alec6247 - Comments

Am enjoying seeing the number of ex Newcastle players in your side, I make it about 6 now! Good solid start in the league for you as well, and a great start in the Europa League. Might be a tough ask getting a result Salzburg but I hope you do! Nice little run will do your finances a world of good.

Barclays Premier League



The second half of the season kicked off with us hoping to consolidate our position and hopefully push on to attempt qualification for the Champions League. Accordingly, a change in season expectations saw the board increase our transfer budget to allow us to bring in another player or two. With the £5M I was given, I went and brought in Bruno Ecule Manga for £5.5M, following a very slight budget adjustment.



It was another inconsistent half to the season, with us looking good in some games, yet very poor in others. A number of injuries also took their toll, as we saw at one point six first team players out injured for prolonged periods of time. We managed to continue picking up points though and we managed to finish the season in fine form, with two very good victories, resulting in the player of the month competition being a clean sweep of Newcastle United players.



A satisfactory season overall saw us finish in fifth position in the Barclays Premier League, resulting in us qualifying for the Europa League next season, which was my minimum aim, however as the season continued, the Champions League positions became out of our grasp as the top four teams opened up a sizeable gap over the remainder of the league.





FA Cup



It was an FA Cup campaign filled with 'what ifs' for us this season as we very comfortably reached the sixth round stage, only to then have a number of injuries to the side before facing Burnley. In a dire performance we ended up losing to a last minute goal, which was no more than we deserved. Without those injuries for that game, we could well have advanced. I had taken the FA Cup quite seriously, putting out some strong teams, to try and end the awful trophyless run that Newcastle fans have faced, 45 years and counting now, but with our increased involvement in the Europa League next season, it looks as though it may well continue for a few more years.

FIFA World Cup 2014



It was a World Cup to remember for Germany, who defeated Uruguay 4-1 in the final to mark their fourth victory in the prestigious competition, and the first time a non South American country has won the competition in South America. England didn't cope so well, going out in the Second Round stage, losing to the Ivory Coast.

Club News

It was a very poor youth intake for us this season, and none of the trialists were offered full time contracts. Hopefully this season we will get a better intake as we look to bring through some top players for the future.



Team of the Season



Season Review

A solid first season in charge of Newcastle United, however I have been particularly worried about the lack of goals coming from our strikers, with Loic Remy our top scorer with 9 goals. Some tactical adjustments will have to be made to improve upon this, as well as strengthening the striker department. Some really good performances from some players, with my Player of the Season being undoubtedly Clement Grenier, who adapted very quickly and was a key man in the middle of the park before injury unfortunately cut his season short. Luuk de Jong disappointed in his loan spell and he will not be signed permanently as a result. With some intelligent signings, and strengthening of certain areas of the squad, we will hopefully be able to once again achieve Europa League football come the end of next season, as well as potentially looking to one of the domestic cups as a source of silverware.

Silverware

Barclays Premier League - Chelsea
FA Cup - Burnley
Capital One Cup - Swansea
Europa League - Barcalona
Champions League - Chelsea

Barclays Premier League



An interesting first half to the season that has seen us be unbelievable at times and achieve some very good results, but also very poor at others, highlighted through some of the results. It was a phenomenal start to the season that saw us occupy first place in the league, as we went to the first international break of the season, which also included a very good 2-1 win away from home against Tottenham, and then an even better 3-0 win against Liverpool at home. Bizarrely we didn't draw a game until almost Christmas, when a late goal from Stoke rescued them a point. An inconsistent first half to the season has given us a good platform to build upon as we currently sit 5th in the league with 19 games played. With a more consistent second half to the season we can hopefully push on and firstly secure a Europa League position before potentially challenging for a Champions League place.



Capital One Cup



A disappointing Capital One Cup campaign saw us exit at the third round stage at the hands of West Bromwich Albion. This was a competition I felt that we had a really good opportunity of doing well in, however it will be another year without silverware for the Geordie faithful, unless success in the FA cup in the second half of the season becomes possible.

