[FM15] Englishman's Journey[man]

Football Manager 2015 Profile:
Full Name: Ryan Peter Skinner
Date of Birth: 13th March 1994
Place of Birth London, England
Nationality English
Languages spoken English, French, Korean, Chinese
Past playing experience Sunday league footballer
Past playing position Striker
Coaching qualifications Continental Pro Licence
Favoured Club Manchester United
Teams Managed:
24/07/14–26/08/17 Yanbian Changbaishan [CHN] (resigned)
03/09/17–present Peterhead [SCO]
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Update: Joining Peterhead in Scotland

Football Manager 2015 Profile:
Full Name Ryan Peter Skinner
Date of Birth 13th March 1994
Place of Birth London, England
Nationality English
Languages spoken English, French, Korean, Chinese
Past playing experience Sunday league footballer
Past playing position Striker
Coaching qualifications Continental Pro Licence
Favoured Club Manchester United
Teams Managed:
24/07/14–26/08/17 Yanbian Changbaishan [CHN] (resigned)
03/09/17–present Peterhead [SCO]
Trophy cabinet:
empty [for now]
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Update: Big Match Against Arbroath

Football Manager 2015 Profile:
Full Name Ryan Peter Skinner
Date of Birth 13th March 1994
Place of Birth London, England
Nationality English
Languages spoken English, French, Korean, Chinese
Past playing experience Sunday league footballer
Past playing position Striker
Coaching qualifications Continental Pro Licence
Favoured Club Manchester United
Teams Managed:
24/07/14–26/08/17 Yanbian Changbaishan [CHN] (resigned)
03/09/17–present Peterhead [SCO]
Trophy Cabinet:
empty [for now]
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Update: October/November

Well, that image speaks for itself really doesn't it? An awful late October/November run of form with just one point to show for it, that one point was from the match I alluded to in my last update against Arbroath which ended in a fair 2–2 draw; a point that doesn't really help either side.

Rory McAllister put us 1–0 up on 26mins but that lead only lasted a matter of three mere minutes as Jamie Montgomery equalised for the bottom club on 29 mins. It stayed at 1–1 until 68mins when Kyle Hughes put Arbroath into a 1–2 lead before that man McAllister scored his second of the game on 81mins to earn us a 2–2 well earned, but disappointing, draw.

That was as good as it got for the rest of October and November as we followed that draw with four straight defeats against Forfar Athletic, Greenock Morton[cup], Dumbarton and East Fife, three of those sides [Forfar, Morton and East Fife] are now the top three in the league so I suppose those games were always going to be difficult.

Our performances actually haven't been too bad, as you can see in the results we ran the aforementioned clubs very close but we just couldn't keep them from scoring. The match against Forfar was infuriating in all honesty, after 20mins we were 0–2 up thanks to a double from youngster Russell Cooper and even at half time we were still two goals to the good. However, after half time is when it really went wrong. We conceded two cheap, quick goals on 47mins and 48mins via Sam Kelly and Dale Hilson which really set the tone for the second half where Kelly got his second to condemn us to a 3–2 defeat.

The next game was against Morton in the Scottish Cup Third Round, this match was just a waste of time in truth as the cup competitions don't interested one bit at the moment. Anyway, we ran Morton close but lost 1–2 to the then league leaders after Dylan Dykes and Calvin Miller scored on 26mins and 29mins respectively. Left-back Steven Noble grabbed our goal on 78mins.

One for the neutrals next, a frustrating 3–4 home defeat to Dumbarton. Russell Cooper, the only positive of my tenure so far, grabbed two more goals to put us into a 2–1 lead after Duncan Cormack had put Dumbarton ahead. We then conceded the dreaded goal before half time on 45+1mins to go into the break 2–2. Seven minutes after HT Cormack scored again to make it 2–3 Dumbarton and then grabbed his hat-trick on 80mins to settle the game and give Dumbarton the points, McAllister scored a late consolation on 88mins which was far too late.

Lastly, we narrowly lost away to the most recent league leaders East Fife 1–0 after Nathan Austin won his side the points just after half time. Encouraging performance though, had a few chances which we just couldn't convert.


The league table isn't looking pretty, thirteen games played and we still sit second bottom but are now seven points adrift of eighth place Clyde. As I said, performances themselves have been decent however they mean nothing if we don't starting get points of board which we must start doing quickly. As weird as it sounds, I'm actually still enjoying the save. In past times I'd probably have walked away from it by now but I'm feeling good, just hope we can turn it around! Still ages left, plenty of times to do so.


Thankfully, the board are still backing me. They don't seem worried at all just yet, rightly so as we do have a load of football still to be played. Roll on the January transfer window in a month's time, this squad definitely needs strengthening.


Special shout to Russell Cooper, considering how bad we've been result-wise he's been very good. Six goals in six games, all since I arrived and promoted him from our U20s. Very impressed with this kid, as I mentioned earlier he's our shining star in this poor run of form. Just need to make his goals mean something!

Thanks Dan, appreciate your comments! Sadly it wasn't to be though.

