retired_bbcarr

\o/ not dead yet \o/

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February 2005

With Amaroq crying off our game against Stenhousemuir with jet lag, we had to make do with Panpardus and WLKRAS up front, and though neither of them had a particularly good game, we sent Stenny packing with two late first half goals. The first came when Wag – in for chesterfan2 on the left wing – crossed for aaberdeenn to head home, but we had some help with the second, Steve Fallon deflecting Chilliconcarne’s mis-placed shot into his own net.

In the week before we entertained Airdrie in the Scottish Cup, yet more of our at times useless side went off to **** about with their international sides. mark wilson27, JimT, Chilliconcarne and mametz1536 all made their England U-19 debuts in the 2-1 win over Nigeria, whilst smithaldo kept goal in the U-21 side’s 2-0 success. WLKRAS came on as a substitute as the Dutch U-21 team won 3-1 in South Korea whilst Amaroq added to his international caps, this time alongside teammate Faramir with a 1-0 in yet another game against Costa Rica.

Nearly 20,000 packed into the Dave Green Memorial Arena to see Airdrie get beaten, and they weren’t disappointed with the end result. Fresh from beating some Nigerians, mametz1536 slammed home a loose ball to get us in front, and he then turned provider for chesterfan2 to double the lead by half time. We were quite obviously going through to the quarter final, but HD made sure when he reacted first to a loose ball in the penalty area and tucked it past Mark McGeown in the Airdrie goal.

The quarter final draw gave us a trip to face either Motherwell or Dunfermline, but first we had league business to attend to in the shape of Montrose at the Dave Green Arena. Martin Wood pounced on some sloppy Dutch defending to put the visitors ahead, and though we had a myriad chances throughout the match, we couldn’t force an equaliser past Michael Hankinson in the Montrose goal.

Chesterfan2 put himself out of action for a month when he suffered strained knee ligaments in training, and Spaz took his place on the left of midfield for the trip to East Fife. And it was he who set up our first goal, crossing for fellow Aussie Panpardus in the third minute, though Pan damaged his reputation later in the half when he skied a penalty attempt. We eventually made sure of the points in the second half, claiming our second own goal of the month when goalkeeper Marc Graham turned mark wilson27’s cross into the net.

The month ended with us on the road again, this time to Hampden to face Queen’s Park. The game was largely a dull on with few chances for either side, but with just two minutes remaining, Amaroq finally did something useful in the month, heading home mametz’s cross to claim the three points and keep us on Gretna’s heels.

League Position: 2nd

International Honours:
Amaroq (1 cap – U.S.A)
Faramir (1 cap – U.S.A)

mark wilson27 (1 ‘U-19’ cap – England)
JimT (1 ‘U-19’ cap – England)
Chilliconcarne (1 ‘U-19’ cap – England)
mametz1536 (1 ‘U-19’ cap – England)
smithaldo (1 ‘U-21’ cap – England)

WLKRAS (1 ‘U-21’ cap – Netherlands)

shannon2007

Thought you'd given up on this :p

retired_hern1001

Haw :cool:

retired_bbcarr

Nah, just didn't play the save for a wee while.

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March 2005

Ninth placed East Stirling were our next visitors to the Dave Green Arena and we managed to have a relatively full squad to pick from. That wouldn’t be the case for our next game; however, as we lost both Wag and his replacement Spaz to minor groin strains. We looked a little toothless in attack, but we were gifted an opening goal when mametz’s cross was headed into his own net by Paul Ross. Neither side looked like adding to that score, but we finally did, mametz again crossing, this time for Peacemaker7 to slide a shot home.

With both Wag and Spaz out for two weeks, and chesterfan2 still recovering from his knee ligament injury, we had no left wingers for the Scottish Cup quarter final game at Dunfermline. flipsix3 was sent out to play wide on the left and did a good job, providing the assist for our one and only goal, Amaroq’s tenth of the season. We thought we were on our way to the semi final, but Noel Hunt busted our dreams with an equaliser, making sure of a replay in four days time.

Mametz picked up a third yellow card at East End Park which would keep him out of the replay, and davidbr suffered a small groin tear which would see him miss an entire month of action. I had somehow made us favourites in my mind for the rematch against Dunfermline, but the only goal of the match came from Georgi Hristov. What made the defeat even more painful was the fact that Gretna had progressed to the semi final, and would indeed play Dunfermline for a place in the final.

Confidence was high in the squad despite the cup defeat, but with injuries mounting ahead of the trip to Peterhead, I was a little wary of losing points to Gretna. And that was exactly what we managed to do. We registered just a single shot on goal in the entire ninety minutes, and though Peterhead only had three themselves, Martin Bavidge’s fifty-fifth minute effort found its way past JimT to claim the points.

We needed to win against Cowdenbeath if we were to maintain any sort of a chance of catching Gretna, and so Spaz was brought in when perhaps he was not quite ready. My only comfort was that he didn’t succumb to the same injury, this time straining knee ligaments which would keep him out for a month. We did manage to pull out a win; however, Panpardus grabbing both goals, the first coming when Peacemaker7’s shot was parried, the second when mametz continued his assist run with an excellent cross.

The month ended with more international recognition for our players, smithaldo playing the full ninety in England U-21’s win over Northern Ireland whilst Amaroq started in the 3-1 World Cup qualifying defeat to Mexico.

A few days later we had some new internationals on board, HD debuting for Scotland U-19s against South Africa and Raptor doing likewise for the Dutch U-21 side in their 1-0 win over Armenia. Smithaldo and Amaroq continued their run of games, the England U-21 ‘keeper barely being required as his side won 5-0 over Armenia whilst Amaroq finally got another U.S. win under his belt as he played the full ninety of the 2-0 success over Jamaica.

League Position: 2nd

International Honours:

Amaroq (2 caps - U.S.A)

Smithaldo (2 U-21 caps - England)

Raptor (1 U-21 cap - Netherlands)

HD (1 U-19 cap - Scotland)

retired_bbcarr

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">| Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | | Gretna | | 29 | 22 | 6 | 1 | 55 | 6 | +49 | 72 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | | FMS Utd | | 29 | 20 | 6 | 3 | 46 | 9 | +37 | 66 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | Peterhead | | 29 | 16 | 6 | 7 | 43 | 29 | +14 | 54 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | East Fife | | 29 | 12 | 7 | 10 | 39 | 36 | +3 | 43 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Queen's Park | | 29 | 12 | 6 | 11 | 41 | 42 | -1 | 42 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Montrose | | 29 | 10 | 6 | 13 | 40 | 37 | +3 | 36 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 7th | | Elgin | | 29 | 7 | 9 | 13 | 20 | 37 | -17 | 30 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 8th | | Cowdenbeath | | 29 | 7 | 6 | 16 | 34 | 51 | -17 | 27 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 9th | | Stenhousemuir | | 29 | 4 | 6 | 19 | 33 | 64 | -31 | 18 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 10th | | East Stirling | | 29 | 5 | 2 | 22 | 18 | 58 | -40 | 17 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre>

retired_jgirl87

Groin strain - owwww!

KUTGW Terk.

retired_swmchick2006

I always get a bit worried when I appear in these stories. My players always seem to be hanging around the back, rarely making an impact, showing little in the way of final product...

Hmmm....