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If August was a procession for Morag's chosen ones, September was just as productive, bar a slip up at Tynecastle where Hearts came from behing to eliminate Bartholomew's side in the Third Round of the League Cup.
East Stirling put up a little resistence in the first game of the month, but Zigic, Yildirim and Maloney put paid to their challenge before Andy Brand was sent off in injury time to compound a bad day. First Division St Mirren hosted Rothesay in a Challenge Cup tie and were thrashed 5-0 thanks to a Davidson hat-trick and goals from Rat and Yildirim before East Fife took four at The Park on league duty, Robert Davidson (2), Yildirim and Julius Aghahowa netting.
After the Hearts defeat, which opened sensationally with a brilliant Davidson goal early on, it was business as usual with Berwick travelling home on the end of a 5-0 beating.
The last game of the month saw Bartholomew's side travel to Ayr for the Challenge Cup semi final. An early Ben Saada goal was sufficient to eliminate Knut Haraldsson's team and secure a place in the club's first ever cup final.
I'm pondering accelerating this tale slightly. I'm concerned at the inability to check lineups for the Rangers v Falkirk game. Hmm. I'll let you know what I decide.
03-30-2006, 01:04 PM
Why We Shouldn't Let Deities Decide How To Run Football Post #23
Aggie cursed her goldfish-like memory. How was it that she could remember the scoreline of every Ayr game this year, but had no idea who played or scored in any game prior to the 15th of October?
After the 1-0 win at Gretna to end August she could recall a crazy 1-1 home draw with Morton in the league, where both sides scored bizarre own goals, a 3-0 win over the same opposition at the same venue in the Challenge Cup, a disappointing 1-1 draw at Alloa in the league courtesy of a late Jamie Stevenson free kick for an overmatched home side, a 0-0 draw at home to Gretna, again ni the league, a nice 3-1 win at Peterhead, a crushing 0-1 loss at home to Rothesay in the Challenge Cup semi and a 0-0 draw at Stirling to open October. Beyond that she was stumped.
It was clear that Santino Marini had scored a few goals and that John Johnston was struggling, but little else was evident.
Distressingly total recall began with a 2-0 loss at home to Raith, a 1-1 draw at home to Forfar and a 1-0 defeat at Dumbarton, completing a season-worst 4 game winless run. Form barely improved, but somehow the side heroically achieved 2-1 wins over Partick and Morton against the run of play before Peter Weatherson, Kevin Byers and Willie McLaren, who had suffered a couple of nagging injuries, provided a 3-0 win over East Stirling in the Scottish Cup.
A 2-0 win at Gretna courtesy of Marini and McLaren was a major boost, though it took an early own goal to see Haraldsson's side edge past 10-man Alloa. Back-to-back wins over Raith, 4-0 at Somerset in the Scottish Cup and 1-0 at Stark's Park in the league, were achieved before Forfar were mauled 3-0 on Boxing Day.
By this time it seemed that Ayr were on course for a place in the promotion play-offs and despite a shaky league run encompassing a 1-0 loss at home to Stirling, a 0-0 draw at home to Dumbarton and a 1-0 loss at Partick, wins over Elgin in the cup and Morton in the league provided respite.
A 6-0 mauling at the hands of Dunfermline brought the cup run to an end in the Fourth Round before the league was brought back into play with a 1-1 draw against Gretna, achieved with a last-second free kick from Weatherson, and wins at Alloa (3-1) and Peterhead (2-0). With ten games to go United sat six points adrift of joint leaders Partick and Gretna, with Raith in third.
The January transfer window saw huge amounts of movement. Thirty-two players were added, mostly prospects, whilst seven departed. The most notable additions were Slovenian forward Uros Veselic, Stephen McKenna of Clyde, Portuguese Hugo Carolo from Mafra, Simon Lynch from Dundee, Ali Mohammadian from FC Trollhättan (don't we all, forum posters, don't we all) and top prospect Marco Baroni from Mendrisio.
Others contributed, but Haraldsson was taking his time seperating the wheat from the chaff, and all assessments would have to wait until the end of the season.
Aggie was fairly chuffed. She was probably the least advantaged of the four women playing with fate, yet even she had moulded a winning organisation. The selection of Haraldsson - who was preferred to Ingi Ingimarsson at the time - seems inspired, if progress so far is a sign of things to come.
03-31-2006, 10:26 AM
Why We Shouldn't Let Deities Decide How To Run Football Post #25
Rothesay, Celtic and Rangers were not quite as active as Ayr in the January Transfer Window. Still, some additions were made and the shape of the squads varied.
Rothesay are not the type of side to allow a chance to make a splash pass quietly and spent almost £50,000,000 on ten players. The most expensive was £8.75m defender Vincent Kompany from Anderlecht who, at just 19, comfortably fits the club's plans for the future. Bordeaux's Florian Marange also arrived, at £8.5m, but is not likely to feature this season.
