Conquering Britain (British Steel 2013)

Ahh poor luck with the Hammers matey. Surprised to see how badly they have been mis-managed to end up in League One!

Hopefully your redemption starts with Knockbreda!

Good luck once again buddy

Just hit January in the Nothern Irish League and Lady Luck's been treating me much better in NI than in England.





Same old at lower league clubs, getting rid of the deadweight high earners and replacing them with some quality and youngsters to save money and win titles, though none of the signings have been a revelation, most of them have gelled and you can see it in the fixtures!




A decent preseason, thrashing lower league sides and putting up a strong fight against higher league teams, we started the league with a loss to Dundela. A shelling afterwards, the boys put us in a dominating position in the league with a 15 game unbeaten (league) run. Looking good for the promotion now, and Collin, Maybin, Rainford and Needham have been key to our success in the league. However with us starting to concede more goals we might need to go a little more defensive so that we can grind out wins as the draws are going to hurt us.

Big wins over Lurgan Celtic and Portstewart though, they are our closest competitors and promotion will have to be 2 of these 3 sides.



So we are on top, leading the group with 4 points above next best Lurgan Celtic. We have already won 1 round against Lurgan Celtic and if it is still this tight and it comes down to the final few games of the season, there is another must win against Portstewart and Celtic. None of the rest of the teams look like true contenders but we will see over the course of the next 14 games!



We basically, with the exception of the Irish Cup, were knocked out on our second outing, first in the League cup by Lurgan Celtic, then in the Steel and Sons Cup against Bangor and in the Intermediate Cup against Chimney Corner. Didn't really concentrate on these cups and merely just took a chance to rest some of my key players during the match, so not too upset about that. We might be able to be competitive in the Steel and Sons Cup in the future, considering it takes place over a month's break in the league fixtures, keeping our squad fit.

Good half of the season so far, aiming to get a 65 points win for this league, which doesn't really look like a problem considering the gap in class.


Charlie: Thank you again! Honestly I was pretty surprised too, when I declared my interest I thought I was signing up for a Premier Division worthy club, but look how that turned out!

Dan: Thanks Dan once again! Luck's definitely on my side for this one!

A similarly decent run of fixtures picking less draws in the second half of the season but 3 defeats in total. However we did manage to get about the same number of points, winning the N. Ireland 2nd Division title with 3 games to go. With a total of 20 wins, 6 draws and 4 losses, this season has been decently successful we will be hoping to build upon that for silverware next season.



I can't say we were surprise packages considering Knockbreda just were relegated from the First Division after winning promotion a few seasons ago, but it is definitely nice to be exceeding low expectations and that can only mean good for me!

Trevor Maybin definitely one of our key players moving forward with a healthy age of 19 and Needham, the culprit of many spectacular goals may decline over the next season as he is well on the wrong side of 30. Michael Cunningham has been a rock at the back this season making extremely good tackles. Even though the coach's rating is only a paltry 2 stars, he played an average of 7.1 rating per game and I am thoroughly impressed.

Still a bit disappointed with the way we concede so many long shots from 20 yards, 30 yards. No idea who's at fault but it sure isn't great and we need to reduce those chances greatly if we want to do decently in the First Division.



Champions of the 2nd Division were Knockbreda F.C. of course.

Unexpectedly, Dundela and Sports and Leisure had a brilliant run in form, coming in 2nd place and 3rd place respectively, overtaking the midseason favourites to go up in Portstewart who ended up in 4th, and Lurgan Celtic who ended up in 5th.

At the wrong end of the table we see Wakehurst go down and H&W Welders the unfortunate victims of a relegation scrap.



On the cup front we did decently since the last update, with a big replay win over 1st division Ards and a subsequent narrow loss against another 1st division team Coagh Utd. Next season we will probably be competing on all fronts and trying to get those lower league cups in the bag before a promotion, so promotion isn't really the biggest thing on my mind at the moment unless we manage to get all the lower league cups in the bag before the end of this season. I forsee it to be a 2-3 season stint in the First Division if we manage to continue to impress with this great form and do not get relegated!