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Football Manager 2015 Profile:
Full Name Ryan Peter Skinner
Date of Birth 13th March 1994
Place of Birth London, England
Nationality English
Languages spoken English, French, Korean, Chinese
Past playing experience Sunday league footballer
Past playing position Striker
Coaching qualifications Continental Pro Licence
Favoured Club Manchester United
Teams Managed:
24/07/14–26/08/17 Yanbian Changbaishan [CHN] (resigned)
03/09/17–03/01/18 Peterhead [SCO] (resigned)
Trophy Cabinet:
empty [for now]
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Update: December/early January form and Peterhead departure

The horrendous form continued throughout December and into the very early stages of January, there was just no stopping the slump we were in. Some of the defeats were just pure embarrassments at times, especially with some of the goals we conceded; never seen anything like it. When I joined Peterhead I most definitely overestimated the Peterhead squad, no wonder they were struggling before I took over.

Since my last update, we played six matches across the Christmas period and received a grand total of zero points for our 'efforts', including some shocking results. Firstly we faced Ayr United at Balmoor Stadium, we lost 0–2 after goals from Dale Shirkie and Cameron Wilson. OK performance but again nothing to show for it; a recurring theme throughout my tenure at Peterhead.

After that we faced Greenock Morton where we lost 3–1 away from home despite taking a 0–1 lead on 60mins via Rory McAllister. Like many of our games when we scored or been ahead we've conceded so quickly and that was no different here, after McAllister's goal we conceded the equaliser in a, quite frankly, impressive 37 seconds through Stephen McGinn who then grabbed another on 72mins. Alex Harris finished us off on 80mins to make it 3–1.

Seven days later we suffered another 3–1 away defeat, this time to Stirling Albion. Goals from Sandy Cunningham, Chris Blackett and a Dale Fulton penalty put Stirling 3–0 up, Rory McAllister grabbed another late consolation for us on 89mins which meant nothing. After that is when the real trouble started, with three games in eight days it was always going to be tricky however what followed was pure shambles.

All started on Boxing Day 2017 when we traveled to Clyde and lost 5–0, Fraser Murdoch grabbed a twenty-four minute first-half hat-trick before Jordan Sinclair and Patrick Slattery got goals themselves to condemn us to more misery. Our next match actually didn't go too badly as we welcomed second place Cowdenbeath to our stadium and only lost 0–1 due to a 87th minute goal from Kieran Tierney, a real kick in the teeth after our best performance of the season.

Things quickly went from bad to horrific when we faced an equally struggling and second bottom side in Arbroath. To put it straight, we lost 6–2; yes that's right 6–2. Arbroath raced into a two goal lead after goals from Kieran MacDonald and Darren Lavery, we got one back thanks to Paul Simpson on 45mins before Jamie Montgomery put Arbroath 3–1 up on 68mins. Kai Wilson then put Arbroath 4–1 up before Darren Lavery made it five after scoring a penalty. Paul Simpson got another goal for us to make it 5–2 however that was in vein as a Reece Donaldson own-goal made it six. Horrendous scenes.

All of that left us bottom of the table six points from Arbroath and a terrible fourteen points off safety in Stirling Albion. There's no coming back from that.

Before the defeats to Clyde and Arbroath I was feeling confident I could turn it around with the January transfer window coming up around the corner however those two aforementioned losses were the final straw for me, they were a lost cause so I decided enough was enough and resigned as Peterhead manager straight after the Arbroath match.

Disappointing spell with Peterhead, probably the worst stint as a manager on Football Manager I've ever experienced. No question FM15 is much more difficult this year however I have no issues with the game itself, I just overestimated the squad that Peterhead had and just couldn't turn them around.

Hey-ho, move on! Onto the next job I guess, wherever that may be.

Thanks for reading!

Football Manager 2015 Profile:
Full Name: Ryan Peter Skinner
Date of Birth: 13th March 1994
Place of Birth: London, England
Nationality: English
Languages spoken: English, French, Korean, Chinese
Past playing experience: Sunday league footballer
Past playing position: Striker
Coaching qualifications: Continental Pro Licence
Favoured Club: Manchester United
Teams Managed:
24 July 2014–26 August 2017: Yanbian Changbaishan [CHN] (resigned)
03 September 2017–03 January 2018: Peterhead [SCO] (resigned)
18 January 2018–present: Keçiörengücü [TUR]
Trophy Cabinet:
empty
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Update: Keçiörengücü arrival

Fifteen days after resigning as manager of Scottish League One side Peterhead, I made a return to management with Turkish TFF Second League outfit Keçiörengücü. Keçiörengücü sat eighth at the time of me taking over at the club, with them being just three points off the play-off positions [2nd-5th].

I actually had the opportunity to take over one of three clubs: Keçiörengücü of Turkey, Whitehawk of England or Notodden of Norway. I chose the Turks just because they had better budgets and that their media prediction was sixth. With nineteen games played and fifteen games remaining I felt we'll have a real good chance of challenging for promotion, if not this season then hopefully next.

Opening five matches with Keçiörengücü have been encouraging, as of right now our record with the club is: P5 W1 D3 L1. We started with an acid test as we faced top of the table 1461 Trabzon away from home, it went pretty well in the end as we secured a good point with a 1–1 draw. Ömer Bozan put us ahead of 73mins before we conceded the equaliser two minutes later through Yasin Elmas. Disappointing to concede so soon but I'll take the point.

