retired_milissac

Ahh, thanks. btw I've played and wrote pretty much to the end of the season after reading Amaroq's advice and have 7 more pages of this on Word ready to post!

We then had 13 days before we faced Falkirk so this time Nicola and I travelled abroad this time to the lakes in Italy for ten days. We had another amazing time and I ended up asking her to move in with me. She said yes. We wouldn’t do it for a month or so but at least I knew she would do it.

When we came back I went to oversee training. Fernandez, who had really impressed me recently looked good in training. As did young prospects Craig Bryson and Ryan O’Leary. I met with the chairman in the afternoon and he said we were on a good run of results and if we could keep it up we could even push for the Champions League. After such a poor start it certainly made a change to be looking at the top 2.
The Falkirk match had been put back another week but instead of spending another week with Nic I decided I had to put some time in at the club. I even took my first training session during the week which was a success and I took time talking to a lot of players about what they thought about the club. I spent most evenings in the pub with Billy Brown talking about the team and drinking.

Falkirk SPL Away

We then travelled to Falkirk during midweek to face Falkirk on the 24th. They sat in 8th place and we should take another 3 points. Again I named an unchanged side as we were looking pretty good. We won a penalty after 10 minutes and David Lilley stepped up to take it and he..... scored to get his first goal of the season. 1-0. Falkirk were destroying us still though with chance upon chance upon chance but thanks to some poor finishing we went into the break ahead. Fernandez was playing unusually poorly and I told him he better start playing as we had some decent strikers on the bench waiting for a chance. The second half was a poor affair and Allan Johnston got us another goal to secure another comfortable win. The only downside was Willie Gibson was put out for two months with a broken arm. Allan Johnston would have to come in, in his place.

I realised we hadn’t lost in six games and were sitting nicely in 5th spot. We had certainly come back from a poor run of form. But how long would it last? We had Hearts and Celtic coming up so not long likely. The first of those tough games was at home to Hearts who sat in 10th spot.

Hearts SPL Home

Surprisingly we were comfortable favourites but I suppose our opponents were in 10th place and we were looking good at home. The line up stayed the same except Johnston came in for the injure Gibson. I told the players I expected a win against a side that was performing poorly. We started brightly and got our first goal twenty minutes in through Gary Locke. We had plenty more chances, as did they but we went into the break still 1 up. Youngster David Cox came on for the largely disappointing Roy O’Donovan. David Fernandez made it 2, latching onto a wonderful through ball by Allan Johnston and we looked to have notched up another win. Unfortunately five minutes from time Craig Bryson got himself sent off for a second bookable offence but we held on for another 3 points.

The day after the match Nicola and I went house hunting. I was on meagre wages and she wasn’t doing that much better so we would have to find somewhere to rent. But somewhere bigger than my studio flat. We spent the whole day viewing plenty of houses and flats but most were out of our price range. Nic had a friend who was an estate agent and she said she would try and sweet talk him round to getting us something cheap. I went to training again before the big game at the weekend. O’Donovan had done enough to get kicked out the team so in his place I put fellow loanee Ryan Jarvis.

Celtic SPL Home

The only other change to the side was James Fowler coming in for the suspended Craig Bryson and we lined up to face what looked like a far superior Celtic side. They didn’t start the superior side though as we walked all over them creating chances everywhere. I think everyone came close to scoring excluding Combe and Fernandez and Jarvis came closest. We really should have been winning at half time but we still had 45 minutes to get the victory. Jarvis had to off injured 5 minutes into the second half so Roy O’Donovan came on. Celtic were performing slightly better in the second part but neither side could break the deadlock until the 87th minute when Roy O’Donovan picked up the ball on the edge of the area and knocked it past Boruc in the Celtic goal. We held our lead for all of two minutes when Scott Brown equalised with the most offside goal ever. After the game I went straight to the dumbass on the sidelines and started having a go at him. I told him and his stupid referee that they were awful throughout today and I would recommend that they should have their refereeing rights taken away. I earned a further warning for my trouble.

retired_milissac

We sat in 4th spot in the SPL 3 points behind Aberdeen and 6 behind Celtic at the top. Nicola told me she had spoke to her friend and he had managed to get us a new built 3 bed house to let for a cheap price. We move in on the 26th- 16 days from now. It may seem really fast- and I thought it was- I had only met her 4 months ago but we loved each other (Ahhhh) and we wanted to live together.

