[FM26] The Southwest Blues

Welcome to my FM26 save, where we will be following the journey of serial Scottish Non-Leaguer Donald Forrest in his first foray in to SPFL management.

Born in Ayr, he would join the Honest men as a young scholar hoping to forge a career in football playing for his beloved team. However this didn't quite come to fruition due to setback after setback on the injury front he would himself plying his trade in and around the Lowland League and below finishing his career up with junior side Auchinleck Talbot. 

During his time at Auchinleck he would take up an interest in the coaching side of the game and eventually taking over as manager for a couple of seasons, from there he had stint with the border side Gretna 2008 before finally getting the call from the Blues

Stranraer FC the third oldest side in Scotland shold hopefully provide Donald the chance to propel his career in to the SPFL with the very clear goal of taking them to the lofty heights of the Scottish Premiership, a place in which they have never seen and if they're lucky bringing some of Europes finest to the Southwest of Scotland to play under the lights of Stair Park.

Join me again soon after our pre-season friendlies and the group stage games of the Premier Sports Cup where we hope to find a settled side in a promising formation to push in the right direction

Thanks for reading! I know this is probably a very rough first post, but I promise to try and get better as we go along, to give you all an enjoying read

Good start and will be following along, especially since I'm from Ayr as well

JULY 2025

Donald in his first month in charge had to get grips pretty quickly with the philosophy and tactics he wished to build his team upon going in to his first season. Using his previous experiences from Lowland League and Junior football he decided to keep is a simplistic as possible and set up his side as such 

Using a slight variation on the 4-4-2 in attack and defence, hoping to build a solid foundation in the test ahead with some big games in the Premier Sports Cup against the likes of Kilmarnock and Queens Park.

And WOW!!!! what a start to management for Donald. July could not have gone any better for the Blues with a comfortable 2-0 over Arbroath, followed a win on penalties away to Spartans at Ainslie Park. We then unfortunate to lose on penalties on the return home to Stair Park against Championship side Queens Park. A completely roatated side then travelled to Broadwood Stadium to take on Cumbernauld Colts in which we only managed to come away with another 1-1 draw. This had Donald wondering whether his tactics and style of play were going to be the right fit for his Blues side until the unthinkable happened on a trip to Rugby Park….

Going in to this game it was wholly expected for Donald's side to be lucky to possibly come away with a point, however 17 minutes in striker Deryn Lang netted the first goal of the evening after a deflected cross from wide man Mark Russell landed at his feet and he cooly slotted home. Constantly under the cosh the Blue's withstood the pressure for the rest of the first half feeling proud of their 1-0 lead at half time. To the away fans amazement on the 58th minute a ball lumped out wide to James Dolan who then provided a pinpoint cross for Ryan Edgar to slot home the second, only for Kilmarnock to hit back 3 minutes later and thats when the flood gates opened, both teams going blow for blow and yet it was Stranraer who held on to come away with an emphatic 4-3 win away.

Going in to final group game of the Premier Sports Cup, it was looking very unlikely we would progress despite the result against Killie. However with our new found confidence we headed back to Stair Park to take on Caley Braves and then came our most comfortable win yet, an encouraging 3-0 win, but how would that leave us in the final group table?

We came second on goal difference but to our surprise we were one of the ‘best of the rest’ and qualified for the next round in which we have drawn

And so it will be Premiership side Aberdeen at home which will hopefully draw a bumper crowd and earn the club some money

Thank you again for reading and we will be back with Donald and the boys at the end of September to see how they got on and if he has dipped in to the transfer market at all before the window shuts

Nice work with this so far, and a great start on the pitch to get into the League Cup knockouts. Best of luck!

Good start here and great read!

August 2025

And so the league campaign begins! Donald's venture begins with the board asking for a mid-table finish, how will and his Blue's side fair in League 2

Well?……

Shall we just say it has been a bit of  a mixed bag? A trip to Forfar we managed to pick up our first point with a 1-1 draw, before going back to Stair Park to play the side from the capital Edinburgh City and frustratingly we fell to a 1-0 loss. Hoping for better luck in the Scottish Challenge cup we comprehensively beat Stenhousemuir 3-1 which brings us to our League Cup 2nd Round tie against the Dons……

Unfortunately we were just never in it and probably in fact very lucky to keep it as low as only 3-0. However the positives to draw from this was the bumper crowd and the 35K we received even though we lost, which will surely help keep the club on a sure footing.

At this point Donald not overly happy with the way his strike force had been performing, he decided to dip his toe in to the transfer market for the first time and the Blue's have brought in Rangers U19's striker Jose Caleia with the hope his his clear eye for goal will propel the side forward, hoping his lack of strength and concentration won't hinder him.

With Jose coming in it made us too top heavy so Donald decided to send out Sallu Turay out on loand to his former club Auchinleck Talbot knowing he should get the minutes needed to come back and hopefully make an impact after some much needed experience

Back at it in the league the Blue's fortune now possibly worrying the fans and the board, they suffered yet another league defeat against new boys East Kilbride 3-1 

A trip back home and definetely feeling the pressure now Stranraer hosted The Bully Wee and were disappointed to have to share the spoils with a 2-2 draw the one positive being new man Jose Caleia bagged his first Blues goal

A break away from the poor league form Rangers Reserves came to town and yet again we left our shooting boots at home and the unfortunate watching 251 fans had to suffer a 0-0 bore draw

Which left the Scottish Challenge Cup new league format looking as such for the Blues sitting in a comfortable 9th spot after 2 games

Donald decided to tinker slightly going in to the final game of August by trying to get his side to control the game more possesively and make it more a traditional 4-4-2 and the central midfielders dropping back when out of possesion 

And my goodness it worked! Our most prolific performance to date yet it finally felt like we were firing on all cylinders with a 5-2 drubbing of poor Stirling Albion

Leading us in to the final day of the transfer window, where Donald using knowledge of players from another of his previous clubs brought in another loanee in the form of Craig McGuffie to give Mark Russell some competition down that left hand side

After wrapping up a less than busy transfer period we reflect on tough start to League 2 and looking at the table we aren't doing as bad as it seems sitting 7th after 5 games being in and around that mid-table area

But? Can we push on and build upon that first league win and make our way up towards the summit?

We shall see when we come back and catch up with Donald and the Blues at the end of October

@leckuno funnily enough Ayr is where I went to college. Hopefully this Ayrshire manager will do you proud

@r96 unfortunately it didn't quite go how i wanted , but to get there and be the only side below the Championship to make the 2nd Round i was definitely more than happy enough to make it there

@Dan thank you very much!

Hopefully I am bringing you all a gripping story to read. Any advice is greatly welcomed to try and make what I am bringing to the table better, but I am truly grateful for the praise and encouragement being given so far.