Next up we faced Ümraniyespor and again drew 1–1 but in complete opposite circumstances to the 1461 Trabzon match, Enes Vuran put the visitors ahead before Umut Sözen got one back to earn us a point. We followed up the Ümraniyespor draw with our first win in charge of Keçiörengücü against second place Tokatspor in impressive fashion, goals from Tuna Baran, Umut Sözen and Kadir Baylan secured us an excellent 0–3 away win.

We suffered our first defeat next with an odd 3–5 loss to Altay, Onur Türk put Altay 0–1 up before Umut Sözen levelled for us but from then on it went crazy. Altay went from 1–1 to 1–4 in the space twenty minutes as Sabahattin Aslankeser, Mert Erdoğan and Kerem Bülbül grabbed goals on 41mins, 43mins and 61mins respectively, I thought the game was over there and then however two goals in five minutes from Coşkun Yilmaz and Mehmet Kurtulmuş brought us back to within one of Altay at 3–4 but it wasn't to be as Kerem Bülbül grabbed his second for Altay to make it 3–5. So close!

In the last of our opening five matches, we disappointingly drew 3–3 with Fatih Karagümrük despite leading 1–3 on 60 mins. Mehmet Özdiraz put us 0–1 to the good on 10mins until Ferhat Gündüz drew Fatih Karagümrük level on 17mins, Mehmet Özdiraz restored our lead on 29mins with a neat finish then Tolgahan Erbay looked to have won all three points for us on 60mins. However, a second for Ferhat Gündüz and one for Abdullah Balikuv dragged Fatih Karagümrük back to 3–3. Frustrating!


After all of that we remain eighth and are now six points off the play-offs. Still a long way to go but I'm hopeful we can sneak into the top five before the end of the season although that would be a luxery as next season is the real deal for us. Liking the feel of these club already, hopefully our decent form continues.

Football Manager 2015 Profile:
Full Name: Ryan Peter Skinner
Date of Birth: 13th March 1994
Place of Birth: London, England
Nationality: English
Languages spoken: English, French, Korean, Chinese
Past playing experience: Sunday league footballer
Past playing position: Striker
Coaching qualifications: Continental Pro Licence
Favoured Club: Manchester United
Teams Managed:
24 July 2014–26 August 2017: Yanbian Changbaishan [CHN] (resigned)
03 September 2017–03 January 2018: Peterhead [SCO] (resigned)
18 January 2018–present: Keçiörengücü [TUR]
Trophy Cabinet:
empty
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Update: Season end at Keçiörengücü

I have ended my first half season at Turkish side Keçiörengücü and it's gone pretty well, as we joined half way through the league campaign we were only in charge of fifteen matches and of those fifteen we only tasted defeated three times, despite that we only won four times as we drew the other eight. However, although we did draw too many games it's encouraging to see us only lose three games. We finished the season in ninth, a welcome position for the board who wanted a respectable league position which we achieved. Next season I hope we can kick on from here, play-offs are the goal; we were only seven points off them this season.


Following on from my last blog update regarding our first five in charge, our next match was against Gaziosmanpaşaspor at home where we drew 1–1, Deniz Perö grabbed our goal on 23mins before Erman Erten equalised for the away side on 38mins. After that we claimed our second win with Keçiörengücü as we cruised past Hacettepe 1–3 away from home, Deniz Perö scored all three goals to earn himself a hat-trick and four goals in two matches; Yaşar Kaya got the hosts goal to make it 1–1.

The goals continued to flow in our next match against Menemen Belediyespor where we drew 3–3, the second six-goal thriller we've had since arriving in Turkey. Frustratingly we were 2–0 up on 25mins after Tolgahan Erbay and Deniz Perö scored but Menemen found a way back as they clawed it back to 2–2 after a brace from Cihat Kaya, Deniz Perö did regain our lead to make it 3–2 on 68mins however Yilmaz Özeren earned the visitors a draw fourteen minutes from full-time.

After four games without defeat we then went three games without a win, firstly we lost 2–0 away to Kartal after goals from Ali Özturk and the well known Turkish forward Colin Kazim Richards condemned us to defeat. We followed that with a poor 1–1 home draw to Pendik, Doğan Karakuş put the away side ahead before we received a penalty just two minutes later which Mehmet Kurtulmuş coolly slotted home. That was followed by probably our worst game since I took over, a terrible 4–2 away defeat to Yeni Malatyaspor. Bertul Kocabaş, Fatih Üge, Murat Akçay and Umutcan Gülmez got the goals for Yeni while İbrahim Alagöz, on his season debut, and Ömer Eren got consolations for us at 2–0 and 4–1.

At this point the play-offs were out of sight, so we were just playing for pride in our final four games of the season. In those final four we achieved two wins and two draws, not too bad. It started with a 2–1 home victory over Eyüpspor, İbrahim Alagöz carried on from where he left off against Yeni with another goal here on 19mins; played two, scored two for the twenty-seven year old. Osman Aydoğan doubled our lead on 86mins with a smart goal and lucky so he did as Yahya Alpaslan scored on 88mins for the visitors to make it a tense finale however thankfully we held onto the three points.

Next we had back-to-back 1–1 draws, first of all away to Gölbaşıspor where İbrahim Alagöz scored again before Ünal Noyan got the hosts' equaliser on 80mins. The other 1–1 was at home to Turgutluspor, Hakan Çinemre put the away side ahead on 65mins before Kadir Baylan levelled for us late on at 87mins.