Good luck this season

Transfers - In



With a £20M transfer budget, following the sale of Yohan Cabaye, a replacement midfielder was top priority, and the £12M signing of Clement Grenier from Lyon will be an able replacement.

Along with Grenier, we also brought in Mason Bennett from Derby for a fee of £600K as a promising young striker, who has been sent out on loan for the season to get some game time.


We also brought in Callum Chambers, a £7M signing from Southampton who is a good prospect for the future, but will also provide immediate cover and offer an alternative to Mathieu Debuchy in the right-back position.


Unfortunately these transfers took up all of our £20M budget, so I will be unable to sign anyone in January without selling first.

Transfers - Out



Just the one permanent transfer out this summer as Dan Gosling leaves us to head to Sheffield Wednesday for a fee of £500K. He was not going to have a future at Newcastle unfortunately, and with just one year on his contract left we decided to cash in on him. The remaining transfers were all loan deals as some of our younger players look to get some match time to help aid their development.

Pre-Season Games



It was a disappointing pre-season after starting with a bang as we lost a cracking 7-goal thriller against Zenit St Petersburg. Following that game however, we only managed to succeed in winning one game, including two disappointing draws against Scunthorpe and Carlisle. Hopefully with the league season about to start, our pre-season woes can be forgotten.

Club News

With the club wanting me to concentrate on signing young players for the first team, as well as concentrating on developing our own talent, I thought it may be a good idea to ask the board and see if they would upgrade the facilities, and great news, they said yes!





In terms of finances, the club is currently £3.84M in debt, however so far this season we have made a profit of just over £8.5M, with the projected balance to be a very healthy £41M by the end of the season. We have about £25K spare in the wage budget, although I can't see any signings being made through the rest of the season.



With the Premier League Season about to begin, here's hoping we can get off to a good start.

Note: Am planning on doing updates at around each mid-season and then a second one at the end of each season.

Have just seen Poe is also doing the same thing. Oops!

Being a Newcastle fan, and among many to be not currently happy with the way things are going at the club, I've decided to take over from Alan Pardew, and look to improve the fortunes of Newcastle United, hopefully returning them once again to being one of the giants of the English game.

Club Background
Founded in 1892, Newcastle United are a professional English club currently playing in the English Premier Division. Newcastle Narrowly avoided relegation last season.

The club play their home games at St James' Park and possess superb training facilities and great youth facilities. The club's training ground is at Darsley Park. The Newcastle youth team play at Whitley Park. The club also has above average junior coaching and an above average youth recruitment network. The club is affectionately known as The Magpies, and retains a fierce rivalry with Sunderland.

Enjoying their greatest spell of success during the 1900s, The Magpies have a history they can be proud of. Boasting a total of sixteen competition wins, here are just some of their highlights: Newcastle won the English top division in 1905, 1907, 1909 and 1927 and finished runners-up two times, won the EURO Cup in 1969, have six FA Cup wins to their name and finished second best seven further times, and won the English second tier in 1965,1993 and 2010 and finished runners-up two times.

The Manager

So this is me.
(N.B. I've gone with previous experience of being a professional footballer to hopefully prevent any problems with the squad.)

My aim during the career is to concentrate on bringing through youth team players to challenge for first team places rather than relying on bringing in 'ready-made' players, however this will have to be done in certain circumstances.

Note: Can't seem to get the data update for transfers to also include transfer budget changes currently, will keep trying to get it to work, but if not may have to wait until the official update to begin this thread.

Wheels starting to fall off now, dropping points at home against a mid table team! Thought you were going to go the whole season without dropping points there!

Looking good Dan, interesting way of going about things with the entirely English squad but it's working for you, and also nice to see Newcastle challenging for a Champions League spot, now if only they could do that in real life!

Good luck Rick! This challenge is an absolute beast even without adding the extra leagues! Will be looking forward to see how you get on.

Looking good guys, keep it up

I'm hoping some nice Arab Sheikh comes and gives me a nice big wage and transfer budget!

I am doing something similar with Dover Athletic. Promoted upto Skrill Premier in my first season, winning the title by 4 points on the last day of the season, and have just started season 2. Money is a real problem down at this level!