Dundee Utd SPL Away

Both O’Donovan and Bryson came back into the starting line up for this away game against Dundee Utd. We conceded just 15 minutes in to Willo Flood and I was not happy on the sidelines, we were playing awfully and we were punished by Noel Hunt 15 minutes later. It looked like we were heading for our first loss in nine games and we did with Barry Robson adding a third before halftime and that is how it ended.

We had 13 days until our next match against Motherwell so Nic and I took another holiday- this time down to my home town of Birmingham where we stayed for another 10 magical days. She was a wonderful person and I was so lucky to meet her, but I had the feeling it would all go wrong in a while.

Motherwell SPL Home

We were back in time for our home tie against Motherwell. I didn’t want to change the team too much otherwise we would lose even more of the momentum we had built up but Ryan Jarvis and James Fowler came in for O’Donovan and Locke who took places on the bench. We played out a dull first half with the only action coming from a jammy Motherwell goal. Craig Bryson equalised but we never looked in it and they scored again to send us on our second loss and down to 7th.

With me and Nicola moving in together I asked the chairman if I could have a few weeks off. Cheeky I know but he accepted- I couldn’t face all the work of moving in and football and we were playing ***** so I just wanted to get out of there. I would miss three matches- Rangers, Aberdeen and Gretna. We moved in without any hiccups and settled nicely into our new house. While I was shopping in Tesco, I happened to notice the front page of the local paper and there I was- a big picture of me on the front page. I read the article, it was about my “walkout” from Killie, that I had stormed off and was about to resign and that I should be replaced with Billy Brown. I immediately phoned up the paper when I got home and told them they were printing lies and they hadn’t got a clue what they were talking about.

I followed the results from my flat- we lost 1-0 to Rangers which made it three straight losses but then we took a 0-0 draw against Aberdeen and thrashed Gretna 4-0 to leave us in 6th place when I came back. I received a subdued welcome from the players when I turned up at the training session the day before our next game against St.Mirren. Evidently they had enjoyed working under Billy Brown but frankly I couldn’t careless.

St Mirren SPL Home

I chose this team for my first game back in charge:
GK Combe
DR Lilley
DL Hay
DC O’Leary
DC Ford
MR Jarvis
ML Gibson
MC Fowler
MC Bryson
SC Fernandez
SC O’Donovan
I told the players I expected a win from them against a side that were 10th in the SPL. We really did have to win. The chairman was going around with a face like thunder every time he saw me and I got the feeling I may not be in the job much longer if there were any more major slipups. We started very well with Fernandez and Jarvis coming close to putting us ahead but it was still 0-0 at halftime after one of the most boring half’s of football ever to grace the beautiful game. I was not happy at the players at halftime and told them to go out there and buck their ideas up. Simon Ford got injured 10 minutes into the second period and Frazer Wright had to replace him. Guess who scored first? Yes, you guessed it St-bloody-Mirren but just 6 minutes later I was happier when Gibson was fouled and he floated the free kick onto the head of Roy O’Donovan and he levelled the match. Both teams had some glorious chances to win the match but none were taken and we had to make do with an infuriating draw.

retired_milissac

Before our next match Nicola and I had Christmas to celebrate. We couldn’t go anywhere because we had a boxing day game but the next international break we would jet off to Spain. Instead we spent a few days drinking wine and eating mince pies. It was a brilliant way to spend Christmas. But we were soon back to reality with a home game against Hibernian.

Hibernian SPL Home

I named the same side expect Frazer Wright got a start ahead of the injured Ford. This was never going to be an easy game and we soon learnt why when Steven Fletcher sent the away fans into raptures. 0-1. They made it two on 26 minutes and suddenly it had all gone wrong. We were never in it from there and Jarvis’ 88th minute goal did nothing to help me.