Few trip-ups so far matey. But overall a strong showing in the league.

KIU

As you can see, not too busy in the transfer window, though picking up gems of players in Welsh player Lewis from rivals Dundela and Singleton. Both will be present in our seemingly shaky defense this season. Hugh Maguire is just a player to add to the youth ranks to see where he can go from there, appraised highly by player/scout Buchanan.

Leaving, we have former captain Alan Inns who has been seeing more of the physio room than the pitch and the rest were just surplus to requirements.



Preseason went pretty well, big wins over lesser teams and a blip against Ballymoney followed by an impressive draw against Ballymena.

A poor showing against Dungannon in the opening match was clearly forgotten as we went on a 6 game rampage mostly in the cups. Trevor Maybin hitting 10 goals in the season this early due to the massive amount of fixtures we had. Clearly on form, he netted 3 goals against Churchill United and the fixture after against Top tier side Distillery he netted 4, really showing why he has been everpresent in attack last season and this. He continues scoring crucial goals every game, and for a 20 year old, is definitely a player i would like to keep to the Premier.

Strong showing in the cups, though not a strong showing in the league:



With 1 win and 1 draw out of 4 games, we have 4 points and lie in 10th place, still safe from the relegation zone. It is still early but if only we can turn our cup form into wins in the league we would be doing much better and could even try to push from a top half place in the league.

Charlie: Thanks Charlie, it's been pretty good so far, team has overall been playing well! Definitely looking to get more silverware this season!

Well done on another title buddy

No problems in the First Division so far!



3 of the 4 losses came in the league, the other coming from a big loss to Glentoran in the Co. Antrim Shield, knocking us out of that cup in the Semi Finals. Strangely enough, we managed to hit back in the League Cup just a few days after and take our revenge on Glentoran. Trevor Maybin still our star player hitting brilliant runs of form for many games before being quiet for a few. But when he scores, the scoring doesn't stop. He has hit at least 20 goals this season and has more than 3 hattricks already so far. With the league still at or about the halfway mark, he is definitely the key to our success.

Buchanan has hit some sort of form, allowing us to take the wins on the odd occasion that Maybin doesn't score and along with Needham, we have a pretty decent team that might allow us to contend for promotion:



In total 6 wins, 3 draws and 5 losses puts us in the top half of the table giving us a lot of room for error. 5 points behind the leaders Dungannon, which is big jump from where we were at the start of the season is encouraging and I would be expecting us to be able to claim some small cups this season.

The final of the Steel & Sons Cup was played on Christmas Day and boy did the boys get what they wished for...



A well executed finish Barry Coyle would never forget as he wins the trophy for the team despite the blemish of a late red card for James Lewis.



We dominated the game from start to finish but the 1 goal is all we had and I gladly take it!

First Division: 4th
Irish Cup : 4th Round
League Cup: Semi Final
S&S Cup: Winners
Co. Antrim Shield: Lost in Semi
Intermediate: 3rd Round

Dan: Thanks Dan!

well done on another cup win matey

Great showing in your first season in this Division! Wobbly start but 5 points off top with 14 games played is solid!

A wee push could see you challenging for the title to add to your cup success.

Sorry have been away for a while and couldn't play much overseas! Back though and will be posting again.



Good run of results in the league and the important cups for this season. Only losses come against Linfield the eventual Premier Division champions and the First Division towards the end of the season. Pretty impressive results allowing Buchanan to shine in the scoring department while Maybin starts to slow in terms of goals. All games besides the last 3 games and the cup win over Cliftonvillle were also conceding max of 1 goal, summing up the impressive defensive display from our team.



The great run sends us into second place which is the place with a playoff, with 2 games to go and 4 points behind the first place. Only a great deal of luck can send us into the first position, but I would gladly take the playoff spot!

Season Wrap.