I think I may return to the forums by giving this challenge a go. My British Steel Challenge just kind of died after I stopping doing updates. Expect a thread at some point soon.

Trophy number 10 in the bag

I think I will still update the first post though with teams managed and titles won/remaining at each team though just so you can still see where my career takes me although month updates/game reports I won't be doing anymore.

Just to let you all know, I have decided that I am going to stop doing the updates now as it is just too time consuming for me to do. I am still continuing with the challenge, so will still be sending the screenshots of the trophies to Dan, but unfortunately I just don't have the time to do the updates anymore. Sorry guys

Another poor month for us as we faced four league games and a cup game during the month, and only managing to pick up a single win in the league, whilst advancing in the Senior Challenge Cup.



We began the month by travelling to Athlone Town and a good defensive performance saw a singular Christian Moran goal in the 66th minute was enough for us to be able to get all three points. It was a good start to the month, and one that I hoped would continue.

The following week we welcomed U.C.D. to the Carlisle Grounds, and following a poor first-half, we were 2-0 down at the break. A brilliant goal from Christian Moran, which was awarded goal of the month, gave us hope with 20 minutes to play, but we were unable to find the equaliser.



A game against Bohemians was up next, and in a game that I felt we should be winning, we went down again by a score of 1-0, after Jay Harris decided to pick up his second red card of the season already in the 22nd minute, leaving up hopelessly open an Bohemians took advantage, scoring their only goal in the 26th minute.

A cup game was up next as we welcomed Bangor Celtic to Bray, hoping to advance in the Senior Challenge Cup and bring in some much needed income for the club. A good solid performance saw us race into a 2-0 lead within 20 minutes, David O'Brian scoring first and then becoming provider for Christian Moran to slot home. Late on in the second-half, Richard Stokes added a third as we looked very comfortable in progressing.

Our final game of the month was against SD Galway who took the lead in the 4th minute. We pressed and pressed, but unfortunately couldn't find an equaliser, our best chance of the game was spurned by Richard Corkin as he was clean through on goal with only the keeper to beat. The defeat was our third on the bounce, and things were not looking good for us this season so far.



The league table looked like this as we moved into the mid-season break, and hopefully we would begin to pick up some more points after the break as we look towards moving up the table. Even though our form hasn't been brilliant, we are only 7 points off a play-off spot with 15 games to play. Stranger things have happened....

Irish League Cup is sponsored by EA Sports.

Munster Senior Cup is only winnable with one of three playable teams, either Cork City, Waterford Utd or Limerick F.C. I was lucky with the fact that as I decided I would move on, the job at Cork City became available, so managed to get all the trophies in Ireland with them other than the Division One title which I'm working on now!

A relatively quiet month saw us only play four games this month as we looked to start a consistent run and begin to move up the league.



We began the month well, with a good point against the league leaders SD Galway and arguably should have taken all three. We went ahead thanks to a Conor Rossiter penalty after 18 minutes, and should really have gone further ahead, but a number of wasted chances came and went. With all the glorious chances we had missed, it was always going to happen that their first clear cut opportunity was going to be tucked away, and that it was after 74 minutes, and we were unable to grab a second goal to give us all three. A good point nonetheless in a game we were expected to heavily lose.

Our second game of the month was against relegated Derry City as we looked to build upon the previous result, and a first goal for the club for Christian Moran in the 33rd minute gave us a 1-0 advantage. The defence held strong under some stern tests from Derry City but the final whistle came and we had secured all three points.

Our third game of the month, was against Avondale away from home. In a tight game a goal for Avondale just before the half hour was enough to settle it as we struggled to create chances and tuck them away. We were able to welcome back striker Éamonn Mason from injury though, which would provide us with a welcome boost as we moved forwards.

Our final game of the month was another home game, our third in four matches against Finn Harps. With it having been a close game away from home at the beginning of the season, I was expecting a much better performance from the players this time round, however they not only let me down, but they also let the fans down as a truly woeful performance saw us lose the game 3-0, with the entire defence having an absolute shocker unfortunately. It meant it was our second loss on the bounce, and our heaviest defeat of the season.