Inverness CT SPL Home

We had a chance to make up for it though just two days later against a poor Inverness CT side. We looked like we would when Fowler put us ahead on 26 minutes. But a shocking display of defending allowed Inverness to nip in twice before and twice after the break to see us tumbling to another loss. We had played **** everywhere today and fully deserved to lose.

Falkirk SPL Away

We continued our busy run of fixtures against Falkirk on the 2nd of January. Ryan Jarvis’ loan deal had come to an end so I would be on the lookout for a new signing. The team I chose was:
GK Combe
DR Lilley
DL Hay
DC O’Leary
DC Wright
MR Invincible
ML Gibson
MC Bryson
MC Fowler
SC Koudou
SC Fernandez

They took the lead after 20 minutes and I was already writing my resignation notice. It was all over. But Craig Bryson made me stop writing after 6 more minutes when he equalised and Ryan O’Leary made me rip it up just 3 minutes after that when he put us ahead with a powerful bullet header. David Fernandez added a third before half time and suddenly we were coasting. The second half was much more dull but some action came 5 minutes before the whistle when one of their players got sent off for a professional last man tackle, unfortunately it was just outside the area. It ended up 3-1 to us and a much needed 3 points on the board at last. There was a dampener though when the physio told me that both Gibson and Invincible would be out for a week and miss the Hearts game.

Hearts SPL Away

And so we continued our crazy fixture list with a trip to struggling Hearts. I named an unchanged side and asked for victory. It looked ominous though when they went one up just five minutes in and then when they doubled their lead after half an hour. Though we weren’t finished yet, both Locke and Fernandez grabbing goals before half time to steer us to another vital point.

After the match I sold flop Grant Murray to Southampton for the poxy sum of £14,000. At last we had a break. Well we shouldn’t as we had the Scottish Cup in a week. But it was against non-league side Preston Athletic so Nicola and I got that much needed holiday to Spain. We spent 12 days lounging in the sun by a swimming pool drinking margaritas. And 12 days later we came back to rainy Scotland to spend time lounging inside watching bad TV and drinking whisky to god knows what hour.

retired_milissac

We destroyed Preston Athletic 5-0 and I didn’t know that when we came back we had gone too long and missed the Celtic match as well. We didn’t miss much- we ended up losing 4-1. But the chairman was not happy. He said I shouldn’t have had my phone off for my holiday as they had tried to reach me. I told him I didn’t care and he should stop bothering me. I really thought he was going to fire me there and then but instead he just shook his head and left my office.

Dundee Utd SPL Home

I was there for the visit of Dundee Utd though and I chose this side to face them:
GK Combe
DR Lilley
DL Hay
DC O’Leary
DC Wright
MR Invincible
ML Johnston
MC Bryson
MC Locke
SC O‘Donovan
SC Fernandez

We were battered in the opening minutes and united made us pay when Robson scored a free kick. 0-1. We then started to perform slightly better and began to get a few chances but none went in. So we went in 1-0 down. I told the players they were garbage but it just did not work as we played out the second half with no passion and again we deserved to lose.

After that we had another almost meaningless match and once again I put Billy Brown in charge of it. The match was v Morton in the Scottish Cup 5th Round. We had certainly got a decent draw and it looked almost certain that we would progress to the Cups Quarter Final. If we couldn’t achieve Europe in the league, perhaps we could get it through some cup success whilst winning a shiny piece of silverware on the way. We ended up winning the match 3-0 thanks to goals from Invincible and Koudou (2).

Motherwell SPL Away

We then were on the road to Firs Park to take on Motherwell. They sat 5 points ahead of us in 5th place. A win here would be very good and would give us a much needed 3 points. The team was:
GK Combe
DR Lilley
DL Hay
DC O’Leary
DC Wright
MR Invincible
ML Gibson
MC Fowler
MC Locke
SC Koudou
SC Fernandez

We needed to get off to a good start but alas we didn’t conceding after just 12 minutes. We then battered the oppositions goal but all to no avail and just before half time they hit us on the counter attack to make it 2. I was not happy and I gave the players the lecture of their lifetimes. It paid off as Locke put us back into the match on the 51st. We then pushed for an equaliser and got it eventually through Willie Gibson in the 72nd minute. Motherwell then woke up and started looking for the winner but it was us who got it with the last kick of the game. Combe had just prevented a Motherwell winner and threw the ball to substitute Craig Bryson who took a touch and sent a beautiful ball to Aime Koudou on the right wing. The goalie came out and Koudou sent a looping chip over his head and into the net. We went wild on the touchline but it didn’t do any good for our position as we still sat in 8th spot. However we were only 2 points behind 5th.

