Sir Alex Ferguson Challenge

In 1974, Alex Ferguson was a 32 year old retired player, having just completed his career playing for Ayr United in his final season. He spent much of his playing career flitting all around the Scottish leagues, playing for Queen's Park, St Johnstone, Dunfermline Athletic, Rangers, Falkirk and the aforementioned Ayr United. He was looking for a next step. He would go into what would be the most incredible management career in football history.

He started at East Stirlingshire but only stayed for 4 months before moving on to St Mirren where he would win the second tier title in Scotland. After spending 4 seasons there, he would move onto Aberdeen where he broke the top 2 in Scotland and won 3 league titles, 4 Scottish Cups, 1 League Cup and the Cup Winner's Cup back in 1983.

His career at Manchester United may have started in 1986, but he didn't win a trophy until the 1990 FA Cup after he had been on the brink of the sack. He went on to win 13 league titles, 5 FA Cups, 4 League Cups and 2 Champions League titles. But why have I shared the history of Fergie?

SIR ALEX FERGUSON CHALLENGE
I have decided to do the unthinkable. Achieve what the great man achieved in his career. It's going to be a long process, and may even take me until the end of the game cycle, heading into FM 2024. Here are the rules of the save.

Step 1 - Team 1 (Max 2 seasons)
1 - In Scotland, you must start with a club competing in the Scottish Championship and be promoted within 2 seasons. If I don't go up by any means in first season, second season must be champions of the second tier.
2 - With the same team, I must stay in the Scottish Premiership for at least one season. Finishing above the relegation play off place is not needed, but much preferred. Ferguson achieved this with St Mirren between 1974 and 1978.

Step 2 - Team 2 - (Max 5 seasons)
1 - Stay in Scotland and take the reins of a strong team outside of the Old Firm and within 2 seasons, I must win the title. I must put together a title winning team.
2 - With the same team, within the time frame, I must also win a treble whether it is a domestic treble or with a European trophy. This must happen within the first 5 seasons.
3 - I will also end up trying to achieve what he did in his 8 seasons at Aberdeen with this second club. All the achievements at this club must be achieved within the 8 seasons.

Step 3 - Team 3 - (Max 13 seasons)
1 - I must go to England and go on holiday until 6th November.
2 - The team that are in 19th place on November 6th will be my job in England.
3 - The goal is to win a national cup within the first 4 seasons, the Premier League within 7 seasons, The double within the first 8 seasons, and the treble within 13 seasons.
4 - With this final club, I can achieve what he did within his 27 years at Manchester United between 1986 and 2013.

Optional Extra
He also managed Scotland at the 1986 FIFA World Cup so the aim would be to manage the Auld Enemy at some point and get more than what Fergie did in his own World Cup campaign which was only 1 point.
I'll do this to the best of my ability, let's see if I can overtake him.

SIR ALEX FERGUSON CHALLENGE
CLUB 1, PART 1

Introduction
The club I have decided to start at for no apparent reason is Inverness Caledonian Thistle, one of the first teams I think of when it comes to mediocre Premiership clubs from my childhood. They were a team that were made famous by the wonderful headline "Super Caley Go Ballistic, Celtic Are Atrocious". Formed in 1994, they won the 2014 Scottish Cup in their only major honour to date. We are there to see if we can do what needs to be achieved in our first two seasons in this challenge.

The board are also thinking we could do this in our first two seasons with the aim of at least the play offs this season with the media predicting us to be in 3rd place.

I'm going to go for a 4-3-3 formation first of all and see where that gets me. I want to try and get the players playing with a nice passing move every game, but if that doesn't work, I will revert to more direct. Our Premier Sports Cup group looks nice enough, with no Scottish Premiership teams in it at all. I would say the big game for us will be when we have to play Dundee as they are the favourites for the league. A result in that game would be huge for us to not only get further in the League Cup, but to also have a psychological advantage for the rest of the season.

Our one and only game before we kick off our Premier Sports Cup campaign is against Hibernian, managed by another English manager in Lee Johnson. We dominated up until about the 60th minute, but unfortunately we gave away a penalty which they duly converted. A narrow 1-0 defeat against an established Premiership outfit is not the worst result in the world though. I decided that one game wouldn't be enough for me before we started competitive games, so after their recent Scottish Cup exploits in real life, I decided we'd play Darvel in a second friendly away from home, just so we could get the goals in.