At the end of the month, we were languishing down in 6th place after having managed to get 10 points after nine games. It hadn't been the best start to the season, but with us still within touching distance of the playoff spots as well as first place, it could be quickly turned around should we hit some form, which hopefully we will do soon.

So the start of the domestic season was upon us, and hopefully we would be able to carry some of our preseason form through to the start of the league as we faced six games in the first month of the season.



We began the season with an away game against Finn Harps. After a good start Éamonn Mason scored the opening goal of the game after 16 minutes. The game continued in the second-half in very much the same way as the first-half as we continued to threaten and looked solid at the back, although a serious injury to the goalscorer occurred, which would keep him out of action for approximately two months. As we entered the last ten minutes of the game, it looked as though we would be taking home all three points until goals in the 86th and 88th minutes won the game for Finn Harps 2-1.

Our next game was at home against Avondale, and despite going behind early on, we responded very well with Jay Harris pulling us level just before the half-hour mark before Richard Corkin scored a second goal for us in the 65th minute to give us our first win of the season.

Our second home game in a row and we welcomed Athlone Town to The Carlisle Grounds, and we got off to an absolutely fantastic start with Dan Bennett opening the scoring in the 4th minute. With that being the only incident of note during the first-half, the second-half was an absolute cracker, with Graham Foy extending our lead in the 71st minute and then Jay Harris grabbed another goal in the 77th before Athlone Town got one back two minutes later. Richard Corkin added gloss to the victory by grabbing a late fourth in stoppage time to give us a 4-1 victory.

A week later we traveled to face U.C.D. and after showing a good performance, where we just couldn't find the back of the net we were unlucky to lose 2-0 as the scoreline really complimented them. Hopefully it would be a minor blip and we would be back to winning ways in our next game.

We began our Irish League Cup campaign away from home against Athlone Town, playing them for the second time this month. In a much different game to the first, Athlone Town took the lead early on in the game, and we had to wait until the 71st minute, when we were awarded a penalty which Connor Rossiter made no mistake from. At the end of 90 minutes, the game was still tied. Athlone Town grabbed a second goal, which looked as though it would win them the tie just after half-time in extra-time, but Richard Corkin had other ideas, equalising a few minutes later to take the game to penalties. Unfortunately Christian Moran was the only player to miss a penalty, as it cannoned back off the crossbar, and we lost the shootout 5-4 to send us crashing out of the cup.

Our final game of the month was against Bohemians and a game that we would be fancied to win. A good start saw Richard Stokes score his first goal for the club, but it wasn't long before we were behind, with Bohemians equalising in the 19th minute, before a penalty in the 45th which they made no mistake from. Richard Stokes grabbed his and our second of the game after 52 minutes, but another goal for Bohemians saw us fall victim to our third straight defeat in all competitions.



At the end of the month we were sat in fifth in the table on six points, having won two games and lost three. Not the greatest start to the season for us, but hopefully we would be able to pick our form up and push on, as we are still within three points of the playoff places.

Joker Transfer Window?! That's an interesting name!

So with the transfer window open, and with much work needed to be done to the squad, we brought in a total of 14 players, whilst we also allowed 9 to leave.



The stand-out signing of the close season would have been Connor Rossiter, who was a bit of a steal particularly when clubs like Cork City and Shamrock Rovers were interested in the player, but he chose to come to us.



With all the transfer activity, we had ended up slightly over our wage budget, overspending by €246 per week currently, but hopefully with some success this season, it wouldn't affect our finances too much.



That left our squad looking like this, with some work having been done on the defence, and some extra depth added to the squad. Most of the players signed are younger players who will improve over the next few seasons, but can still do a job for us this season if required.



Onto our preseason fixtures, and having looked at the games, I was slightly worried that our morale would be affected going into the season as there were a number of games against higher division teams, and only one that I would have expected us to win.



However, some brilliant performances saw us begin the preseason with a slightly fortuitous draw against Sligo Rovers before a fantastic 3-1 victory against Shamrock Rovers. We then lost against our new affiliate club Cork City 2-1 before a 3-1 victory against Phoenix F.C.. A good performance against Dundalk saw us unluckily lose 1-0, and then in our final game of the preseason, a great performance saw us run out 3-0 winners, thanks to some poor discipline and defending from Drogheda Utd.