Rangers SPL Home

We were brought back down to earth though with a visit from top of the table Rangers on the 17th. I kept the same team that had beat Motherwell as we searched for our 9th win of the season. We started well as we threatened Roy Carroll’s goal often with a few good chances. Koudou had a great chance parried away by Carroll 10 minutes in. We definitely looked the better side and we got our reward 3 minutes after Koudou’s chance through James Fowler. Our lead lasted only quarter of an hour though before Lee McCulloch equalised for the top of the table team. We went behind 2 minutes later thanks to a Daniel Cousin free. Despite falling behind we were still the better side until right on half time when the **** Kris Boyd put the visitors 3-1 up. After that it was all over and Willie Gibson’s 50th minute strike did nothing to help us.

retired_milissac

Aberdeen SPL Home

We had only 4 days to prepare for the visit of Aberdeen who were 2 points and one place ahead of us. I kept the same side for this match and hoped they would perform. We certainly started OK when Koudou put us ahead with a sweet goal in the 13th. After that we sat back foolishly and they made us pay through a 10 minute Derek Young hat-trick from the 30th to 40th minutes. Luckily we got back in it before the half ended thanks to James Fowler. Koudou equalised and continued his decent run of scoring with a 65th minute goal. And David Fernandez sent the home crowd into raptures when he put us ahead with 15 minutes to go. And we held on for another valuable 3 points.

Gretna SPL Away

We then had another match just two days later against bottom side Gretna. We had to win this match. I plumped with the same side again with the exception of Gary Wales in for Fernandez and he repaid my faith with the only goal of an extremely dull match in the 16th minute. I don’t care if it was dull because we got another 3 points.

Things with Nicola were going great. It was wonderful living with her and sharing things with her. I want to propose to her but I feel that is taking it a bit too fast. Wait a few months at least. I can take her somewhere romantic and pop the question there. I made the headlines again- the picture showing me hugging Gary Wales in celebration. It was talking about the return of Wales who hadn’t played very often this season. Despite his goal I still wasn’t happy about making him a regular fixture.

St.Mirren SPL Home

The board had chosen this home game against St.Mirren as a fan day. I made a few changes to the side: O’Donovan and Fernandez came in up front and Bryson came in, in place of James Fowler at MC. I hoped the crowd of 8323 would inspire the lads to win today. It certainly looked like it when Craig Bryson with 12 minutes on the clock. Danny Invincible added a second 10 minutes later and the crowd were in buoyant mood, as was I. We went into the break 2 up and I told the players don’t sit back, don’t let your performance drop. However they did as 2 minutes in Miranda made it 2-1. After that though we picked things up and won a penalty in the 56th, thanks to a Miranda foul. Roy O’Donovan stepped up to take it and..... scored. 3-1. Ironically Miranda scored his second 10 minutes later. He was certainly playing his part today. Hugh Murray was sent off for two yellows with 15 minutes left. We should win now. We did thanks to an exquisite second goal for Roy O’Donovan. That was how it ended. The new fans certainly saw some entertainment today.

After the match I turned my attention to free transfers. Lots of decent players were coming to the ends of their contracts. After meeting with our scouts I arranged for Lee Miller and Barry Nicholson of Aberdeen to come down to Kilmarnock next week as well as Hearts loanee Saulius Mikolionus.