We ended the season away to Ofspor, things looked to be ending disappointingly as Ofspor raced into a first-half 2–0 lead through Yusuf Yağmur and Taner Maden. However, we produced a stunning three goal comeback after goals from Tolgahan Erbay, an Celal Çırpanlı own-goal and an 89th minute winner from Ömer Bozan to end on a high. Delightful way to end a decent half season with Keçiörengücü.


After those results we finished ninth, only seven points of the play-offs. We could've made it if we had won more of the games that we drew but I'm content, we have a good squad and with some minor improvements we should be in for a good season in 2018/19; hopefully anyway!

Thanks for reading!

Football Manager 2015 Profile:
Full Name: Ryan Peter Skinner
Date of Birth: 13th March 1994
Place of Birth: London, England
Nationality: English
Languages spoken: English, French, Korean, Chinese, Turkish [basic]
Past playing experience: Sunday league footballer
Past playing position: Striker
Coaching qualifications: Continental Pro Licence
Favoured Club: Manchester United
Teams Managed:
24 July 2014–26 August 2017: Yanbian Changbaishan [CHN] (resigned)
03 September 2017–03 January 2018: Peterhead [SCO] (resigned)
18 January 2018–present: Keçiörengücü [TUR]
Trophy Cabinet:
empty
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Update: Pre-season and September

Wow, what a start to our 2018/19 season! As you can see from the screenshot above our first month of the season has been fantastic and has far surpassed my expectation I had in June. Still miles to go in the race for promotion with a lot of football to be played but I couldn't be more pleased with our September form.

First of all we had a pretty successful pre-season program, we played a whole host of different opponents from amateur to the top-level and coming away with five victories and two defeats. We kicked things off with a simple friendly against our U21 side in which we ran out 4–0 winners thanks to goals from Umut Sözen, a brace via Mehmet Kurtulmuş and one from the semi-retired Coşkun Yilmaz.

The goals continued to flow in our next friendly with non-league outfit Seker, we again scored four in a 1–4 away win after goals from İbrahim Alagöz, Mehmet Özdiraz, Burak Uça and Kadir Baylan. After that we faced amateur club DHMİ however they proved to be tricky opponents as we won 0–2 after Deniz Perö and Ömer Eren grabbed goals in each half to make it three wins from three win pre-season.

After them fairly simple tests the opponent quality rose formidably, our next two friendlies were against second tier clubs Boluspor and Osmanlıspor. Both of which we drew 1–1 after ninety minutes and had to go to penalties to secure victory, against Boluspor we took a 62mins lead cheers to Osman Aydoğan however the favourites equalised on 77mins due to a Rajko Rotman goal. The tie with Osmanlıspor went a little different after Engin Bekdemir put the visitors in front before young defender Tuna Baran scored late on to give us a well earned draw. Both games went to penalties in which we claimed the win after winning the shoot-outs 18–17 and 5–3 respectively.

To finish pre-season we suffered our first defeats but given the opposition that was to be somewhat expected after I lined up friendlies against arguably the two best teams in Turkey: Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe. Defeat was always on the cards however I wanted us to end with proper tests ahead of the season, despite losing I feel it was a worthwhile exercise. We spiritedly lost 0–3 firstly to Galatasaray after a double from Emre Çolak and one from Bruma. The Fenerbahçe match wasn't even close, we were completely outclassed by six goals to one; Okay Yokuşlu, Emrah Başsan, an Tolgahan Erbay o.g., Süleyman Koç and a brace via Emmanuel Emenike put Fenerbahçe gave them a commanding victory, Deniz Perö got our only goal at 0–5.

So into the nitty-gritty stuff, our first league match of the season came against recently relegated Gaziantepspor away from home. A tricky looking fixture but to my surprise we eased to 1–3 win, İbrahim Alagöz got one while Mehmet Özdiraz grabbed two towards the end; Furkan Narin got a consolation for the hosts at 0–3. A brilliant way to start 2018/19!

We followed that with an even more sensational victory after we dismantled Ofspor at home, recording a stunning 6–0 win. What made this one even more incredible was all six goals were scored in the first-half, adding to the fact that Deniz Perö scored four! İbrahim Alagöz and Ömer Eren also scored. I was shocked, a truly great win!

In our only blip of the competitive season so far, we drew our next match 4–4 away at İnegölspor despite being 0–3 and 2–4 to the good at certain points. An Übeyd Adiyaman o.g. coupled with goals from İbrahim Alagöz and a penalty from Özkan Serbest put us 0–3 up at half-time. However, due to my error in the half-time team talk where I asked the lads to avoid complacency we went on to collapse as we first conceded two through Marc Mbamba and Ömürcan Yildirimli to make it 2–3 but regained a comfortable lead after Umut Sözen put us 2–4 ahead but then the horror show started as we conceded on 79mins and 85mins to Batuhan Karadeniz. Highly frustrating.