Month of April kicked off with the Irish Cup Semifinal where we controlled the game and sealed the win via a strike from Maybin as well as right winger Coyle to send us into an unexpected Irish Cup Final.

This then turned our fortunes as we hit out at Ballyclare, as they had no response to our 4 goal thumping with goals from Buchanan substitute Frannie Collin, amateur left-back Gordon and Maybin and Coyle again, while they scored a consolation goal in the dying minutes of the game. This secured our 3 points, but as Dungannon won their respective fixture, they won the league, leaving us in secure position for the 2nd place promotion playoff

Then came the Intermediate Cup Final. As I would like to think we are the best team by far in the lower divisions of the Northern Irish leagues, this should have been a breeze, but they took the lead in the 14th minute instead. A loss here meant that we would have to stay in this division for another season to secure this cup. Fortunately the team knew and equalised through a good header from Needham. and the rest is history.





The last game of the league had us visit Newry in a deadweight fixture for us as we had already secured second place. This allowed us to rest some key players for the Irish Cup Final and the Promotion playoffs that were coming in May. 2 goals from Jamie Rainford and one from a corner which Ian Singleton knocked in allowed us to have the greatest goal difference in the league with +17. 50 goals in 26 matches is nearly 2 goals per match and Maybin our top scorer accounted for 19 of those and Buchanan accounted for 8 of those. Maybin also picked up the golden boot award equivalent in NI and unlocked a steam achievement for me haha.



In May we had 3 extremely important fixtures and fortunately they were reasonably far apart.



Promotion playoff 1st leg was somewhat surprising, in a good way. Our unexpected contenders put 4 away goals past the struggling Portadown to almost seal the fixture despite a consolation goal from the home side, Maybin still having the scoring in his boots.

Next we met Carrick in the N.Irish Cup Finals, a massive fixture and one I did not expect to win considering the quality of the Carrick side.





2-2 at Final time was probably the best indicator of how the 2 teams fared against each other but fatigue was always going to play a part in the extra time. Lax defending by the other team allowed us to put 2 past them in extra time and seal the fixture and win the N.Irish Cup!

The last fixture this season was again against Portadown with the second leg of the promotion-relegation playoffs. all we had to do was not lose by 3 goals but the result was once again in our favour as we put 3 past their helpless goalkeeper and despite their second goal of the 2 legs, we showed our Premier League material and sealed the promotion for ourselves.



All in all the season has been greatly productive with unexpected promotion and 3 cups to go along with it.

Maybin has again been the light of my life as he nets 30+ times in 53 appearances definitely deserving the praise he's getting. Buchanan has been a valuable strike partner alongside him. Needham, Coyle and our central defenders Lewis and Singleton definitely were key players as well, racking up many goals in the process.

Got carried away playing the whole season... A good season, missing out on the title because of the drop in form in the dying matches of the league. If not, Northern Ireland would be done bar a regional competition Mid Ulster, which Knockbreda aren't in.



2nd in the league means Euro cup for us, may be good for the finances and attendances this season! Hopefully it will put us in a decent financial state, since the club have been in the red ever since I took over.




The good form in the middle of the season also saw us beat Linfield the league champions 5-1 in the Co Antrim Shield. The lower teams are what cost us the title this season and if we just turn that around next season it should be a breeze to the title.




Carrick proved a tougher opponent and they took it all the way to the penalties where we eventually triumphed!

2 down, 2 to go in N. Ireland!

Another good season pal! Unlucky missing out on the title in the last few games

Dan: Yeah Dan it was tough seeing the final games decide our fate like that but that's fm!






A season that has my wage budget cut by about 15% from 3200pw to 2700pw can only spell trouble. I had to let a few of those running out of contracts go including some promising talents that were demanding too much. After that I couldn't even bring anyone in, but I think the first string as well as some good fatigue management and the fact that we only have 1 competition to compete for will probably do it for us so we can edge Linfield this season!