Before we played the second friendly, we've managed to sign this guy as our director of football, much needed experience in my back room team.

We've also signed Tommy Wright as a Chief Scout, I really enjoy having a full back room team at my clubs and that will be something that will follow me around for my career.

We hit 29 shots against Darvel, but amazingly were held to a 0-0 draw, rather annoyingly. Our pre-season results haven't been great but as I will be doing the competitive games month by month, I'll stop here. There's loads of time to sign some new players and I will be active during the Premier Sports Cup group. Our first game is at home against Cove Rangers. I'll see you for that update.

SIR ALEX FERGUSON CHALLENGE

CLUB 1, PART 2

July 2022

Welcome to my second update. Coming up this month, we have the entire group stage of the Premier Sports Cup, all games will be covered in this update. We also play a testimonial match, and finally our first league game of the season. But first things first, we've made our first player signing of the transfer window.

We signed him for just shy of £12,000 from Kilmarnock, someone who helped his side secure promotion last season in real life, so he knows exactly what to do at this level. He could be important and very creative through the middle, he's definitely someone who could nab himself a few goals to help the team out. He'll be used sporadically, but will get some decent game time, especially with cup games coming up. We'll see what he does in those games and that'll show me how I can use him. Austin Samuels has been ruled out of the Cup games and the start of the season after pulling ligaments in his knee. He'll be out for 4 weeks.

One of our main men has also left the club in Robbie Deas. They offered £66,000 for him, and Aberdeen was certainly appealing for him with the chance to play top division football. I feel like we have a decent squad here anyway and was worried he would kick up a fuss if he didn't go. I wish him luck for the future.

Saturday 9th July 2022

Premier Sports Cup Group A

Inverness Caledonian Thistle 3-1 Cove Rangers (Daniel Mackay 35', 88', 90+3'; Mitch Megginson 57')

A very inspired performance from the boot of Daniel Mackay gave us all three points in our first game in this group, but the game was in doubt until very late on. A long ball found Billy McKay who flicked it on to his almost namesake to give us the lead. We dominated newly promoted Cove but they equalised after a lapse in our defence allowed Dunne to find an unmarked Megginson who tapped in despite the keeper's attempts to save. Mackay scored our second after a ball played across the box missed McKay, but Mackay slotted in for his second. He completed his hat trick with a wonderful pick out by Boyd, and Mackay tucked away to lift us into second in the group.

Other Results: Elgin City 6-2 Cowdenbeath

Wednesday 13th July 2022

Premier Sports Cup Group A

Cowdenbeath 2-7 Inverness Caledonian Thistle

(Iain Davidson 3' (pen), Carlos Lyon 56'; Daniel MacKay 5', Cameron Harper 18', Nathan Shaw 27', 35', Billy McKay 53', 71', David Carson 70')

A goal filled game saw us get the better of Lowland League Cowdenbeath, scoring a magnificent 7. It was a bad start for us with Davidson converting from the spot to give the non-leaguers the lead. But we equalised almost straight away, MacKay was in the mood again. This time his team-mates helped him out. A fantastic run by Harper was finished off with a fantastic strike into the near top corner to give us the lead. Then a couple of balls into the box found Shaw who grabbed 2 to finish the game off on 35 minutes. Billy McKay grabbed his first of the season after beating the offside trap to make it 5. Carlos Lyon got another back for The Blue Brazil. But David Carson and a second from McKay gave us an emphatic win and took us top of the group.

Other Results: Dundee 2-2 Elgin City (Elgin City win on penalties)

Saturday 16th July 2022

Premier Sports Cup Group A

Inverness Caledonian Thistle 4-2 Dundee (Billy McKay 8' (pen), 14', Daniel MacKay 52', 56'; Luke McCowan 3', 81')

We picked up our 3rd win of the group with a very well played win over Championship favourites Dundee. It looked like it would be a long afternoon when McCowan put Dundee ahead inside 3 minutes. But we got a penalty 5 minutes later which McKay stuck into the corner. He then doubled his personal tally for the afternoon after 14 to give us a narrow lead into half time despite Dundee's chances. Daniel MacKay picked up his 5th and 6th of the groups after half time with two well taken efforts. McCowan got a goal with nearly 10 to go to give the travelling Dundee fans faint hope but we held on and secured another convincing win over Championship opposition.