Gianni Zuiverloon (£6m), Charles-André Doudin (£1m) and Emrah Ekin (£325,000) came in for later years, whilst Iven Austbø (£190,000, Viking Stavanger), Zvjezdan Misimovic (£5m, Bochum), Jacques Faty (£4.5m, Rennes), James McFadden (£6m, Everton) and Charlie Adam (£350,000, Rangers) were expected to boost the first team squad.
Didier Agathe moved to Kaiserslautern, whilst the likes of Julius Aghahowa, David Navarro, Ugur Yildirim and Chakri Ben Saada were transfer listed, having failed to settle.
Over at Celtic Park there were seven additions, but of those only Vyacheslav Hleb and possibly Nicklas Bendtner affecting the first team squad. Five left, including recent signings Mauro Espositio, Eddie Johnson and Martyn Corrigan. Other than those moves it's pretty much as you were for Ingi.
There were eight additions at Ibrox. Priciest were Rawez Lawan, a Swedish striker who cost £2m from Malmö and Milan's left winger Roberto Massaro, who may or may not be the son of legend Daniele Massaro, and who came at the price of £1.6m. Juventus' defender Andrea Masiello, Monaco's Malaury Martin, Cor Gillis of Anderlecht, Lynel Kitambala - a Congolese international - from Auxerre, young goalkeeper Mathieu Dreyer from Sochaux and Club Brugge full back Jelle De Bock completed the additions.
Football continued, regardless, and patterns were beginning to appear. By the end of February Rothesay were the Champions of the Third Division, Ayr looked certain to make the playoffs and Rangers were on course for a treble. Celtic, out of the League Cup to Hearts and defeated 5-3 in extra time by Aberdeen in a Scottish Cup thriller, had little to play for except a Champions League place, and the little matter of the Champions League itself.
In the Group stages home wins over Basel and Lille, two draws with Sporting and a win in Switzerland made the 5-0 capitulation in France a sidenote as the group was won. The failure of Rangers to progress from a UEFA Cup group featuring Osasuna, Palermo, Dinamo Bucharest and CSKA Moscow was concerning, but for Celtic the opportunity to face Inter in the knockout stages was set to be the season's highlight, unless you prefer the 11-0 Scottish Cup win at Hamilton.
Rothesay's work was done with the Third Division and Challenge Cup in the bag and cup defeats agaisnt Hearts and Aberdeen to learn from. Incidentally both sides went on to eliminate Celtic in the same competition. Hearts later lost to Rangers in the semi final of the League Cup, with Aberdeen set to face the Ibrox side in the same stage of the Scottish Cup if they negotiate a replay at Tannadice.
It's a funny old game.
03-31-2006, 11:59 AM
Why We Shouldn't Let Deities Decide How To Run Football Post #26
Thanks, bit annoyed that the game isn't remembering matches properly, must be settings. It's kind of kyboshed my plans to do this season month-by-month. Ah well, best laid plans, etc...
04-13-2006, 05:41 PM
Why We Shouldn't Let Deities Decide How To Run Football Post #28
The season past had brought mixed fortunes for the ladies at the top. Morag's Rothesay had been all-conquering at their level, strolling to the Third Division title, winning the Challenge Cup and scoring a bunch of goals, but they had flopped when faced with SPL opposition, losing to Hearts in the League Cup and Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup without making much of a dent in the tournaments. A season-ending injury to Nikola Zigic was shrugged off as an all-Scots front line of McFadden-Davidson-Maloney tore through defences and with the likes of Charlie Adam, Steven Campbell and Mark Wilson also regular starters there was a distinct Scottish flavour to the title celebrations.
Mary's Celtic side started out OK, put in some inconsistent performances in the middle of the year, before rallying to take the SPL title with an Old Firm victory in the first game after the split and frighten the life out of Inter Milan in the Champions' League last 16, losing 1-0 in Italy before winning 2-1 at Celtic Park and crashing out only on away goals thanks to a late Sinisa Miailjovic header. That Inter had a man sent off relatively early in each match was felt to be beside the point.
Betty had cajoled Joél Garçon's Rangers to a strong position at the three-quarters mark, but defeat in the League Cup final to Aberdeen on penalties and a slump in SPL form left the Scottish Cup the only achievable goal. A resurgent Gers side swept to a tremendous 7-1 revenge victory over Aberdeen in the semi final with four from Kris Boyd, two from Lynel Kitambala and a nice strike from Barry Ferguson. Dunfermline were the oppositiong for the Final as Rangers set out to avoid finishing second in every domestic competition in a single season.
Aggie led Ayr to the promotion playoffs despite her choice of manager, Knut Haraldsson, deciding to be more frugal than anticipated. Adding players of generally First Division quality allowed the side to be successful in the Second Division environment and their run to the Challenge Cup semi finals was noted.
05-26-2006, 11:34 AM
Why We Shouldn't Let Deities Decide How To Run Football Post #29
Just in case you're wondering, I've uninstalled FM from my work computer and haven't transferred this save file home. It's one of my favourite saves ever though, so expect a return for this at some stage, if I can get it uploaded for transfer...
05-31-2006, 07:34 PM
Why We Shouldn't Let Deities Decide How To Run Football Post #30
Linear Mode