Our second outing in the Euro Cup started off with a draw against Slovakians Trnava. We travelled to Slovakia only for the inexperience in European outings to hit us as they scored 3 early goals against us. We managed to score a precious away goal through Buchanan but the Slovakians proved too strong for us on the day.

A week later they visited for the second leg. The same number of goals, but in favour of us. 3 second half goals with 2 from Buchanan and one from club legend Burns sealed the match, though their 2 goals meant that they would be through to the next round.

5 friendlies were played before the season proper started and a decent run in those games albeit the teams being lower league teams. But morale is up! Only thing though, is Trevor Maybin hasnt scored in all those games... and that presents a worry for me.

The season kicked off with a match against Carrick, League Cup runners up. A draw was on the cards as we havent had 3 points against them since September last year. They took first blood and we equalised 3 times in the game, with goals coming from heavyweights Maybin and Buchanan, looking to rediscover their unbelievable partnership the past 2 seasons.

A second draw from 2 came against recently promoted P.S.N.I. with Captain Lewis netting a corner before they equalised in the dying minutes of the game.

Our poor form continued to our 3rd game against Donegal Celtic, them netting 2 against us without response, causing us to dip our toes into the relegation playoff zone for a week.

Fortunately our redemption started against Glenavon, 2 fringe players Boyd and Maguire scoring to prove their worth in the team, allowing us to rest certain key players without compromising our immense N.Irish quality.

A crunch tie against Linfield was unnerving but we came out winners as mistakes from their defenders cause the first penalty, which allowed us to take control of the game and confidence flowed through our consistent goalscorer Maybin as he netted a cool finish 10 minutes past the break. This brought us back within striking range of our title rivals Linfield.

We continued our defense of the Co. Antrim Sheild as we comfortably beat Ards 2-0 for the 3rd 2-0 in a row. Key players rested again, a goal from Boyd and a fortituous own goal would see us through to the second round, drawn against none other than title rivals Linfield.



Surprisingly, after our poor start, our 2 wins puts us in 4th, 2 points from the summit, which puts us in a very good position at this point of the season. Goals are flowing and we are not conceding many goals towards the end of the month, i just hope that the slow start will not affect us at the end of the season!

No worries in going out of Europe, it wasn't the best time for you to be in it, not a bad league start, I've seen worst!

Dan: Yeah Dan I was just hoping for a bit of extra cash to finance a bit of transfers through the season because the 1st 2nd and 3rd qualifying rounds are played during friendly time and are lucrative for clubs like Knockbreda valued at 200K! Let's just hope I don't need any more players!







September saw us meet Linfield in the Co Antrim Shield in our defense. Suffice to say it wasn't one of our priorities and a 0-2 defeat against the league champions fielding a reserve team wasn't too bad though I was hoping to show our quality.

We consigned Coleraine who was third placed last season to a 2-0 defeat with goals from Maybin and Buchanan, sounding all familiar once again. The win proved to be just what we needed to launch ourselves in prime position to challenge Linfield.

The league cup tie against Banbridge was one we expected to win comfortably. Sheridan our 4th choice striker got on the scoresheet and in the second half, Barry Coyle scored from a tight angle in the box. A goal from Banbridge challenged our position, but the result was secured as a corner from Maybin was deflected into the goal.

Buchanan and Maybin was on the scoresheet again in the 3-0 thumping of Dungannon, with midfield lynchpin Scott Hill knocking in the third goal and the icing on the cake for our launch into first place, 1 point above Linfield.

Stuart Brennan continued his delightful form to knock in a goal at Cliftonville before assisting Ian Boyd for the second of the match after a goal from Cliftonville threatened to take 2 points away from us.

However our good form could not last that long surely, and Portadown held us to a draw to allow Linfield to leapfrog us. Portadown scored first in the first half, but when it looked like we were consigned to defeat, Brennan saved the day by knocking in a goal after a bullet run from the centre of the pitch to the goal front.