Other Results: Cove Rangers 3-2 Cowdenbeath

It's always good to confirm a signing by the way, and something nice to look at before we play the testimonial away at Montrose. Connor Shields is 24 years old, and came in from Motherwell on a 2 year deal. It's always good to bring in Premiership quality players and he made 25 top flight appearances for his previous club. Playing on the right wing seems to be his forte, but has fantastic ability for this division, and I'm sure he will help us put up a promotion push.

We did play a Testimonial game at Montrose in midweek where I fielded most of my reserve players to keep the first teamers rested for the Elgin City game and we still trounced Montrose 4-0, goals being scored by Steven Boyd, 2 from George Oakley and a 4th from David Carson gave the entire squad some huge confidence as we head into the season properly now, with no more friendlies scheduled. The following night would be the penultimate match day in our group, the one we're missing out on. If results go our way, we will go through. Cove Rangers picked up their second win of the group to beat Elgin City 3-1, and Dundee travelled to Cowdenbeath and picked up only their first win of the group by beating them 4-0. Cowdenbeath will end bottom after conceding 20 goals in 4 games. We head into the match away at Elgin, only needing a draw after 90 minutes.

Saturday 23rd July 2022

Premier Sports Cup Group A

Elgin City 0-1 Inverness Caledonian Thistle (Billy McKay 32' (pen))

A very dominating performance, but 1 goal was enough for the first time this season. It was nice to see us stay compact and tight at the back in this final group game as we didn't need to stretch ourselves too much against League Two opposition. We got a penalty just after the half hour mark, and Billy McKay scored his 5th of the season to complete a wonderful group stage for us, and for us to progress into the Second Round draw of the Premier Sports Cup. Up next is the draw, and if we avoid an Old Firm side, I think we will have a chance of progressing further.

Other Results: Dundee 2-1 Cove Rangers

So the final Group A table looks a little like this. I predicted us and Dundee to finish 1 and 2 when I looked at the draw but Dundee were awful during this group, only really turning it on as we went into the final two games, and by then we kind of knew what we were doing in the group. We should never have put 4 past them in our game and I hope they're stronger in the league. The only defeats for Cove Rangers were to both us and Dundee and I think they will have a tough season in the Championship. Elgin beat Dundee on penalties which was a fantastic result for them and Cowdenbeath were just hopeless.

Premier Sports Cup Second Round Draw

St Mirren vs Celtic

Livingston vs Hearts

Kilmarnock vs St Johnstone

Inverness vs Alloa Athletic

Motherwell vs Ross County

Queen of the South vs Rangers

Dundee United vs Airdrieonians

Hibernian vs Arbroath

OH MY GOD!!!!!!! How have we managed that draw? Avoided all of the Premiership teams and we face League One opposition in Alloa. Not to belittle Alloa but we have to win that game surely. But upsets happen every season and we need to make sure we're avoiding the banana skin. Now, on to the league and we face newly promoted Queen's Park.

Saturday 30th July 2022

Cinch Championship

Inverness Caledonian Thistle 6-4 Queen's Park 

(Billy McKay 9', 16', 45+2', 54', 89' (pen), Steven Boyd 90+6'; Dominic Thomas 63', Scott Williamson 69', 72', 76')

We were 4-0 up in this one, believe it or not and if I ever praise a clean sheet ever again, you can shoot me. It was going really well. Billy McKay scoring a first half hat trick and then a 4th on 54 minutes, we should have seen this game out comfortably. Dominic Thomas got one back but I was still calm. But then came Scott Williamson. A 7 minute hat-trick left us stunned. There's being complacent then there's this. He was unstoppable. Everything he touched in that 7 minute spell went in. We couldn't touch him. Suddenly at 4-4, I'm having visions, nightmares in fact about how I was going to explain this to you. Then the referee pointed to the penalty spot. Billy McKay stepped up, scored his and our 5th, and it takes him to 10 goals for the season already. Steven Boyd smashed the ball into the net for his first of the season in the 96th minute and relaxed me a bit more. This should not have been as close as it was. We nearly had our pants pulled down, and Queen's Park may have deserved it for their second half performance. But we take the points, thankfully.