I feared the wheels would fall off after that as a few of the players spoke out about my half-time team talk during the 4–4 draw, however to the players' credit we went on to win our next four games in all competitions. First of all we won 3–2 at home to Yeni Malatyaspor despite suffering another collapse after going 2–0 up via Mehmet Kurtulmuş and İbrahim Alagöz before ten man Yeni fought back to 2–2 after two absolute stunners from Bertul Kocabaş, to make matters worse we ourselves had a man sent off nine minutes from full-time through Ömer Eren. Luckily Mehmet Özdiraz popped up with an 88th minute winner to give us a huge three points.

Next up we had a first versus second clash as we faced top of the table Altay away from home, we came away with an unexpected 1–2 victory. In a tight affair we took the lead thanks to Mehmet Kurtrulmuş on 63mins, thirteen minutes later Altay levelled after Hüseyin Bağ got a lucky deflected goal but again we showed resilience as that man again İbrahim Alagöz scored two minutes after Bağ's goal to win us the points!

Our first cup excursion with Keçiörengücü followed as made the trip to fellow third tier outfit Alanyaspor, going into this one I couldn't care less with the cup and as such played a weaker team making five changes from the Altay win as it was a midweek fixture. To my surprise the lads pulled through and grabbed a lovely 1–2 win and that's despite going one nil down early on through Ahmet Dereli, İbrahim Alagöz and Ömer Bozan got our goals to secure the win; the home side went down to ten men on 89mins.

In our final match of September we carried on our brilliant league form with a solid 4–2 home win against Diyarbakır Bld., we went 0–1 down after Mert Özkaptan put them ahead before Deniz Perö and Mehmet Kurtulmuş put us into the lead going into half-time. The second half started horribly as Diyarbakır equalised via Mümin Aysever, with fifteen minutes left it was still close at 2–2 but our killer streak showed once more as goals from, yep you guessed it, İbrahim Alagöz and Mehmet Özdiraz. Alagöz is on fire!


All that places us in an impressive first place after the first six matches, an amazing beginning. My hope now is to push on and hopefully secure a top five finish and at least reach the play-offs, that's a bold statement as there are multiple games remaining and trouble will no doubt arise at some point but we're looking good!

Again, thanks for reading!

Thanks again Dan! I'm happy, form has since tailed off a little but we're still sitting in a good position as this, still, early stage.

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Football Manager 2015 Profile:
Full Name: Ryan Peter Skinner
Date of Birth: 13th March 1994
Place of Birth: London, England
Nationality: English
Languages spoken: English, French, Korean, Chinese, Turkish [basic]
Past playing experience: Sunday league footballer
Past playing position: Striker
Coaching qualifications: Continental Pro Licence
Favoured Club: Manchester United
Teams Managed:
24 July 2014–26 August 2017: Yanbian Changbaishan [CHN] (resigned)
03 September 2017–03 January 2018: Peterhead [SCO] (resigned)
18 January 2018–present: Keçiörengücü [TUR]
Trophy Cabinet:
empty
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Update: October 2018 and November 2018

Since our fantastic start to the season in September our form has since dropped down a level to more familiar performances however we're still playing at a good level and getting some results, during October and November we had nine fixtures in all competitions with eight being in the league and come out with three wins, two draws and four defeats. Despite the patchy form we currently sit second in the table.

October started as September was after we won 1–6 away from home versus Sancaktepe Bld., Umut Sözen put us one goal to the good after just 2mins, that was followed by a second goal from us a minute later on 3mins through İbrahim Alagöz. If that wasn't incredible enough our blistering start continued on 7mins and 8mins as firstly Ömer Eren then secondly a Volkan Ekici o.g. made it 0–4 with the four goals coming in eight first-half minutes. Sancaktepe's İbrahim Kiymaz was sent off on 16mins before Tolgahan Erbay made it five nil on 22mins. Oktay Pop got the hosts' only goal on 61mins which was followed by us also going down to ten when Özkan Serbest was show a second yellow card, despite that we grabbed a sixth three minutes from time through Mehmet Özdiraz.

That stunning victory was followed by two draws, first of all against Tokatspor where Berke Biyik put the visitors in front before Mehmet Özdiraz got a leveller on 74mins for us. We then tied 2–2 with Hacettepe, which was a good result considering we were 2–0 down until 74mins after goals from Ugur Yilmaz and İdris Cengiz for Hacettepe but we weren't to lose our unbeaten record here as we clawed it back for a point thanks to İbrahim Alagöz's 74th minute goal and Deniz Perö's 88th minute strike.

Next up was Alanyaspor at home where we won 3–1, that after going 0–1 down to Alanyaspor via Ahmet Dereli. However a goal from Umut Sözen and a double from the in-form İbrahim Alagöz gave us a easy three points. That win was backed up by a midweek Ziraat Turkish Cup third round tie as we faced top division Akhisar Belediyespor, we gave the Spor Toto Süper Lig side a proper game as it took them until extra time to get past us. Our cause was helped by Ziya Erdal's red card on 31mins for them, Mehmet Özdiraz put us 1–0 up on 61mins with a tap-in before Jakov Puljic equalised to take the tie to extra time where Hasan Susamcilar sent the away side through.

This is where the league form has dropped, within the next four games we lost three and only won once. First defeat was to fellow promotion chasers İstanbulspor who we lost 1–0 to due to a first-half goal from Semih Daglar. We got our only November victory next against Dardanel thanks to another brace from that man İbrahim Alagöz, he has been an integral part in our start to this 2018/19 season.