Besides 1 lapse, Linfield matched us point for point and our last match of the month killed our hopes of going into the start of October on top of the league table. Slightly closer to Linfield than last season, but the situation is pretty delicate because it takes a lot to knock a League champion off their perch, even more so when they've won 12 of their last 16 Premier Leagues.

A pretty mixed run in October started with a 2-1 win over Glentoran with super sub Sheridan and legend Burns netting the 2 goals on either side of a Glentoran goal.

We then received Ballymena Utd at home and expectedly after controlling the game, Maybin and Brennan scored to give us the precious win that launched us to the top again.

The league cup run was meant to be an easy game where I fielded a 2nd string, they put up a good fight and pulled it all the way to the penalties but ultimately, misses from Lewis and Burns cost our place in the 4th round and we're out of the competition without a decent fight, just a season after winning the cup.

The last game of the month saw us receive nemesis Carrick where we failed to pick up any points taking our wins against Carrick to 5 in a row besides the penalty win in the League Cup last season. That allowed Linfield to leapfrog us again back into 1st place.




Linfield is still top going into November as hardly anyone is stopping them from winning, big wins at that!

The league is tight buddy and its still there for the taking!

Doing well here mate! Fantastic season so far

Your sir, have done a brilliant job so far, keep it up!

Dan: League is still tight definitely but it is quite hard to knock these guys off their perch. But we are not called KNOCKbreda for nothing :p

Zan: Thanks zan! Glad to see you're still following

Bigbillzy: Welcome onboard! Thanks! Still a long way more to go though!







Month of November started with a home game against Donegal Celtic, again we dominated these lower teams with semi-rotated teams. A 2-0 win was no less than we deserved, Captain Lewis kicking off the scoring near the end of the half time and after a few decent chances, Boyd scored from a tight angle at the 82nd minute to kill the competition.

Glenavon held us to a stalemate at our home, as no goals were scored even with the 5 great chances we had to win the game. Their goalkeeper put up a man of the match performance to deny us the win.

Coleraine ended their losing streak on us by hitting 2 against us by the half time mark after the lead was established by veteran striker Buchanan. This loss caused us to fall out of striking range of Linfield and let them go 4 points above us.

The crunch tie against Linfield was an exciting one as 8 goals were scored setting the season record of goals scored. Linfield kicked off the scoring by scoring 2 in the first 15 minutes and strikes from Brennan and Maybin equalised the match for us. Sam McWilliams, backup right back put us in the driving seat of the game 5 minutes from half time. After half time, 2 goals again from Linfield caused them to control the game but a good stroke of counterattacking from Ian Boyd helped to equalise the game and we came away with a deserved point.



4 points behind leaders Linfield, but still the rest of the season to play. Overall a bad month for title contenders but we did not slip too far off the pace. A good run of results is still required to put us in for the title though.

Horrible month, but still only four points off the top!

Dan: Horrible one, fortunately the title holders are floundering as well and its giving us the chance. Unfortunately thats the time we are able to leapfrog them!!







Mixed bag of results again in the festive season, 2 wins 2 draws and 1 defeat rounds off our inconsistency in the game.

A tight match against PSNI kicked off December. 3 goals from Maybin, Buchanan and Lewis looked to have killed the game, but defensive lapses in the second half allowed the Police Service to come back into the game though we held on to our slim lead at the end of the game.

Another stalemate in these 2 months as we failed to find any openings against Dungannon and it proved to be an extremely boring match with no chances from each side.

Cliftonville proved to be a tougher challenge as we saw them score 2 in the first 10 minutes and that killed the game for us. Despite our Scott Hill netting a rare goal, there were barely any positives to take from the game after they put the last goal into our net in the 70th minute.

Glentoran was a surprisingly even match considering our difference in ability. Boyd in place of Maybin because of suspension scored in the 9th minute, but after a few chances missed, Glentoran equalised later on in the game, robbing us of our 2 points.