Other Results: Cove Rangers 0-1 Raith Rovers, Dundee 4-1 Partick Thistle, Hamilton 4-0 Greenock Morton, Ayr United 3-2 Arbroath

The Cinch Premiership table means little after Day 1, but at the end of every month I will put the league table in so yeah deal with it haha. We currently sit in 3rd after that 10 goal thriller, with Hamilton leading the way, and Dundee just behind on goal difference.

Manager's Thoughts:

We can score goals. We're absolutely incredible going forward. We're creating chances and 9 times out of 10, we're sticking multiple away in games. We've hit 7, we've hit 6, we've hit 4 and 3 this month. Our problem is at the back. I was on a mad attacking formation through the League Cup group and thought we could just tone it down and I started that with the Elgin game. I thought we could just start keeping more clean sheets. In the Queen's Park game, I genuinely thought we were going to cruise the second half and then the floodgates opened and we nearly dropped 2 points. If there's something I'm going to do in the new month, it's work on that defending cause the strikers have their bit covered. I hope you've enjoyed the start. See you in August.

SIR ALEX FERGUSON CHALLENGE

CLUB 1, PART 3

August 2022

Hello and welcome to the next step on our road to eternal glory with the SAF challenge with Inverness. We've started well this season by winning all of our group games in the Premier Sports Cup, and we won our first game of the season, despite nearly throwing it away of course. We're not going to do things easily in this save. Coming up, we have 4 league games to properly sink our teeth into the new season, before we face the chance to progress further in the League Cup as we face Alloa Athletic in the Second Round. We also will find out who we will face in our first SPFL Trophy match of the season as I would like to add that to our trophy cabinet. Let's see how this month went.

Saturday 6th August 2022

Cinch Championship

Arbroath 0-2 Inverness Caledonian Thistle (Billy McKay 12', David Carson 73')

A routine win to start the month then against Arbroath and without drama as well, as we keep our first clean sheet in the league. The win felt comfortable and the players seemed confident. Not much happened outside of the goals. Billy McKay was still on fire from his 5-goal haul against Queen's Park and he gave us the lead when he controlled a long ball from Brown, chested it to his feet and hit home from just inside the penalty area to make it 1-0. The second goal was a wonderful strike from 25 yards out by David Carson, the ball rolled back to him, he took a touch and hit it to make it 2-0. The 3 points were well deserved, and we took 2 wins from 2.

Other Results: Queen's Park 0-4 Ayr United, Greenock Morton 2-0 Cove Rangers, Partick Thistle 3-1 Hamilton, Raith Rovers 0-1 Dundee

Saturday 13th August 2022

Cinch Championship

Inverness Caledonian Thistle 2-0 Cove Rangers (Matty Allan 38', Daniel MacKay 83')

We then took on a struggling Cove Rangers side, who we also beat in the League Cup just under a month ago, and this time we won by another 2-goal margin to propel us up to top spot for the first time this season. The opener came just 7 minutes before half time, a throw in played into the box was knocked down to the feet of our centre back Matty Allan, who had come forward for the throw in. He took it down, on the turn, and hit a shot towards goal which deflected past the keeper and put us a goal up. The second was scored 7 minutes from time, a team move found it's way to Connor Shields on the right, who played it across goal and found MacKay running in from the left for him to tap it in. Back to back clean sheets for the first time this season, all departments actually playing well at the moment. 

Other Results: Dundee 1-0 Arbroath, Ayr United 0-2 Hamilton, Queen's Park 1-1 Partick Thistle, Raith Rovers 0-2 Greenock Morton

Friday 19th August 2022

Cinch Championship

Partick Thistle 0-2 Inverness Caledonian Thistle (Austin Samuels 85', Steven Boyd 87')

A less than convincing win away at Partick as they had a real go at us for the majority of the game in our first TV game under the lights this season. We both had goals ruled out for offside but in the end, the two changes I made around the 70th minute, proved to make the difference. The opener came with just 5 minutes to play, the ball broke to Austin Samuels and he slid the ball under the keeper to give us the lead with only a small amount of time to go. We confirmed the win just 2 minutes later, we won the ball back from their kick off and did some magnificent team work to find Steven Boyd on the edge of the box. He ran into said box, and fired home under the keeper to give us all 3 points, keep up our 100% record and move 2 points clear with results going our way the next day.