Back-to-back defeats followed, if losing wasn't bad enough the fact that these two losses were both to sides who sit in the bottom four made it even more frustrating. Gölbaşıspor were the first to beat us, they came to our house and completely outplayed us to record a 1–3 win via goals from Ünal Noyan, Alparslan Çapar and Alper Akçam. Ümraniyespor also scored three in our next loss in a 3–2 win for the Turks, we took the lead through İbrahim Alagöz but they got back level a minute later thanks to Mustafa Tural's stunner. Mehmet Kodes won them the match with a brace on 69mins and 86mins before Ömer Bozan grabbed a late, pointless, goal for us on 90+1mins.


As I said at the beginning, despite an indifferent October and November we still sit comfortably in the play-off positions in second place; three points ahead of third place and three points behind top spot. Hopefully this late form is just a nominal blip and not a sign of the tactic is wearing off so soon, the latter is a concern as I've seen others have problems with tactics just randomly stopping working. Time will tell!

Fourteen games down, still twenty left to play. Here's hoping we can get a top five finish!

Thank you for reading!

Indeed, Dan!

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Football Manager 2015 Profile:
Full Name: Ryan Peter Skinner
Date of Birth: 13th March 1994
Place of Birth: London, England
Nationality: English
Languages spoken: English, French, Korean, Chinese, Turkish [basic]
Past playing experience: Sunday league footballer
Past playing position: Striker
Coaching qualifications: Continental Pro Licence
Favoured Club: Manchester United
Teams Managed:
24 July 2014–26 August 2017: Yanbian Changbaishan [CHN] (resigned)
03 September 2017–03 January 2018: Peterhead [SCO] (resigned)
18 January 2018–present: Keçiörengücü [TUR]
Trophy Cabinet:
empty
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Update: December 2018 and January 2019

Just the six matches have been played during December 2018 and January 2019 due to the mini winter break they have over here. In my last update I had the concern my form would drop due indifferent performances and seeing others have problems with tactics losing effectiveness instantly however I'm pleased to say our form has improved a lot since and are currently five games unbeaten with three wins.

December started with a fixture against Menemen Belediyespor, a match in which we lost 2–1 to continue our then poor form. We actually took the lead through Umut Sözen but goals from Bulut Kaya and Güney Atilgan gave the relegation threatened Menemen a crucial win. We hit back in strong fashion as we started our five match unbeaten streak as we beat another relegation fighter in Sandiklispor 3–0 at home, a 12th minute Abdullah Çetintaş own-goal got us off to the perfect start before Deniz Perö and Mehmet Kurtulmuş wrapped up the much needed victory. Omer Eren was latterly sent off.

Next up we faced the struggling Gaziantepspor, who were league favourites before the season but sat 13th at this time, at home where, just like in September, we got an high profile win as we completed the double over Gaziantepspor winning 2–0, Umut Sözen and Özkan Serbest got the goals. That was followed by our biggest match of the season so far as we faced league leaders Pendik, as we were currently just a place behind them it was a first versus second battle. In a tense match we came away with a good point, despite Ömer Karabulut putting Pendik ahead on 79mins we hit back on 85mins through Tolgahan Erbay to secure an important draw.

Ofspor were up next, a team we beat 6–0 earlier in the season, and we beat them 0–2 away here, Deniz Perö and İbrahim Alagöz scored to earn us a simple three points. In the final match of January we faced İnegölspor at home and disappointingly drew 0–0; my first 0–0 at Keçiörengücü! Hüsnü Başkurt was sent off for the visitors on 60mins too, even more frustrating that we didn't take advantage.


That all keeps us in second place but we are now just a point off first place Pendik and are now four points clear of İnegölspor in third. Fourteen matches still to come, going to be nerve-wrecking. Ideally would like top spot obviously to get automatic promotion but I'd take a play-off spot all day long, none of which is secured though so we must keep playing well!

Thanks for reading!

I agree Dan, I wasn't ruling it out completely but just felt the team would drop at some point due to the recent indifferent form, sadly my fears have come to fruition as we now sit a incredibly poor, in the circumstances, eighth position. Thankfully we are only three points of the play-offs with five matches left, huge last few matches! Not feeling too confident, which is a shame as the team definitely deserves to get into the play-offs, at least, over the course of the season.

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Football Manager 2015 Profile:
Full Name: Ryan Peter Skinner
Date of Birth: 13th March 1994
Place of Birth: London, England
Nationality: English
Languages spoken: English, French, Korean, Chinese, Turkish [basic]
Past playing experience: Sunday league footballer
Past playing position: Striker
Coaching qualifications: Continental Pro Licence
Favoured Club: Manchester United
Teams Managed:
24 July 2014–26 August 2017: Yanbian Changbaishan [CHN] (resigned)
03 September 2017–03 January 2018: Peterhead [SCO] (resigned)
18 January 2018–present: Keçiörengücü [TUR]
Trophy Cabinet:
empty
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Update: February 2019 and March 2019

The indifferent form continues! An infuriating February and March run of form, it was a perfect opportunity to properly stake a claim for a top two finish but quite frankly the team bottled it. Nine matches played with a measly one win and two draws coupled with six frustrating defeats.