As the preseason schedule came to a close, we had shown some good form going into the season, and it would be important that we started the season well to have any chance of securing promotion this season!

Trophies 8 and 9 ticked off quarter of the way there now!

I didn't have to wait long for a new job to come up, and I am pleased to announce that I am now the new manager of Bray Wanderers.



A short history of Bray Wanderers for you:

Founded in 1942, Bray Wanderers are a semi-professional Irish club currently playing in the Irish First Division. The club plays their home games at The Carlisle Grounds and possess adequate training facilities and very basic youth facilities. The club also has basic youth coaching and a basic youth recruitment network. The club is affectionately known as The Seagulls.

The club enjoyed probably their best spell of success during the 1990's. Although now enduring an eighteen year barren spell, having not won a competition since 2000, The Seagulls still have a history of which they can be justly proud. Bray Wanderers won the Irish second tier in 1986, 1996 and 2000 and were runners-up three times, won the Senior Challenge Cup in 1990 and 1999, won the First Division Shield in 1996, and won the Intermediate Cup in 1956 and 1958.

The Squad looks like it could be a good one that seems capable of scoring plenty of goals, but with some work needed to the defence in particular. Hopefully when the transfer window opens I will be able to get some players in who will help strengthen and make us more of a resilient team at the back after we let in 34 goals in 28 games last season, as well as add a bit of squad depth.



The finances of the club look good, with €116k in the bank, and with €540 per week in wages still available before taking into account some outgoings, along with €15.22k remaining in the transfer budget it does give us some room to manoeuvre in the transfer market.



As we move onto our fourth season in Ireland, would we be able to finish off the country and tick off the last remaining trophy at the first time of asking as we approached the new season?

Thanks for the comments guys, sorry it has been a few days but have had a busy weekend with no opportunity to play!

So the final month of the season was upon us, and with eight games to be played between now and the end of the season, we needed fifteen points to guarantee that we would win the title.



We began the month with a key game away from home against Shamrock Rovers, which would give us the opportunity to open up a seven point gap at the top of the table. It was a tight game which was decided by a singular Sean Maguire penalty just before half-time. Although Shamrock Rovers pressed for an equaliser, we were able to hold on to an important victory.

Four days later and we would play Shamrock Rovers again in the semi-final of the Senior Challenge Cup. In a different game to the one only a few days earlier, it was one filled with plenty of goals. Shamrock Rovers took the lead in the 32nd minute, but a quickfire double salvo in two minutes from Christian Peters and Gerry Byrne gave us the lead at half-time. Shamrock Rovers equalised in the 53rd minute and despite both teams having opportunities to get a winner, neither side could get the ball in the back of the net and the game ended 2-2.

Our first game of two during the month against Longford ended with a brilliant 3-0 victory, with Johnny Dunleavey getting his first of the season early on in the 10th minute, before Kalen Spillane and Danny Murphy extended our lead in the second-half.

A game against Drogheda Utd was up next, and in a display that didn't do us justice following our previous performances saw us scrape a 1-0 win with John Sullivan grabbing a very late goal with only one minute of normal time left. The victory against Drogheda also was significant as it ensured that the Irish Premier League title would be ours as we extended our lead over Shamrock Rovers to an unassailable lead!



With the Premier Division title already won, we moved forward to our next game, and our second game against Longford which saw us run out as 3-0 winners once again, this time with John Sullivan grabbing two goals in the first half, before an own-goal from Jason Noctor with nine minutes remaining saw us get our third.

Our penultimate game of the season was against Derry City and we won our second game in a row by a 3-0 scoreline following a brilliant hat-trick from Sean Maguire, with goals coming in both halves, but only after Paul White had saved a penalty in the 21st minute.

A replay against Shamrock Rovers was up next following our 2-2 draw in the Senior Challenge Cup semi-final. Another close game between us and Shamrock saw the game finish goal-less after 90 minutes and it headed into extra-time. Six minutes into the extra period and Thomas McGee grabbed us that all important goal. We were able to hold on and advanced into the final!

Our final game of the month and of the league season was against Mervue Utd and with the players perhaps a little bit switched off, or focusing more on the important cup final that would be coming up the following week, a pretty dull game was played which finished 0-0.



The league table at the end of the season looked like this, and we had finished in first, a massive ten points clear of Shamrock Rovers in second place. Not only had we won the league, but we had also gone the entire league season undefeated, which was in no small part down to goalkeeper Paul White who was named as Goalkeeper of the year after keeping 22 clean sheets!



He was also named in the Irish Premier League team of the year, and was the only Cork City player named in the side.



I was also rewarded for our run of form by being awarded both the Manager of the Month award for October, as well as being awarded the Manager of the Year award.





So with only one game remaining of our season, and it was the Senior Challenge Cup final, which could also be my last game at Cork City. We were to face Longford at the Aviva Stadium, and in a fairly even game we were able to finish our chances whilst Longford were not, with Sean Maguire grabbing a brace.



So with victory in the final, we lifted our third trophy of the season, and also had grabbed all the trophies possible in the Irish top-flight, and to continue I would have to drop down a division to get the last remaining trophy in Ireland.



So with no more trophies to win, there was only one thing left to do, and that was to resign my position at the club and move forward to try and find another club where we could continue our challenge. On leaving the club though, I had left them in a very strong position financially as they now had over €1M in the bank after making a profit of €1.22M profit this season!



It was a sad farewell to Cork City after having spent three seasons there, and enjoying some fantastic success with them, but it was time to move on and search for another club to take forward and win the other trophies needed to complete this challenge. Stay tuned to find out where I will be heading!

We faced seven games during September as we attempted to start to gain a stranglehold on the league.



We began the month with a game at home against Waterford Utd, and a great start saw us take the lead within 3 minutes as Brian Russo powered home. A quickfire double from Sean Maguire saw us extend our lead to 3-0 by half-time. Waterford managed to get one back early on in the second half, but our three goal advantage was restored by Thomas McGee as he netted in injury time to give us a 4-1 victory.

Up next was the Senior Challenge Cup quarter-final game against St Pat's Athletic. In a tight game that was only decided by a single goal, David O'Connor managed to find the net with a great volley from a corner, and saw us advance through to the semi-finals where we would meet Shamrock Rovers.

A home game against Drogheda Utd in the league was next, and a single Sean Maguire goal on the stroke of half-time was enough to settle the game as we ran out 1-0 winners.

Two days later we traveled to Waterford Utd as we faced them for the second time this month in the league. In a slightly different game to the one a few games previously, this time it was only decided by a single goal as Sean Maguire found the net in the 37th minute.

We then welcomed St Pat's Athletic to Turner's Cross, as we played them for the second time this month. For the third game in a row, it was decided by the slimmest of margins, with Thomas McGee getting the crucial goal to see us win the game 1-0.

A home game against Mervue Utd was up next, and in a poor performance we came away with a point, having failed to get a single shot on target throughout the whole game, but we had also restricted Mervue Utd to only 3 shots in total during the entire game.

We ended the month with a game against Derry City and we finished the month how we had started it, with a comprehensive victory. We were 2-0 up within 20 minutes as Sean Maguire managed to score twice and at half-time the scores remained 2-0. In the second-half, we ran rampant, with Sean Duffy scoring twice, and also Gerry Byrne bagging himself a goal to give us a very comprehensive 5-0 victory to end the month.



At the end of the month, we had been able to leapfrog Shamrock Rovers into first place, and with a four point lead at the top of the table, the title was ours to lose with six games remaining. I had also been awarded the Manager of the Month award for seeing us go unbeaten in the league that month and reclaim the top spot.



The month could have been very different however, and we had been fortunate with some of our 1-0 victories, but we wouldn't be able to win the title without a little bit of luck would we!

August was a very busy month for us as we incredibly faced ten games as we tried to catch up with the rest of the league on the number of games played!



We began the month by welcoming LOSC Lille to Turner's Cross in our Europa League qualification game, and the difference in class between the two sides was obvious very early on as they went ahead in the 7th minute. A thundering Danny Murphy free-kick saw us draw level just before the half-hour mark. Midway through the second-half we incredibly took the lead as Thomas McGee tucked home a neat finish in the 64th minute. We were unable to hold onto it though as Lille equalised in the 75th minute, before scoring again in the 84th minute to give them a first leg 3-2 victory. Although we had lost the game, the players had been incredible and we had a real chance of securing an upset if we could replicate that performance away from home.

Two days later and we were facing our first league game of the month against title rivals Shamrock Rovers. The first-half was a good one for us and we were very unfortunate to fall behind in the 39th minute. As we came out for the second-half, the players responded well, and a mistake by their right back Joey O'Brian saw us equalise. Nine minutes later we were ahead as Brian Russo finished when the ball fell to him in the box. With fatigue beginning to become a factor after our second game in three days, we couldn't keep hold of the lead and Shamrock equalised six minutes later to make it 2-2 which is how it finished.

Again we only had a days rest before we faced our next game against St Pat's Athletic. The game's only goal came from Ian Sweeney just after the hour mark as we recorded our first win of the month, and closed the gap to Shamrock Rovers at the top of the table.

Our fourth game in the space of a week was next, and it was our second leg game against LOSC Lille. We traveled to France with some quiet optimism, but it was quickly taken away from us as they raced into a 2-0 lead within the first 12 minutes. They further extended their lead in the 23rd minute, and at half-time the score was 3-0. In the second-half, we began well, and a Gerry Byrne penalty gave us a glimmer of hope in the 56th minute, which was quickly taken away from us when they extended their lead again three minutes later. Thomas McGee then closed the gap again in the 70th minute, but two more goals for Lille secured them a 6-2 victory on the night, and a 9-4 aggregate victory. Despite the heavy defeat, it was a tie that we were clearly going to lose in, but the players had performed admirably when coming up against opponents such as Marvin Martin, Mathieu Debuchy, Lamine Kone and Omer Damari to name just four of the international players in their side. Despite the loss, the run in the Europa League had done absolute wonders for our finance, as we now sat with a balance of nearly €1M, and our overall profit had pushed to over €1M for the season!



Back to the league, and a home game against Sligo Rovers came three days after our antics in France and the team responded well, with Thomas McGee scoring the only goal of the game with little over ten minutes of the game remaining, following a very strong defensive performance.

We then faced a welcome six day break before our next game against U.C.D. at Turner's Cross, and it was another game which the defence performed admirably, and was decided by a single Sean Maguire goal right on the stroke of half-time.

Again, only another two day gap before we faced Shelbourne at home, and with fatigue becoming a major issue, we were only able to secure a 0-0 draw against them as we really were beginning to struggle with fixture congestion.

Up next was the Senior Challenge Cup third round game against Kildrum Tigers and the players ran rampant, putting four past them, with a brace coming for Sean Duffy as well as goals for Christian Peters and a penalty from Gerry Byrne. We were rewarded for our win with a tie against St Pat's Athletic in the quarter-final.

Our second league game in a row against Shelbourne was up next, and with some of the senior team having been rested against Kildrum in the cup, I was hoping for a much better performance than they had before. The players did deliver the victory, coming through a James Kavenagh goal in the 25th minute, however the overall performance was still not brilliant as we desperately needed a bit of a break to recharge the batteries! A win is a win though and we continued to close the gap on Shamrock Rovers

Our final game of an incredibly busy month was against Dundalk, which also brought up my 300th game in management.



Again, another game where perhaps fatigue had a big impact on the way we played saw us play out our second 0-0 draw of the month in another game that on another day we perhaps would have won.



So at the end of the month, we hadn't been able to perhaps capitalise completely on the games in hand we had over Shamrock Rovers, but we had managed to pull level with them on points in the table, and we still had one more game to play than them. Hoping for a slightly quieter August, we needed to push on and start winning as many games as possible to heap the pressure on them.

An unbeaten season! Well done mate! What a great season for you! Surely not too many cups left in Denmark now?