Saturday Results: Arbroath 3-1 Queen's Park, Cove Rangers 1-2 Ayr United, Greenock Morton 1-1 Dundee, Hamilton 0-1 Raith Rovers

Saturday 27th August 2022

Cinch Championship

Inverness Caledonian Thistle 1-1 Greenock Morton (Billy McKay 5'; Alexander King 11')

We dropped our first points of the season by drawing to a battling Greenock Morton side who picked up a point against Dundee last week. A long ball found it's way forward to Billy McKay who did what he's always done. One-on-one with the keeper, held his nerve and slid it under him to give us a nice early goal to get us on our way to another 3 points. Or so I thought. Morton equalised 6 minutes later when we gave away a free kick 20 yards out, and King thunderbolted it in to the top right hand corner, leaving Ridgers stranded and making it 1-1 before we realised it. We did get a penalty in the second half, and Billy McKay stepped up. Unfortunately he blazed it over the bar and we couldn't do anything more. Morton defended as a unit and we only got a point, but we still maintained our 2 point lead. 

Other Results: Ayr United 0-0 Dundee, Hamilton 1-0 Arbroath, Partick Thistle 2-1 Raith Rovers, Queen's Park 1-1 Cove Rangers

The table has a good look to it at the end of August. We hold on to that 2 point lead after Dundee dropped points for the second week running, but we remain the only 2 unbeaten teams in the league at the moment. Ayr United and Hamilton occupy the other play off spots. At the bottom, it's currently a battle between the 2 teams that came up from League 1, with Cove Rangers propping up the league in their first season at this level. Arbroath have made a slow start, especially after the heights they reached last season.

SPFL Trust Trophy Third Round Draw

Rangers B vs Hamilton

Annan Athletic vs Brora Rangers

Cliftonville vs Peterhead

Celtic B vs Ayr United

St Mirren Reserves vs FC Edinburgh

Queen's Park vs Stranraer

Falkirk vs Raith Rovers

Queen of the South vs Inverness

Partick Thistle vs Airdrieonians

Dundee vs Caernarfon

Dundee United Reserves vs Clyde

Linfield vs Alloa Athletic

Cove Rangers vs Montrose

The New Saints vs Arbroath

Dunfermline Athletic vs East Fife

Kelty Hearts vs Greenock Morton

Tuesday 30th August 2022

Premier Sports Cup Second Round

Inverness Caledonian Thistle 3-1 Alloa Athletic (Aaron Doran 6', Billy McKay 56', Adam Devine 61'; Ross MacIver 33')

We faced League One opposition in the Second Round of the League Cup and a convincing win booked our place in the Quarter Final. We opened the scoring inside 6 minutes, a cross field ball found Doran sneaking in at the far post, and our good form in the Cup seemed to be continuing. Alloa never lost heart though, and they equalised just after the half hour mark, the ball falling to MacIver in the penalty area, and he had the simple task of putting the ball into the back of the net from 10 yards out, completely unmarked. 2 goals in 5 minutes won the tie. Goals from McKay, and our new on-loan right back from Rangers, Adam Devine, who produced a fantastic finish from the corner of the box after a team move, booked our place as the only non top flight team in the Quarters.

Other Results: Dundee United 3-0 Airdrieonians, Hibernian 2-0 Arbroath, Kilmarnock 0-2 St Johnstone, Livingston 1-2 Hearts, Motherwell 3-0 Ross County, Queen of the South 0-2 Rangers, St Mirren 0-5 Celtic

Premier Sports Cup Quarter Final Draw

Inverness vs Dundee United

Rangers vs Hibernian

Motherwell vs Hearts

Celtic vs St Johnstone

With not much at all happening on Deadline Day in Scotland, these are the players I've signed and sold over the Summer. We've made important purchases, signing the likes of Shields, Brown, Allan and Devine, all of which have made their debuts this month. The biggest sale of the month was Robbie Deas moving to Aberdeen for £66,000, but all the rest being players going out on loan to our affiliate clubs and/or lower league clubs to pick up some much needed experience. 