February began with an away match against Yeni Malatyaspor, one we lost 2–0 after goals from Fatih Üge and Onur Garip condemned us to our first of many losses throughout February and March. We followed that with a 0–1 home defeat to Altay, with Kerem Bülbül again scoring against us; his third goal against us since I joined Keçiörengücü. We got our only win of these two months next when we faced Sancaktepe Bld., Deniz Perö scored the only goal to give us three points.

Our worst performance of this spell followed as we lost 4–1 away to Diyarbakır Bld., Mümin Aysever put them ahead before Kadir Baylan equalised for us until a 22mins own-goal via Özkan Serbest put the hosts ahead once more. Devrim Kiliç and Gökhan Aydaş sealed an impressive victory for their side with a goal each. Hacettepe were next, we disappointingly lost another home fixture as Erdi Ocak's 11th minute goal was the difference in a tight game.

Some respite followed when we drew 1–1 at Tokatspor, another defeat looked on the cards as Kenan Şahin put Tokatspor one nil to the good nine minutes from full-time but thankfully the inconsistent Mehmet Özdiraz grabbed us a late leveller on 84mins; Özdiraz can be unplayable at times but is annoyingly inconsistent. We then lost 3–2 to Alanyaspor, we were slightly unfortunate not to take a point, or even more, from this after being 1–2 up until 77mins. Gökhan Erdoğan originally put Alanyaspor ahead before Ömer Eren equalised after 28mins, an own-goal from the hosts' Mesut Yilmaz put us ahead until Erdoğan got a second to get his side level. Heartbreak on 90+1mins when Ahmet Dereli stole the points for the home side.

İstanbulspor were the next club to beat us, coming to our place and recording a 0–2 win thanks to goals from Yunus Çabuker and Okan Özçelik; no arguments with that loss, completely outplayed. Lastly, we played our best performance of the two months, even better than the victory against Sancaktepe Bld., yet still were unable to win as we drew 1–1 with Dardanel. Tolgahan Erbay put us in front before Serdar Cansu won his side a point twelve minutes after Erbay's goal.


With five huge fixtures remaining we sit an incredibly poor eighth place, that's despite being just three points behind the leaders in January. Very annoying but we still have a chance with the play-offs, currently just three points of fifth place İstanbulspor and four off fourth place İnegölspor. That said, if this form continues we could still finish as low as fourteenth; just two places above the relegation zone which in truth would be unfair.


Here's how our final five look, I'm not feeling that confident although three of the five are against sides in the bottom six with the other two against seventh and first so maybe I should be. An incredibly tense April/May awaits!


Finally, I forgot to mention in my last update that I have signed a new one-year contract extension with Keçiörengücü. It runs until June 2020, it will of course be the end of next season; in which if we don't get promoted this season or next I may leave at the conclusion of the extension. That's a big if though, we *should* improve more next season.

Thanks for reading!

Football Manager 2015 Profile:
Full Name: Ryan Peter Skinner
Date of Birth: 13th March 1994
Place of Birth: London, England
Nationality: English
Languages spoken: English, French, Korean, Chinese, Turkish
Past playing experience: Sunday league footballer
Past playing position: Striker
Coaching qualifications: Continental Pro Licence
Favoured Club: Manchester United
Teams Managed:
24 July 2014–26 August 2017: Yanbian Changbaishan [CHN] (resigned)
03 September 2017–03 January 2018: Peterhead [SCO] (resigned)
18 January 2018–present: Keçiörengücü [TUR]
Trophy Cabinet:
empty
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Update: April 2019 and May 2019

Unsurprisingly we missed out of the play-offs, despite not losing any of our last five matches. Nine points from a possible fifteen was good form however fifth place İstanbulspor conveniently won three of their last four fixtures. Going into the final day we still had a chance to reach the play-offs, however despite beating Sandıklıspor on the final day İstanbulspor beat fourth place Altay 2–1 at home, that was after Altay missed a penalty at 0–0 and conceded a 90+1mins goal to lose, what a coincidence! Ultimately that form between February and March cost us dearly, especially the loss to İstanbulspor.

To start the run-in we eased past Ümraniyespor at home 3–0, Umut Sözen scoring along with Mehmet Kurtulmuş and İbrahim Alagöz. We then drew 1–1 with Gölbaşispor away, Ünal Noyan scored for them before the retiring Coşkun Yilmaz grabbed a seemingly huge equalising goal on 84mins. Our second win in three followed as we just found a win against Menemen Belediyespor, Mehmet Kodes put the visitors in front before Özkan Serbest got a leveller on 64mins which was followed by a 90+2mins winner for us after a beautiful free-kick from Mehmet Kurtulmuş.

Next we tied 0–0 with league leaders, and future champions, Pendik at home, despite it not helping us in the long-term it was a pretty good point. As mentioned moments ago, we went into the final day with a chance to get into the play-offs however it wasn't to be as despite winning 1–3 against Sandıklıspor thanks to İbrahim Alagöz, Mehmet Özdiraz and Deniz Perö scoring it was İstanbulspor who finished fifth after fortunately beating Altay.

Extremely disappointed not to reach the play-offs after our late season form, feel slightly hard done-by due to that but it is what it is. Hopefully with some incomings during the transfer window we can strengthen slightly and push on and at least get a play-off berth next season in 2019/20.


