | +8 | 54 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 9th | | Sedan | | 38 | 15 | 9 | 14 | 57 | 60 | -3 | 54 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 10th | | Amiens | | 38 | 15 | 8 | 15 | 48 | 47 | +1 | 53 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 11th | | Le Mans | | 38 | 12 | 11 | 15 | 53 | 53 | 0 | 47 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 12th | | Cannes | | 38 | 11 | 13 | 14 | 47 | 55 | -8 | 46 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 13th | | Rouen | | 38 | 10 | 15 | 13 | 59 | 57 | +2 | 45 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 14th | | Valence | | 38 | 12 | 9 | 17 | 43 | 52 | -9 | 45 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 15th | | Nîmes | | 38 | 12 | 8 | 18 | 49 | 53 | -4 | 44 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 16th | | Gueugnon | | 38 | 13 | 3 | 22 | 47 | 58 | -11 | 42 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 17th | | Clermont | | 38 | 11 | 9 | 18 | 42 | 59 | -17 | 42 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 18th | R | Angers | | 38 | 10 | 8 | 20 | 42 | 63 | -21 | 38 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 19th | R | Lorient | | 38 | 9 | 8 | 21 | 43 | 69 | -26 | 35 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 20th | R | Grenoble | | 38 | 8 | 10 | 20 | 41 | 66 | -25 | 34 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre> League Cup: Lens French Cup: Lyon Champions Trophy: Guingamp Germany Over to Germany now and we are here to take a look at the football not the beer. Dortmund surprised the whole of Europe winning the Bundesliga by two points over traditional German giants Bayern Munchen. HSV and Schalke 04 were both thirteen or so points behind and not really in the hunt to cause an upset to the top two. At the start of the season every team has a three in eighteen chance of going down in theory which is pretty small but these odds have been realised at Rostock, Bochum and Duisburg. <pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> | Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | C | Dortmund | | 34 | 24 | 9 | 1 | 84 | 32 | +52 | 81 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | | FC Bayern | | 34 | 24 | 7 | 3 | 81 | 33 | +48 | 79 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | HSV | | 34 | 19 | 8 | 7 | 73 | 48 | +25 | 65 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Schalke 04 | | 34 | 19 | 4 | 11 | 64 | 44 | +20 | 61 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | VfB Stuttgart | | 34 | 16 | 8 | 10 | 52 | 44 | +8 | 56 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Hertha BSC | | 34 | 14 | 11 | 9 | 63 | 46 | +17 | 53 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 7th | | Leverkusen | | 34 | 14 | 11 | 9 | 57 | 47 | +10 | 53 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 8th | | Kaiserslautern | | 34 | 14 | 9 | 11 | 52 | 50 | +2 | 51 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 9th | | Werder Bremen | | 34 | 14 | 8 | 12 | 52 | 43 | +9 | 50 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 10th | | Wolfsburg | | 34 | 13 | 8 | 13 | 61 | 66 | -5 | 47 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 11th | | 1.FC Köln | | 34 | 11 | 7 | 16 | 38 | 57 | -19 | 40 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 12th | | Cottbus | | 34 | 11 | 3 | 20 | 43 | 66 | -23 | 36 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 13th | | Frankfurt | | 34 | 9 | 7 | 18 | 41 | 59 | -18 | 34 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 14th | | Hannover 96 | | 34 | 9 | 6 | 19 | 48 | 62 | -14 | 33 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 15th | | Nürnberg | | 34 | 8 | 8 | 18 | 30 | 58 | -28 | 32 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 16th | R | Rostock | | 34 | 6 | 9 | 19 | 44 | 65 | -21 | 27 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 17th | R | Bochum | | 34 | 6 | 9 | 19 | 43 | 67 | -24 | 27 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 18th | R | Duisburg | | 34 | 7 | 4 | 23 | 36 | 75 | -39 | 25 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre> Down into the lowly Second Division the three teams coming back up into the big time are Gladbach as Champions, Mains as runners up and 1860 Munchen in third place. Oberhausen were so unlucky to miss out on promotion by the skin of their teeth on goal difference with 1860 Munchen having an extra nine goals in their goal difference column. There is even a larger chance of being relegated in this division with the four bottom teams dropping out of the league. These teams are Unterhaching, Osnabruck, Ahlen and St Pauli. <pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> | Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | C | Gladbach | | 34 | 23 | 8 | 3 | 66 | 29 | +37 | 77 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | P | Mainz | | 34 | 20 | 6 | 8 | 52 | 36 | +16 | 66 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | P | 1860 München | | 34 | 17 | 7 | 10 | 77 | 57 | +20 | 58 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Oberhausen | | 34 | 18 | 4 | 12 | 41 | 30 | +11 | 58 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Bielefeld | | 34 | 17 | 6 | 11 | 56 | 45 | +11 | 57 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | SC Freiburg | | 34 | 15 | 9 | 10 | 56 | 46 | +10 | 54 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 7th | | Aachen | | 34 | 15 | 8 | 11 | 54 | 47 | +7 | 53 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 8th | | RW Essen | | 34 | 15 | 7 | 12 | 49 | 40 | +9 | 52 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 9th | | Union Berlin | | 34 | 14 | 9 | 11 | 53 | 42 | +11 | 51 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 10th | | Braunschweig | | 34 | 11 | 13 | 10 | 45 | 48 | -3 | 46 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 11th | | Stuttgarter K. | | 34 | 13 | 6 | 15 | 51 | 56 | -5 | 45 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 12th | | Trier | | 34 | 13 | 5 | 16 | 43 | 50 | -7 | 44 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 13th | | Burghausen | | 34 | 10 | 6 | 18 | 44 | 55 | -11 | 36 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 14th | | Greuther Fürth | | 34 | 8 | 12 | 14 | 41 | 52 | -11 | 36 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 15th | R | Unterhaching | | 34 | 9 | 9 | 16 | 49 | 66 | -17 | 36 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 16th | R | Osnabrück | | 34 | 7 | 11 | 16 | 33 | 55 | -22 | 32 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 17th | R | Ahlen | | 34 | 3 | 14 | 17 | 32 | 51 | -19 | 23 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 18th | R | St. Pauli | | 34 | 4 | 8 | 22 | 24 | 61 | -37 | 20 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre> German League Cup: Dortmund German Cup: HSV More coming.... 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