Manager's Thoughts:

Last month, I was wanting to start working on our defence as I felt we were conceding far too many goals, culminating in that win over Queen's Park, when we nearly chucked the opening game away. This month, the defence massively improved. We only conceded 2 in 5 matches, 3 clean sheets and 4 wins. We sit top of the table and we've made the Quarter-Finals of the Premier Sports Cup which we will play in October. Being the only team outside of the big time in that draw, I feel we can beat Dundee United or at least give them a game. I feel our transfer window has gone really well as well with new defensive rearguards improving the concession rate of goals. All in all, we continued our fantastic start to the season, still unbeaten and looking forward to seeing what happens next. See you soon for the September update.

SIR ALEX FERGUSON CHALLENGE

CLUB 1, PART 4

September 2022

Hello and welcome to my latest update as we head into the third full month of our competitive season. Unbeaten in 5 games at the top of the Championship from the start of the season, the only club breathing down our neck at the moment are Dundee. We play 3 more games in the league in this update against Raith Rovers, Hamilton Academical and the big game at Dens Park away against Dundee, before we play our first game in the Scottish Challenge Cup, against League One opposition in Queen of the South. The aim for this month will be to carry on our good form from last month, staying sharp at the back, when we break forward making sure we are effective with our chances. Feed McKay and he will score at the moment. He's already got 12 goals this season and is the top scorer in the Championship with 7 goals, 4 clear of the lads in second place. The transfer window also proved kind for us with our fresh resources in our defence. We now have an abundance of quality at the back and creating chances as well.

David Carson comes third in the August Player of the Month.

But I win my first manager of the month for August after starting wonderfully this season. Only 2 dropped points in the league this season. Good way to start September.

Saturday 3rd September 2022

Cinch Championship

Raith Rovers 2-2 Inverness Caledonian Thistle (Aidan Connolly 85', Dylan Easton 90'; Matty Allan 45+1', Austin Samuels 69')

Another lead thrown away like it was against Queen's Park, but this time it was too late to try and salvage the three points. Billy McKay got injured early on so I had to replace him with Austin Samuels midway through the first half. It was Matty Allan who gave us the lead on the stroke of half time with a thunderbolt free-kick into the top left hand corner for his second goal of the season. Austin Samuels doubled the advantage after a through ball from Shields enabled him to slot home with 20 minutes to go. It looked like we'd secured the points but Connolly grabbed one for Raith with 5 minutes to go. Dylan Easton grabbed a lucky equaliser at the death as the ball couldn't be cleared properly and he put his foot round it and fired into the roof of the net. 2 points dropped, but we still haven't lost in the league. We now only sit top on goal difference after Dundee came back from 4-1 down to beat Queen's Park 6-4.

Other Results: Arbroath 1-2 Partick Thistle, Cove Rangers 1-0 Hamilton, Dundee 6-4 Queen's Park, Greenock Morton 3-0 Ayr United

Saturday 10th September 2022

Cinch Championship

Inverness Caledonian Thistle 3-2 Hamilton Academical (Billy McKay 16', 18', 26'; Dario Zanatta 62', Jamie Hamilton 86')

A game of two halves where we were incredible in the first half, and very lacklustre in the second half and we nearly threw this one away as well. Billy McKay gave us the lead after 16 minutes, and got his second just two minutes later, both with trademark finishes underneath the keeper. His third was a tap in from a deflected shot on goal which would prove to be the goal that we needed. Hamilton missed a penalty when they ballooned it over the bar just before half time. In the second half, it was a Hamilton barrage of attacks and Dario Zanatta got his head onto a decent cross to get them back into the game. Jamie Hamilton scored for his name sake club with 4 minutes to go to set up a nervy finish, after a corner was cleared, the ball was crossed back in and Hamilton got there ahead of our defence to reduce the deficit to 1. Thankfully, we held on for our first league win in 3 games. 