We finished in a very comfortable sixth place in the end, two points off fifth place. Improvement off our first half season at Keçiörengücü last season but still so frustrating as were second in January. Oh well, in the words of Steven Gerrard: We go again!

Thanks for reading!

Indeed Dan, incredibly frustrating last few months of 2018/19! 2019/20 has started OK so far. Appreciate your comment.
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Football Manager 2015 Profile:
Full Name: Ryan Peter Skinner
Date of Birth: 13th March 1994
Place of Birth: London, England
Nationality: English
Languages spoken: English, French, Korean, Chinese, Turkish
Past playing experience: Sunday league footballer
Past playing position: Striker
Coaching qualifications: Continental Pro Licence
Favoured Club: Manchester United
Teams Managed:
24 July 2014–26 August 2017: Yanbian Changbaishan [CHN] (resigned)
03 September 2017–03 January 2018: Peterhead [SCO] (resigned)
18 January 2018–present: Keçiörengücü [TUR]
Trophy Cabinet:
empty
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Update: July 2019, August 2019, September 2019

Mentioned previously I wanted to strengthen the squad and I've made four acquisitions, although one was a loan move made permanent. The first signing tied up was Ünal Noyan from Gölbaşispor on a free transfer, a striker brought in as back-up who has a few good seasons at this level in recent times; not bad for £0. After that we secured the full-time services of defensive midfielder Osman Aydoğan, Aydoğan was previously on a two season loan from Düzyurtspor and became a cog in our line-up so decided to sign him up fully as his asking price was also £0.

Aytek Öktem was the next in the door from Sandiklispor, a thirty-seven year old striker who was signed as fourth choice to replace Coşkun Yilmaz who retired; Öktem also had a decent previous season at this level scoring eight goals for a struggling side. The final incoming was probably our best, signing centre-back Samet Kumbaşi from İnegölspor for free. Kumbaşi was one of the best CBs in the division last season, he had the second highest average rating only losing to now teammate Özkan Serbest. He's done pretty good since joining.


Twelve players left us, although only two were from the first team. Those being Uğur Durmuş and Umut Sözen, both left on frees. Durmuş and I fell out during January and since then he was sitting in the U21 squad up until his departure. Sözen had been moaning about leaving for a bigger club throughout last season despite no club actually wanting him, I actually wanted him to sign a new deal however he was having none of it and subsequently left us.


Pre-season contained only five matches after I made a mistake, I believed the season start date was at the beginning of September as it was last season however it actually started August 18th but I set the players' return from the pre-season break to July 20th which only allowed a small amount of games. That aside, from the five games we won three while drawing one and losing the other. Wins coming against Tigemspor, Sakarya Yildirimspor and Dinamo Zagreb B, ten goals were scored while just one was conceded. The tie came against Bartinspor, while the only defeat was to Petrolul Ploiești II.

The season began with a superb 0–4 away victory to Alanyaspor, a completely unexpected scoreline especially with it being 0–0 on 66mins and having just four shots on target in the whole match. Deniz Perö grabbed two, İbrahim Alagöz and Mehmet Kurtulmuş also got goals. The perfect start to the season was followed by another good three points, this time at home to Altay where Deniz Perö and Aytek Öktem got the goals to secure a simple win.

This is where the form started to drop, a 4–2 away loss to Yeni Malatyaspor. We made the impeccable start when we went 0–2 up thanks to İbrahim Alagöz and Samet Kumbaşi, however Yeni somehow managed to find a way back to win 4–2. Berk Elitez got one back for Yeni on 41mins before Ergül Semih's brace and Yavuz Özsevim's scrambled finish put the hosts in front. Huge opportunity missed.

Pazarspor were next at home, we went one nil ahead in this one early on through İbrahim Alagöz's fourth minute strike but after two second-half goals from Çoşkun Arslan and Umucan Gülmez in the space of four minutes we found ourselves behind and staring at back-to-back defeats. However, winger Burak Uça stepped up right at the death on 90+3mins to snatch us a well deserved point; it wasn't the prettiest goal but I'll take it everyday of the week.

Our third away league game of the season followed as we faced Adana Demirspor and lost 1–0 after a Emre Torun goal on 50mins, a very quiet match in which nothing else really happened. A Ziraat Turkish Cup second round tie was played three days later against Bld. Bodrumspor, we made to trip to the minnows and came way with a pretty fortunate 1–2 win. I didn't attach much importance on this which was shown in the team selection, nine squad players were given a run-out and managed victory. Burak Uça and Yusuf Gögan got the clubs' goals whereas Seyithan Balaban's 58mins penalty got the non-league outfits only goal.

Dardanel came to our place and took all three points when they won 2–3 on September 22nd, no complaints with this one; we didn't deserve anything less. Kadir Baylan and Deniz Perö were our goalscorers, Burhan Yildiz got one while İbrahim Pullu and Fatih Özçelik also earned goals to give Dardanel the points. We returned to winning ways against Ofspor a week later, winning 1–2 at their home after a double from Deniz Perö; that was after Mustafa Kayabaşi put Ofspor ahead on 7mins.


After seven fixtures we sit in seventh place but are just a point outside the play-offs and only five points from top spot, an awfully long way to go.

Thanks for reading!