Aberdeen SPL Home

We actually had Aberdeen next in the Scottish Cup Quarters. I named an unchanged side after they had all performed OK. I hoped we could keep up some momentum for a push up the league. Ironically both Miller and Nicholson came close for Aberdeen in the opening minutes as we were walked over. 27 minutes in and our hopes were dealt a major blow as Danny Invincible got himself a straight red after elbowing someone in the face. Not so invincible now are we. (I’m sorry I couldn’t resist.) I pulled O’Donovan back onto the right and played with one up front. Scott Severin put the home side ahead 5 minutes before halftime and we went in at the break 0-1 down. I had a go at the players at halftime (They must hate me.) I decided to put 2 up front and took of Wright at DC to put Wales up front. With 5 minutes to go I went all out attack with 4 up front but it didn’t work and we went down 0-1.

We had 8 days before our match v Hibernian so I took Nicola out to the Shetland Islands. It really is lovely out there (I do actually recommend you go there- wonderful place) and we had a excellent, relaxing week out there before returning to reality with a tough match away at Hibernian.

I invited my potential signings to come with me to Edinburgh to watch us play as their teams didn’t have any games. I drove them all down in my Audi and we talked over the idea of them joining the club. The match was a Monday evening kick off so we went to a posh restaurant before the match while Brown took training. We would watch the team play from the directors box and then we would draw up some contracts for them to sign. All three of them looked great signings.

Hibernian SPL Away

I took a risk leaving the team as it was but I was confident that they could deliver. Fletcher hit the post for Hibernian five minutes in and we had our fair share of chances too but it was Hibernian that took the lead through Fletcher. But just 3 minutes later Fernandez pegged them back with a great goal. 1-1. It stayed all square until halftime and I told the players we could win this and that it would be very valuable if we did. But just a minute into the 2nd half, Fletcher made it 2-1. They made it 3 with half an hour to go and it was all over. At least I thought it was but O’Donovan had other ideas. He netted our second just 5 minutes after they scored their 3rd and we were back in it. Despite the lifeline we couldn’t capitalise on it and we lost it 2-3.

One piece of good news or rather 3 pieces. They all decided to sign up for us and would join on the 1st July. They would really bolster our midfield and strike force. I made a decision to look into signing Roy O’Donovan permanently as he looked like a decent prospect. I wouldn’t want to pay too much for his services though but at the least we could maybe get him on loan for another year.

I won’t even go into detail about the next match against bottom of the table Inverness CT suffice to say we lost 2-0. We were awful from start to finish and we deserved to lose out on more bloody points. I was starting to get seriously ****ed off with the players apparent lack of passion.

Falkirk SPL Home

They had a chance to get me back on their side with this match against Falkirk. I named this side:
GK Combe
DR Lilley
DL Hay
DC O’Leary
DC Wright
MR Invincible
ML Johnston
MC Bryson
MC Locke
SC O‘Donovan
SC Koudou

They didn’t really start well at all and we looked set for another boring match. And that’s what we got. There were barely any chances and I just wanted this torture to end. Invincible scored with 5 minutes left though and we looked set for 3 points but well knowing us we threw it away in the 90th minute and dropped 2 points. I drove home by myself and when I got home I went straight to bed.

retired_milissac

Hearts SPL Home

We faced Hearts in our last match before the split. We were sitting one point off the top group behind Aberdeen. The match would decide what group we ended up in. I decided on an unchanged side, riskily but as everyone in the team was ****ing me off it didn’t matter. We started well, having the majority of the chances and it paid off when Craig Bryson put us ahead with a stunner of a goal. We continued to barrage their goal and got more spoils when Koudou, who incidentally I had considered replacing scored on the 26th. We were now sitting comfortably but continued with our chances. Bryson and O’Donovan hit the bar and Invincible and Johnston both hit the post but as if to prove a point it was Koudou who got our third and final goal with 30 minutes left on the clock. But Aberdeen won so they took their place in the top 6 group and we had to put up with the bottom group. Because of this it meant we had Hearts again next.

I had a meeting with the board the next day. They were not happy as you can guess. And they had every reason to, we were meant to qualify for Europe but we had been put in the bottom group after the split. They said that Allan Johnston’s performances had been nothing short of awful as had O’Donovan’s but I totally disagree with the latter. I didn’t say it out loud though. One thing they did say though was that they were pleased with the new signings and maybe we could push for Europe next season. They ended by informing me that Gary Wales had come to them asking to be placed on the transfer list and they had accepted on my behalf. I didn’t care, I would have down the exact same thing.

