bigsamstheman

Season 2010/11 PSNI

0 Players in, 5 out on free transfers, 1 loan in. The massive debt of over 1.5M has made it impossible to offer sufficient wages to anyone worth recruiting.

No suitable job offers came in- some tempting ones but all from clubs in leagues far too prestigious for a manager struggling in Northern Ireland Div2 with a squad of fat coppers.

It turned out to be a quite remarkable season for the boys. Things looked promising with 3 wins and a draw from the 5 matches in the Intermediate League Cup; sadly not quite enough to progress from the group stage but a good showing.

The bookies had us at 50-1 and relegation favourites. The League itself saw PSNI in awesome defensive form, keeping clean sheets for the first four matches before finally conceding a penalty in the 5th match. All up, we conceded a miserly 13 goals in 22 matches, but only netted 19 at the other end.

At the halfway point we were actually on top of the table. :eek: A major injury requiring a 3 month lay off to our main set-piece taker took a heavy toll but we still struggled valiantly. On the last day of the season, a win and another result going our way would have seen us promoted. We peppered their goal with a number of attempts, including one header from six yards that heartbreakingly went over the bar. A 0-0 draw was the result. Our failure to score, and the team below us winning 2-0 (our previously mentioned rivals from a couple of seasons back) saw them go up. We finished 4th, and despite being agonisingly close to promotion, the lads should be well proud of their season and looking forward to a good showing next year.

NI Div 2- Pos 4th Pts 34 W9 D 7 L6
Irish Cup 5th Round loss to holders Larne (NI Prem)
Steel and Sons Cup – second round
Intermediate League Cup –failed to progress from group

I think I will have to give it one more season with the Police Service boys. If we don’t go up next time I might have to concede that I can’t take them any further and look for another club, but it would be nice to get them up.

Jurjev

KUTVGW with the NI cops .

White Ox

Onya cobber. KUTValiantAndPersistentEffort!

Nobby_McDonald

I always wondered what PSNI stood for. Now I know. :thup:

bigsamstheman

Yep, it took me a while to actually do a search to find out. It was fun making up my own names before that, for a while I was convinced it must of been Protestant Sons of NI. :p
although Pieces of Sh1te with Neglible Intelligence was more apt for most of their performances.

bigsamstheman

Neglible Intelligence was more apt for most of their performances.[/QUOTE]
that was bound to happen.

iajafer

Is that anything to do with negligible?

bigsamstheman

Season 2011/12

6 players in for $0, 11 players out for $10K

Despite the continuing absence of any transfer budget, we signed our loan player from the previous season on a free. In a transfer shocker, we sold two players for $10K, :eek: but the state of the ledger meant I was only allowed $2K to spend, and I loyally allowed this to stay in the coffers. The club is now $1.7M in the red, so I should imagine that $2k will be put to good use.

After last season’s showing, the bookies ranked us highly at 5-4 to win promotion, not quite favourites but definitely up there. A very bright start to the season, progressing from the group stage of the Intermediate League Cup for the first time. \o/ Went out at the next stage, but earned a massive $1K for our efforts-our first non-league prize money.

This season saw a striker from our youth academy get his chance after a couple of seasons of waiting in the wings. I knew the lad had potential, and he repaid the faith, becoming the top scorer in the League with a blistering 9 goals. Through the season, our captain also set a club record of 104 appearances.

Once again our season was built on a solid defence, conceding just 14 goals through the season (including 4 from an embarrassing drubbing by Dergview).

On the last day of the season we were sitting on top of the table, but it was so tight that any 2 of five teams could have won promotion. When we conceded at the 20 minute mark I was resigned to another season in Div2, but a quick check of the other progress scores revealed that things were going our way- we might even still finish as champions. I spent the second half hurling obscenities at my team, to no avail as the match ended 0-1. After the most nail-biting 5 second wait of my PSNI career, the news came through- PSNI had won promotion to the First Division.

N.I. Div 2- Pos 2nd Pts 35 W10 D5 L7 - Promoted
Intermediate League Cup- Lost in Semi-Final
Irish Cup- Third Round
Steel and Sons Cup- Second Round

I now feel obliged to stick with the boys in blue (or red and green, in this case) to try and keep them up and who knows, perhaps there are faint murmurings of long term European ambitions amongst the fans (or at least the children of the fans). :p

TC

Great read

KUTGW

lucky326

a police squad in europe i dont like the sound of that