Other Results: Arbroath 4-0 Raith Rovers, Ayr United 2-1 Partick Thistle, Queen's Park 1-0 Greenock Morton, Cove Rangers 1-2 Dundee

Saturday 17th September 2022

Cinch Championship

Dundee 1-2 Inverness Caledonian Thistle (Alex Jakubiak 90+5' (pen); Billy McKay 10', 41')

2nd played 1st at Dens Park, only separated via goal difference. Something had to give here. Both teams went into this one unbeaten, but it's us that take the spoils and we keep our unbeaten start with a 2-1 win against Dundee. Billy McKay is the king of making the runs through the middle and he did it again. A ball from Daniel MacKay through the middle found Billy and he ran through one on one to slot past the keeper for 1-0. It was 2-0 4 minutes before half time as a long ball to MacGregor was played on across the area for McKay to tap in for the second. We held on for the rest of the game but unfortunately we gave away a penalty in the dying embers, and Jakubiak converted for us to lose our clean sheet. But a big win, and we are back clear at the top of the league. HUGE RESULT!

Other Results: Greenock Morton 1-2 Arbroath, Partick Thistle 2-1 Cove Rangers, Raith Rovers 2-3 Ayr United, Hamilton 1-2 Queen's Park

Saturday 24th September 2022

SPFL Trust Trophy Third Round

Queen of the South 1-1 Inverness Caledonian Thistle (Inverness win 4-2 on penalties) (Lee Connelly 87'; Roddy MacGregor 32')

We most definitely were not at our best in this game. League One opposition in Queen of the South, and they really turned up. We took the lead through the scrappiest of goals through MacGregor, a ball in from Doran from the left found Roddy in the box, and he fired the ball at the keeper and it rebounded back off him to make it 1-0. Connelly forced the game into a penalty shoot out with a headed finish from a Lo-Everton cross. We took the win on penalties despite missing one penalty, Carson slotting home the winner after two saves from Ridgers. Upset averted, we go through to the Fourth Round.

Other Results: Annan Athletic 2-0 Brora Rangers, Celtic B 0-2 Ayr United, Cliftonville 2-2 Peterhead (Peterhead win on penalties), Cove Rangers 2-1 Montrose, Dundee 6-3 Caernarfon, Dundee United Reserves 4-0 Clyde, Dunfermline Athletic 2-1 East Fife, Falkirk 1-0 Raith Rovers, Kelty Hearts 1-3 Greenock Morton, Linfield 2-1 Alloa Athletic, Partick Thistle 2-0 Airdrieonians, Queen's Park 5-2 Stranraer, Rangers B 0-1 Hamilton, St Mirren Reserves 0-2 FC Edinburgh, The New Saints 1-0 Arbroath

SPFL Trust Trophy Fourth Round Draw

The New Saints vs Cove Rangers

Queen's Park vs Annan Athletic

Dunfermline Athletic vs Dundee

Dundee United Reserves vs Ayr United

Peterhead vs Linfield

Inverness vs Hamilton

FC Edinburgh vs Partick Thistle

Falkirk vs Greenock Morton

This is the table as we head into October and it's as tight as it can be. We've only got a game in hand because the game weekend has already started and Dundee defeated Hamilton 2-1. It's going to be between us all season I hope, but we got an incredible result at Dens Park in that big game in the league. We have the upper hand on them, and I hope we can keep that through the season. Ayr United have started incredibly well and they are holding a comfortable play off place. Partick hold 4th at the moment. Cove Rangers have been cut adrift at the bottom, they're 4 points from the relegation play off place which Raith now hold. Queen's Park have had a few important results this month as they get used to the league.

Manager's Thoughts:

My thoughts for this month are delight almost as much as frustration to be honest. Looking back, we didn't keep a single clean sheet this month. I thought we were shoring up that defence but apparently not. We've been scoring the goals to help us out, I suppose, but games are also won on defending as we showed in September. We are still unbeaten in all competitions. We're through to the Fourth Round of the Challenge Cup and we also have a League Cup Quarter-Final coming up in October. But we need to work on that defending side again, it was going too well at one point. We haven't kept a clean sheet since the 19th August when we beat Partick away from home. But I'm not here to worry about that. Let's see how we deal with October and see how long this unbeaten run lasts.