A 2-0 win was overdue and we managed to beat Glenavon easily just past christmas. A goal apiece on either side of half time from my striking options that match was all it needed to ease past our opponents this time.



This run of form with 8 points from 5 games does not look like champions, but fortunately Linfield has been picking up the same number of points and we still sit 4 points behind them in second place.



The All-Ireland Cup sets us up with my first return to Athlone Town my first Club. With club captain Stephen Last and a few other of my players still there, it should end up an interesting run..

Surprise.







In a surprise move, I joined Cork City from Knockbreda, having to tear myself away from the legacy of my blood sweat and tears.

Cork City is one of the teams that take part in the Munster Senior Cup which I am missing from completing Republic of Ireland once and for all. Since I'd have to join a new club to compete in Ireland for the Mid-Ulster Club, it made sense to snap up the opening when the long-term manager of this team retired.



The team looks crap in midfield and we are lacking in defense. Apart from the first choice, the strikers are average at best and my old players have no interest in joining me. If I can just keep myself in the job till I win the Munster Cup, this will be a short tenure and I'll be on my way in no time.

good switch mate!

Best of luck at Cork city mate!

Zan: Yeah I would say that, better to just tick off Ireland first and come back later since I'll be lacking in N.Ireland anyway and these openings don't come very often!

Dan: Thanks Dan





I have to say, nothing much in terms of transfers due to the small transfer window and barely any of the players that I could actually scout and were upgrades wanting to join me, so there was really nothing I could do.



February Pre-season went decently!

We started off with a money-spinning tie, inviting Lech to arrive to play at Turner's Cross. The gulf in class was visible and the game was insanely one-sided as our leaky defense allowed Lech to net 4 goals to put a dent in our confidence.

Fortunately the other 3 games were against weaker sides, arriving at feeder club Ballymun with an own goal and an impressive late striker from Hutchinson clinching the win.

Amos Taiwo gave us the lead in the 39th minute at rivals Waterford, as we dominated but really could not find that final pass to score.

The narrow victories continued at Everton (IRL) our second feeder club as prolific striker Biansumba netted at the 38th minute mark to ensure no upsets in terms of friendlies.

The narrow victories worries me a little though as it shows our inability to score even against weak defenses! Only time will tell how we will do in the Munster Senior Cup.

The end of February marks the start of a brand new season in the Irish Premier Division, with 3 wins on the bounce, we went into the first game with high hopes and heads high. I managed to sign Owen Humphrey, a previous player at Athlone at his second spell at Athlone.



Suffice to say we didn't appreciate it when we shipped 3 goals through the leaky defense against Sligo Rovers. Consolation goal from Owen Humphrey didn't make the defeat any better, though it sort of justified my re-signing!

A goalless draw against Shelbourne at home was pretty alright as our defensive work was impressive for defenders of that caliber. There wasn't much action though, as we again failed to find that final pass to make the team work for us.

A defeat at an impressive Drogheda that sat 4th on the Premier League seemed fair as we played poorly and shipped in 2 early goals with practically no response from our team. Disappointing but the worst was yet to come.

A sad defeat against local rivals Limerick F.C. was definitely a sore defeat as they scored 2 before half time before we seemed to summon a comeback in the form of Stevens' goal on the 50th minute mark. Despite us outplaying Limerick towards the end of the game, we could not find it in ourselves to score another goal or 2 and earn us more points than we should have gotten.

Another goalless draw sums up our inability to score goals though there were positives from that play. A clean sheet despite a Longford barrage shows our defensive capabilities on their day means that we would need to just focus on the creativity and lethality of our team.

Cork City slumped to our 4th defeat out of 6 games against Bray Wanderers. Both teams fought hard and kept each other on their toes but ultimately, it was one solitary lapse in the Cork City defense that cost us the point that day.



An abysmal month lodges us into 11th place, only above last place Bohemians on goal difference and 1 point away from safety. Form better pick up soon or I may be sacked even before the Munster Senior Cup Final.