Hearts SPL Away

We then had to visit the Tynecastle Stadium to take on Hearts again. I used the same team that had beaten them last. It didn’t look like we would again though as Hearts battered us for the opening minutes but a goalkeeping master class from Alan Combe kept us from going behind. At half time we were yet to even have a shot. And in the second half the same thing happened. We were battered again but still Hearts could not score. And that proved to be their downfall as we nipped in twice in the last 10 minutes to give is a thoroughly undeserved 2-0 win thanks to goals from Fernandez and Wales. That would have put us up to 6th but the stupid split disallowed us that. *****.

ICT SPL Home

We then had the visit of Inverness CT. I made a few changes to the side. Gibson and Fernandez came in for Johnston and Koudou. My changes didn’t pay off as we fell behind after just 7 minutes. Again we played garbage and we deserved to be losing. Inverness didn’t have to worry about anything and they made it 2 just after halftime and that is how it ended. We didn’t have a single shot on target.

We then had a nice break between matches so we took another holiday. I am honestly running out of money to do this every international break. This time we only went to Edinburgh to visit her parents. They seemed to take offence that I was English immediately for some reason. But other than that it went OK. Meeting her parents- oohh big step. Thinking about that- I forgot about proposing. I still want to do it but it had gone to the back of my mind. I decided to do it over the preseason.

St.Mirren

We then had to face St.Mirren away. I changed a few players in the side and ended up with this team:
GK Combe
DR Lilley
DL Hay
DC O’Leary
DC Wright
MR Invincible
ML Gibson
MC Fowler
MC Locke
SC Koudou
SC Fernandez

We seemed to start very well. We hit the post twice and forced a few magnificent saves. They had chances too and Combe pulled off some similarly excellent saves. Though neither side could break the deadlock and we went in for halftime oranges tied at 0-0. Remember Miranda- well guess what he scored. With an exquisite like he did earlier in the season. We couldn’t equalise despite our best efforts until the 90th minute. Substitute Gary Wales picked up the ball on the halfway line and dribbled past one...two....three players and scored a cracker. 1-1. And that is how it ended.

Falkirk SPL Home

A week later we prepared for the visit of Falkirk. The side remained unchanged for this game. It was important we got off to a good start but it was Falkirk who started better netting in the 4th minute. Then they added another 5 minutes later and suddenly we were losing 0-2. Koudou put us in with a chance of getting something out of it with a good goal in the 19th minute but we were never really in it. We never had been, Falkirk would start and finish the better side. As if to prove this they continued to barrage our goal and from then on I knew we’d lost all the points. Another goal to either side didn’t really change things.

Gretna SPL Away

Our final game of the season saw us take on Gretna who were already relegated. Our dominance showed in the first 15 and we got our reward through Fernandez. Totally against the run of play though, Gretna broke through our defence and levelled the scores. And after that we stopped playing, neither side were any good and it was 1-1 at halftime. I gave the players the biggest bollocking I’ve ever dished out and that is saying something. But if we couldn’t even beat bottom of the table, we didn’t deserve to represent this country in Europe. But they didn’t listen and again after the break, both sides were utter rubbish. But Aime Koudou broke through and put us ahead with 15 minutes left. We then settled down and David Fernandez ensured of 3 almost meaningless points now in the 90th.

We ended up finishing 7th. Infuriatingly though we would have finished 6th if it wasn’t for the utter ***** that is the split. I ranted to Nicola who said she would put an article in the paper. I said that it was a poor excuse for a system. Why should teams be judged before the season has even ended? Why should it that if a team misses out on the top group on goal difference that they can never get past 7th again? It is the most awful thing ever. As you can imagine the FA were not happy but I couldn’t care less, they did **** all in running the league, they just lay about in their offices all day doing absolutely nothing.

retired_bbcarr

I'm disgusted by your continued beating of Hearts Good story though, George, keep it up :thup: