29/30 Season - July and August

I said I'd make sure the transfer window would be a quiet one and it's been exactly that.

Transfers

My plan was to bring the kids in to replace those leaving and not to sign anyone, apart from the two players I had already signed, as you will see I did sign another player but there was a reason for that.

Out-wise we lost Noss and Dembele who both left when their contracts expired, we also let Bobby McLuckie leave after falling down the pecking order, he goes to AEK Athens for £145k.

Then, on deadline day we lost one of our key men and in a position I'm light in. Left Back Torijano moved to Burnley after they activated his £15m release clause, other than that no-one else left, bar the three players who were here on loan last season.

Now to the three in's.

Faber Arismendi - Defensive Midfield - £1.7m from Atletico Nacional

I actually signed this lad in the Winter window but let him stay at Nacional on loan. The improvement in him in just those 6 months has been amazing and he is ready-made to walk into our team. Obviously I want to give some of the kids a go in midfield but his versatility means I can play him in numerous positions.

Julio Anon - Left Wing Back - £375k from Danubio FC

I had already agreed to sign Anon before the last season ended, this was because I have no left back to bring in from the youth side who is anywhere near good enough. A stupidly low fee for a top quality, young player.

Salvador Navarro - Left Back - Season long loan from Atletico Madrid

This was the last minute signing to replace Torijano, with McLuckie already gone it meant I only had Anon as a decent LWB, there is no one in the youth side to promote so I had to make a short-term signing.

And that was it, it's time to give the kids a shot, when needed, it may work, it may not but we're so far ahead of schedule I feel like a season where I run the risk of not doing as well will be beneficial in the long-run.

Before I go through the results we have some weird news, we should have moved into the new “Malkay McKay Stadium” before the season started but oddly it's been delayed by 3 months. I've never seen this before and hope it doesn't get delayed further!

Champions League

We entered in the 3rd Qualifying Round and were handed PSV! A really tough tie and after losing the away leg 1-0 we had our backs against the wall. Then came the home leg, PSV scored early but we grabbed two goals back and mid-way through the second half it was 2-2 on aggregate. Then, in the 93rd minute PSV scored what looked to be the winner until Kier Hamilton stepped up to a free-kick, the 96th minute, it flew into the top corner and we had sent it to extra time. Torijano then scored to pur us 4-3 up on aggregate, we had done it….just!

In the playoff round we faced Galatasaray and I fully expected a win, we opened up with a 1-0 home leg win, it was a bit tighter than I expected! In the away leg we went for it, Galatasaray did score the opener but Ilie scored right on half-time to keep us in the lead in the tie. They then scored again but we scored within a minute, as they piled forward Ilie broke clear in the last few minutes to score a 3rd for us on the night and sealed a 4-2 win!

We're into the League Phase for a second successive season.

And we've been handed what looks like a decent set of fixtures.

The good news is we have four teams into the League Phases, Celtic joins us in the Champions League after the automatically qualified. Rangers made it into the Europa League and Hearts and Hibs got into the Conference League, so all five teams made it through.

Domestic Action

It's been a solid start with lots of goals!

3 games in the league, 7 points gained and 12 goals scored! Really good and a fantastic draw away to Rangers. We are however letting way too many goals in!

I played the kids in the League Cup and they repaid the faith with Leslie, Tait and McArthur scoring. Tait also ending as POTM.

A really good start but will it last? We have a really small squad this season, around 26 players in total, 8 of those are kids from the academy. We are going to need them with the sheer number of games to come!

28/29 Season - Scottish Cup & Championship Group

Premiership

Championship Group Game 1/5 - Rangers (H) - A nervy win!!!! Rangers probably played better but we held firm to seal a 2-1 win. Celtic played Hearts at home and won 4-2. 4 games left, Celtic 79 pts, Queen's Park 78 pts (edited)

Championship Group Game 2/5 - Hearts (A) - Absolutely gutting to not go away with the three points, a late Hearts goal salvages a point but the big news is Celtic lost 1-0 away to St Mirren!!! 3 games left, we're both on 79 points with Celtic ahead on GD (+6 on us)

Championship Group Game 3/5 - Hibs (H) - Easy peasy! We coast to a 3-0 win to go top of the league, Celtic played on the Sunday and smashed Rangers 4-0

Championship Group Game 4/5 - St Mirren (A) - An absolute hammering, our form lately has been incredible, 18 games unbeaten in the league, we haven't lost in the league since we played Rangers in December! This was a brilliant performance and we needed to win as Celtic beat Hibs 2-0.

Championship Group Game 5/5 - Celtic (A) - It comes down to one game, Celtic and ourselves are locked on the same points with Celtic ahead of goal difference, only a win for us will do.

27 mins - Celtic score, they broke clear and Datro Fofana slid it in - BUT ITS OFFSIDE!

34 mins - OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Queen's Park score!!!

A long James Hill throw, it's flicked on my Porteous and Renecke rises highest to nod home! 1-0!!

45+1 - Datro is causing chaos up front for Celtic, he runs and runs and runs past three or four players, hits it but its well saved

Half time

51 mins - Another good save from Fisher, Celtic are knocking on the door

The corner comes in, Relvas wins it in the air but his header goes just wide for Celtic

68 mins - Datro has won a penalty by diving

Its gone to VAR

NO PENALTY

88 mins - Celtic corner

Oh god, their keeper was up, it got cleared, Amad ran into the box and his shot took a deflection and went straight into Fishers hands.

6 Minutes injury time

92 mins - Another great save from Fisher but Celtic have a corner.

It's swung in and Datro Fofana rises above Porteous to nod home

Absolutely gutting!

We have no time for a reply

Full time, we bottled it in the last minute

Absolutely gutting, we were literally minutes from the league title only to have it snatched away from us.

So so SO close!! 

Scottish Cup

We eased past Dundee United in the semi's

And in the final we were to face Hearts, 6 days after that Celtic game, could I pick the boys up and end with a positive?

We were red-hot favourites and we played like it, we dominated the match, had most of the chances and right on half-time made that dominance pay when Muniz was played in by The Ox and slid it past the keeper.

Chance after chance came and went and as the game drew on I was worried we were going to fall apart like the Celtic game but our nerves were settled when Left Back Romero cut in and smashed a shot into the top corner.

The whistle blew and we had won our second successive Scottish Cup

After that Celtic game I was really worried the players morale would be damaged but they came back and proved the doubters wrong. 

What a brilliant season overall, ignoring the fact we lost the League title in injury time of the last game, to run Celtic that close, to beat them 4-1 twice in a season, to be so far ahead of everyone else and to retain the Scottish Cup, alongside our really pleasing Champions League run I have to be happy. The league title is coming, I can feel it!!!

Key Men

For a team who did so well it's strange to see only 6 of the 11 players averaging over 7.

Rodrigo Muniz had an incredible season, he ends as the Premiership top goalscorer with 20 goals and also ends as the clubs players of the season. This lad is so good!

One of our own!! Kier Hamilton came in to the first XI after Kilkenny left in the Summer and never looked back, he ends as the clubs young player of the season but also wins the Premiership best rookie and young player of the season. 40 starts, 17 sub appearances, 7 goals and 10 assists. This lad is going to be a key man for us moving forward, all he needs now is a Scotland call-up

Although defender Waylon Renecke didn't win any awards this season I was delighted with his performances, he was a huge reason why we did so well with some fantastic defensive displays. 

The Kids

I want to just take a look at some of the academy lads who have performed well this season whilst out on loan and to look at those who I will be bringing in to the first team next season. I have so many amazing players who have come through the intakes, now is the time to give them a shot, see if they can prove their quality on the big stage.

Paul Hutchinson - The central midfielder has a really good season on loan at Championship Livingstone, he made 21 appearances and averaged over 7. He's not the highest rated academy player we have but he looks really good, some amazing mentals.

Kevin Patience - The central defender has had a few loans since joining the academy in 2024, now 20 I think he deserves a shot in the first-team. He's spent two season at Falkirk, helping them to the promotion playoff final where they lost to Motherwell. He's averaged a smidge under 7 this season in 43 starts and also chipped in with 4 goals.

Calvin Leslie - I've spoken about this lad a few times now and really feels he is good enough to come into the first-team as my backup striker. He's spent this season on loan at Livingston and after a slow start he ended the season pretty well with 6 goals in 25 starts. I do feel he is better than that!

Ryan McArthur - Coming through in 2028, he was the star of that years intake and is progressing really well, the central midfielder has spent this season on-loan at League One Dunfermline and has done really well, 29 starts, 9 goals and 6 assists from midfield is some season.

There really are so many more I could go through but these are the four I think can make the step up next season.

My plan for the next campaign is to not sign anyone (bar the two signings I may have already done!) and give the kids a chance, we have a really strong squad and, as you can see, some amazing talents coming through, if I don't give them a go then I'll never know if they're good enough. 

If anyone leaves this Summer, I won't be replacing them, UNLESS I have no academy player to play in that position then I may have to dip my toes in the transfer market.

We have so much money at our disposal now, £56m in the bank, a transfer kitty of £16m and a wage budget that's now sitting at £600k per week. So plenty to play with IF I need a player but this Summer will hopefully be quiet.

European Progression

Finally, let's see how well the Scottish Team did in Europe.

Queen's Park - We made it from the Champions League qualifiers all the way to the League Phase and managed to seal a playoff spot, we then lost to AC Milan in the playoff

Celtic - The automatically qualified for the League Phase of the Champions League and sealed a playoff spot where they lost to Liverpool

Rangers - They went the furthest out of anyone, getting all the way to the Europa League semi finals where they lost to West Ham

Aberdeen - They played in the Conference League and managed to get all the way to the Quarter finals where they lost to Atalanta

Hibernian - They lost in the Conference League qualifiers

So a really solid season for most of our teams and that has massively helped our co-efficient.

17.4 for this season and that pushes our score for next season to  71.067 which takes us above Netherlands in the rankings into 8th place. This doesn't affect our qualification spots though, it stays the same as this season.

The next nation we're chasing down is Portugal in 7th who have a 9 point lead on us.

What a brilliant season overall, it was gutting to lose the league in that way but we sealed another Scottish Cup and I have high hopes next season will be the year we beat Celtic to the title!!

2028/29 - Scottish Cup Quarter Final & End of Regular Season

Before I start the results review I thought I'd show you this.

In the post about the last intake I mentioned at how I felt Calvin Leslie of the 2026 intake wasn't progressing how I hoped, he's spent the season out on loan at Championship side Livingston, wasn't playing loads and when he was he wasn't performing that well, well something changed, maybe he's heard me talking about him as he's just ended second in the Championship Player of the Month.

And for anyone wondering how good he is, well take a look below.

He's rapidly improving, next season he's coming into the first-team as my backup Striker.

Scottish Cup Quarter Final

We had a tricky tie at home to Aberdeen who we always seem to struggle again, it was an absolute belter of a game!!!

A 4-3 win in extra time, The Ox grabbing a hat-trick!!! Even at 35 he is still incredibly good. An amazing win and we're into the semi's where we could've faced Rangers but they lost to Dundee United and that's who we'll face. We have a huge chance of back-to-back Scottish Cup now with both Celtic and Rangers out.

Premiership

We only had four games over March and the start of April prior to the League split and it's gone really well.

Kier Hamilton produced a worldie free-kick to sneak a point away to Aberdeen, that could be massive at the end of the season, then we won three straight including a 4-1 hammering of Rangers!!!

Celtic also matched our results with 10 points from 4 games meaning, with 5 games left we sit a point behind them.

And it could be a title shoot-out as we go to Celtic Park in the final match!

2029 Youth Intake

I've had some good intakes in this save so far, most have had at least 1 amazing player but so far only a single player has progressed to be consistently picked in the first XI, that man is Kier Hamilton, who I'm sure I'll talk about at the end of the season. 

Every season I expect a poor intake, with the squad and club progressing really quickly then surely the rating of the kids coming through will drop, well this intake was the total opposite, dare I say it's the best one yet!!!

Just look at that!! One elite player and seven players classed as a top talent!!! Absolutely incredible but the big question is, are any of them actually going to do what Kier Hamilton has done and be good enough to break through.

John-Paul Tait - Striker

The elite talent in the intake and he looks so good, we had Calvin Leslie come through the 2026 intake and at the time I thought he was good, Tait is EVEN better! Physically good, has some really good mental attributes and has good technique, the big question is, how do I make him better? What I've found with Calvin Leslie is he hasn't been given game time as with only player one striker we need a top quality one until Leslie gets to that stage. I've sent him out on loan but he's just not done it. I don't want the same to happen to Tait, so do I keep him around, in the first-team, to get mentored and then play reserve and U18 football? Or do I risk a loan?

James Kingsley - Goalkeeper

We've had a couple of decent keepers come through but so far none of them have progressed well enough to even take that No. 2 GK spot. Kingsley looks solid , handling and reflexes are brilliant who is huge, but his distribution needs to get better, as does his quickness. 

Michael Simpson - Attacking Midfield

A solid looking player, I don't play an AM though so he'll either need retraining as a ST or a CM, personally he's going to be a better CM, he needs to improvement certain things, such as his strength, first touch, bravery and composure but he has a great base.

Anthony Cameron - Central Defender

His physicals for a 15-year old are so good, he also has really high bravery and work rate, two things I love in a player. His technicals are the only thing that let's him down but that can easily be worked on. We have a raft of CBs who have come through intakes and so far only one has got into the first-team squad, the rest have spent the last 2 or 3 seasons out on loan. Can he be the one to break through?

Ben Smith - Right Wing

Naturally a RM but he is going to have to be re-trained as a RW which shouldn't be too hard. He looks solid, he's quick for 15 and has good technique, work rate and teamwork, he can also cross but he is let down by his passing, first touch and some key mentals. He could be a solid player in the future with the right mentoring and training.

So an incredible intake, the best one so far, the hard work now starts to get these lads improving as quick as possible. 

I've had a few people in a Discord ask me how I get so many good intakes and I don't really think I have a game-breaking idea. I always make sure I max out the youth facs, recruitment and junior coaching as quick as possible (although I know they don't completely affect the intakes), I also hire a solid HOYD and then pray! Here is my HOYD.

John Goodman has been here since 2023, one of my first staff signings. He isn't a worldie HOYD but has a good personality. He's doing an amazing job though!

28/29 Season - January & February

I always feel in every save there's comes a point where everything clicks into place, a month (or two) where everything works and you know, eventually, you can challenge, this was those two months!!!

Lets start with the transfers, I expected a busy window and it turned out to be exactly that.

We say goodbye to four first-teamers.

Trevitt and Watts asked to leave and I couldn't stand in their way, Anderson (LB) got his second red in only a few games and I was angry, I sold him for a good profit, the weird one was 3rd choice keeper Heraghty who was signed by Leicester! We will also be saying goodbye to Noss (CM/LW) and Dembele (RW/LW) at the end of the season who have both signed pre-contracts elsewhere.

So I needed some players in and I managed to sign three players

Mauro Martinez - Central Defender - £6m from San Lorenzo

With Watts going I needed to bring another defender in, I really wanted to go big and get a top quality player in and I really feel this is the lad. A big fee but he has so much potential.

Paul Holman - Defensive Midfield - Season loan from Southampton

With Trevitt going I needed a new DM, I couldn't find someone who wanted to come in and be a squad player and with us having a couple of decent kids, currently out on loan, I went for Holman as a short-term replacement.

Carlos Romero - Left Back - Season loan from Burnley

Anderson leaving left me short of LBs but I didn't really want to go mad and spend a shed load on a player when Torijano was doing a really good job, so I went with another short-term solution, he looks really good though.

Now to the results and my word it's been going well!

Champions League

We had two games left in the League Phase, two really tough games but we knew we only had to win one to seal a playoff spot.

First up was Atletico Madrid at home and we put in one hell of a performances, especially in defence to seal a 1-0 win! And that sealed a playoff place in knockouts. Stunning!

We then went to Arsenal and blew up, I mean they are brilliant but when one of your players gets sent off just before half-time it makes it even more difficult. This was the first of two reds for Anderson and one of the reasons why I sold him!

An amazing campaign though and we end in those top 24 spots alongside Celtic.

Into the Playoff round and we were handed a tough tie against AC Milan. First leg at home and we once again defied the odds to seal a 3-2 win with two very late goals!!

We then went to the San Siro and got an absolute kick-in!!!! A 5-0 defeat, they were just way too good and shows you how much hard work is ahead!

What an amazing run though, we got through three qualifying round, went toe to toe with some of Europe's elite, cause some shocks and got into the knockouts

The other Scottish Clubs in Europe have also done really well.

• Celtic - Played Liverpool in the Champions League playoff round, the managed a 2-2 draw at home before losing 4-2 away, a solid campaign for Brendan's boys though.
• Rangers - Ended 5th in the Europa League qualifying for the Last 16 where they'll face Trabzonspor.
• Aberdeen - Ended 5th in the Conference League qualifying for the Last 16 where they'll face .

Scottish Cup

You always want a nice, easy draw when it comes to the early rounds of the cup and we got completely the opposite!!!
 

We had Celtic at home to play, this was sandwiched in between those final two Champions League League Phase games, we went strong though and put in one of the best performances of my time here. We absolutely hammered them, they only had 1 shot and scored from it, we totally dominated, 13 shots on target, some scintillating football and, courtesy of a Muniz hat-trick we sealed a 4-1 win! MASSIVE!

In the next round we got a much easier tie against Championship side Airdrie, I rotated and the boys delivered a 6-0 win, 4 goals for LW McLuckie!

In the Quarters we will face Aberdeen at home.

Premiership

Now to the League and my word it's been incredible, even with so many games, injuries and fitness problems, the boys have turned and in style as well!

6 games, 16 points including ANOTHER 4-1 hammering of Celtic!!

As I said at the start, everything seems to have clicked, the players now believe they can do it, they can mix it with Celtic and actually beat them!!! The Hibs draw though did set us back, only a little bit, we have however dragged the gap back, in the last updated Celtic sat 4 clear with a game in-hand, they lose that game and with the loss against us we've now shrunk the gap down to a single point!

We have 9 games left, 9 games to make history at Queen's Park! Can we do it? Hell yes!

28/29 Season - November & December

Man there are so many games in the opening half of the season!!!

Champions League

I won't lie I am so proud of how the lads have performed in the Champions League, we have been handed a ridiculous draw and bar the Barca game we've held our own. We played two games in the last couple of months and came out with a win and a loss.

The win was absolutely incredible, we conceded early but for around 35 minutes, between our first and fourth goals, we were absolutely incredible, like some of the best football I've seen on FM, Trevitt going off made it nervy as we had no more subs and they did come back but we hung on for a huge win!

We are still struggling for a playoff spot, our final two games are so tough, Atletico Madrid at home and Arsenal away, I think one win may be enough but getting that win is going to require a miracle!

Premiership

In the League been OK, we have really struggled with there being so many games, I've also had some very disgruntled players who wanted to play more, the likes of Noss, Dembele, The Ox and Watts have all complained and it's upset the morale, we've also had injuries and suspensions to deal with so results have been hit and miss.

11 games, 7 wins, 1 draw and 3 defeats. When you say it like that it's actually a really good few months, I'll take it back about us struggling!!! The defeat were annoying though, Celtic I can take, Hibs was a shocker of a performance and Rangers was a repeat of that Celtic cup game, an early red and we had no chance. 

Some of the wins though have been really good, we have been scoring for fun lately with Mavididi and Muniz on fire!

Those defeats mean we have slipped away from Celtic who sit 4 clear of us with a game in-hand. A nice gap to 3rd though.

There's also been another positive intake preview with a projected “golden generation”, I don't see it on those ratings but we will see.

We now move into the Winter window and I am expecting some comings and goings, Watts is leaving and I have a replacement lined up, Dembele and Noss have both signed pre-contracts to leave at the end of the season so will not feature from here on in (unless I really REALLY need them!). There is also noise about Trevitt going as he's asked for a move, I'll probably cash in but it does leave us short of central midfielders. So it could be a busy month!

28/29 Season - September & October

What a brilliant couple of months it's been, lots of games and some really good performances.

Champions League

It started oh so well but the last two results show how much work is needed before we start getting close to challenging!

I'm happy with four points though, the Barca result was an absolute hammering!

Half way through and we are just inside those playoff spots.

League Cup

I really wanted to win the League Cup this season but we failed and I'm really annoyed about it!

When you play Celtic, especially in such an important game it's key to keep your heads and Rodrigo Muniz, who had been incredible so far this season, didn't! He got sent off inside one minute! After that we had no chance. Fuming!

Premiership

Now to the League and we continue our amazing form.

7 games, 17 points, the only real downer was those poor draws in game we should be winning, it's totally down to the number of games we're playing, I'm having to rest and rotate more and that's what happened in both those draws. Other than that it's been amazing, plenty of goals and Muniz has been on fire (not that makes any difference after that shocking red!!)

We are top of the League!! Celtic on our tails though, Celtic have however lost more games already this season than the whole of the last campaign.

In Other News

I've been asking the board to sign an affiliation to help us send players out on loan and I've eventually managed to get them to say yes!

A really good deal here with Championship side Hamilton, not only can I send my players there on loan but we also get first option to sign any of their players.

With finances looking really good and there being a large surplus in my wage budget I've gone out and tied my key men into new deals, while also increasing or removing those pesky release clauses!

Montalto had a £14m release clause, this is now £40m!

Summer signing Torijano's release clause was £2.9m, it now £15m.

And finally the big one, I fully expected Muniz to leave in the Summer, so much so that I went out and signed two new strikers, he has been utterly incredible for me so far this season, I had to keep him around, so he's got a new deal and that £30m release clause has been removed.

What a season! I always knew you were good at FM but to actually complete a season in the MLS AND do well is insane! Well done mate, you're a bigger man than me!

28/29 Season - July, August & Transfers

Last season was incredible, we eventually lifted a major domestic trophy and got closer the Celtic, it ended with disappointment for me, as I was sacked as Scotland manager but it's made me even more determined to bring even more success to Queen's Park. This is a big season, our last at Hampden before we move to our new ground “The Malky MacKay Stadium” for start of the 29/30 campaign, a brand-spanking shiny, nearly 19l all-seater stadium. So let's make our last season at Hampden a good one, yeah?

This may be a slightly longer post as there have been a lot of games in the opening month and a bit and, as you'll see, quite a bit of transfer business!

Transfers

I said in the last Queen's Park update that I expected some players to leave and that's exactly what happened.

We say goodbye to some of our most influential players:

Liam Morrison - Signed for £1590k and last season won a Scotland cap and became the clubs vice-captain, Al-Jazira activated his £15m release clause and there was nothing I could do, a HUGE profit though!

Gavin Kilkenny - Signed on a free in 2024, a massive player, helping our amazing progression but he said he wasn't going to sign a new contract so I had to cash in, £8m is a decent fee.

Federico Bonzzaoli - Signed on a free in 2026, another decent player but, like Kilkenny, he wasn't going to sign a new contract.

We also lost Kwateng who was signed last season and never really took off, another big profit on him, Jack Byrne also left after falling out of favour.

Some big losses of player but some huge profits and around £33m of money brought in.

Now we come to then in's and clearly, after losing so many players, we had to make some moves. I have gone big!

Nicolas Larrosa - Right Back - £3m from Nacional

A decent looking full back who can also push forward and play right wing. With Kwateng going I needed another option to Tanner at right back, I have high hopes this lad can be a superstar

Simon Torijano - Left Back - £450k from Once Caldes

Another option on the left, whether that's at full back or on the wing. I really like this lad, he looks top quality and all for a really low fee

Jason Peters - Striker - £500k from Arsenal

The first of two new Strikers, I really expected Rodrigo Muniz to leave, he had a £30m release clause and I thought someone would activate it, in the end the highest fee I was offered was £25m and I said no. So I now have Muniz and two others. The first of those is Jason Peters, another top quality young player who already looks really good.

Alex Calver - Defender - Season loan from Leicester

I do have a number of defensive options but with Morrison leaving I needed to find a short-term solution, just for the season, with the hope that some of my kids will improve and can take that spot from next season. Calver looks solid, he can play all along the back-line and all for a cheap wage %.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain - Attacking Midfield - Free Transfer

With all those kids coming in I had to bring in some experience and when I saw AOC available on a free it was a no-brainer. Versatile, a great mentor and a top quality signing for this level.

Stephy Mavididi - Left Wing - Free Transfer

I had been looking at Stephy the whole Summer, even before he left Leicester at the end of his deal to get him in on a pre-contract but he wanted stupid STUPID wages, like over £60k per week. Then he was released, I went back in and boom, £18.75k per week! A top top quality signing for the Scottish Premiership and a fantastic option out wide.

Martin Campbell - Striker - £3.1m from Kilmarnock

The second Striker to join and this was a last minute deal, with the Muniz bids coming in I fully expected him to go, we also had loan bids in for wonderkid Calvin Leslie, I had looked at Campbell previously but wasn't sure where he'd fit in the first-team. With Muniz likely to go I went for it, Muniz stayed and now I have more than enough options up front!! I do like the look of him, he needs some work but with some mentoring and training he could become a superstar.

And that's it, some really good deal, only £7m, over £30m recouped, a fantastic window!

Champions League

Now we come to the big one, only our second venture into Europe's premier competition, last time went out in the 2nd Qualifying Round, this time we did much better!

We eased past Serbian side Novi Pazar and then a fantastic result against Olympiakos putting us into the playoff round, a 2-legged tie against French side Rennes for a spot in the League Phase and all the money that comes with it!

We went to their place in the first leg and played really well. At half-time it was 2-2 and we were well in the tie, we had chances but couldn't find a way through, until the 92 minute when Ilie popped up to seal a huge 3-2 win.

Then came the second leg and total chaos descended!!! 76 minutes in we were 3-0 down, 5-3 on aggregate, we had capitulated in shocking fashion, subs came on and one of those subs, Rares Ilie grabbed a goal back with a minute to go, 5-4 down. We then went for it, everyone up front, pump it in the box, chances came and went, then in the final minute, virtually the final kick of the game, Muniz rose highest to nod the ball home!!! 5-5 and we go to extra time!

Extra time came and ended, it would go to penalties. We were clinical but so were Rennes, 4 rounds each, all scored. James Hill then stepped up for us and scored. Le Fee stepped up for Rennes AND FISHER SAVES!!!!!

We're into the Champions League proper!!! Absolute scenes at Hampden!!!!!

Then we got out fixture list and oh my word that's tough!

Hampden will have some amazing nights under the lights in our final season there!

Domestic Action

So far it's been a solid start, with so many games I've had to rotate and overall it's worked.

Loads of goals in most of the game and some good wins, we did get hammered by Celtic at home which wasn't great and also drew 0-0 away to St. Johnstone in a game where we could've scored 10! 

10 points from 5 games though is decent enough, we do somehow need to start challenging Celtic in games regularly and not just winning 1 out of every 4!!

Goodbye Scotland National Team

I said it would happen and it has come to pass, my time as Scotland manager is over, this means, at the moment, one part of this challenge is over but it now gives me even more time to focus on Queen's Park

Hopefully in the future I will get the chance to manage them again but for now it's over!

Euro 2028

We have the group of death to negotiate so this update may not take long!!! Italy, England and Norway stand in our way, top 2 go through, the 4 best 3rd places also progress, we can only hope and pray we do enough!!!

We had to cut our 30-man squad down to 26 prior to the tournament, I thought it was 23 so that was a pleasant surprise!

It was a tough choice deciding who to leave out but I feel I've picked the best squad I can.

Game 1 v Italy

We face the hosts in the opening game and the tournament and are huge underdogs but within 7 minutes we're ahead……or so we thought, Adams was adjudged to be just offside and the goal was chalked off! Italy then took the lead mid-way through the half courtesy of wing-back Kayode. We had our chances but never really tested their keeper and then just after the hour mark Italy doubled their lead, Chiesa scoring a belter. As we pushed forward Italy caught us on the break and scored a third via Real Madrid striker Colombo. Full time, 3-0 and not a good start and even worse as Che Adam tore his calf muscle and is out of the tournament.

Game 2 v Norway

With England beating Norway we knew we had to win this game to stand any chance of qualifying. If we lost we would be virtually out.

After the poor performance last time out I made a raft of changes but it didn't help, Norway have this player, I'm not sure if you've heard of him, his name is Erling Haaland, well he didn't score the opening goal, that was scored by Tobias Gulliksen on 24 minutes but then Haaland got his goal 7 minutes later. 2-0 down and we hadn't shown up whatsoever, it was a poor all over, absolutely fuming and embarrassed, yes we had a tough group but I expected better, especially in this game. We managed to not concede any more but we hardly created a change. A 2-0 loss and we were out.

Game 3 v England

A dead rubber. England were through, we were out but there is national pride at stake, not only is it our nearest neighbours but we need to end with some kind of positivity!!

Well it ends with no positivity at all, we were awful, a 3-0 defeat, we failed to have a shot on target, absolutely woeful!

Now the worrying news, I have a funny feeling I may end up getting sacked. Whilst nothing has happened as yet, this is the board confidence screen.

Not good, there's also news articles circling that the players aren't happy with me as well. This means that, if I do get sacked, I've failed in the challenge of winning the World Cup and topping the FIFA Rankings with Scotland, unless I get offered the job again in the future. Let's hope the board give me a chance! If not then we'll just have to prove them wrong and smash it with Queen's Park!

27/28 Season - Championship Group, Scottish Cup Final & End of Season Review

Well here we are, the end of my 5th season in charge of Queen's Park and this one has been the best by far. We made it to the Europa League Quarters and lost in the League Cup final to Celtic, we still have two competitions to play for. We have a Scottish Cup final v Celtic to come but also five more games in the League, 2nd is wrapped up but we're looking upwards, we're 4 behind Celtic, can we do it? It's going to take a miracle but I have faith!

Championship Group Game 1 v Aberdeen (a)

Not the start we were looking for, we scored early and had numerous chances, we hit the bar twice in a single attack but Aberdeen played some good attacking football and scored twice in the first quarter of an hour before getting a third late on to seal a 3-1 win.

Championship Group Game 2 v St. Johnstone (a)

Back to winning ways in an emphatic victory!

Championship Group Game 3 v Rangers (h)

We had to win, if we didn't it would hand the title to Celtic, Rangers scored early on and it was an uphill battle from there, we played well but our finishing let us down until right near the end when Trevitt scored from long-range. A point wasn't enough though and Celtic were crowned champions AGAIN!

Championship Group Game 4 v Hibernian (h)

With the title gone it was time to mix the team up against Hibs, a decent performance sealing a 3-1 win.

Championship Group Game 5 v Celtic (a)

In the final game we went to Celtic Park, I went strong but they were just way too good, a 3-0 loss to end the season. 

Even so, this was the best season yet, 2nd place, 88 points (7 better than our previous best), miles clear of Rangers as well. Celtic are just on another level at the moment but we are getting closer. If we can just make slight improvements to the squad each season I know, in a few seasons time, we can be properly challenging them.

Scottish Cup Final v Celtic

There was however one game to go, another cup final, our second of the season and once again it was Celtic we faced. In the five seasons of the save we've played six cup games against Celtic, losing all six including two cup final. Could it be lucky number seven?

I decided to go all out attack and try to take them by surprise and it worked. Rares Ilie cutting in from the left and curling a gorgeous shot into the far corner within 2 minutes, just under 20 minutes later and it got even better, a lovely move eventually came down the left to Anderson, he played a one-two with Ilie and then hit a lovely cross, Muniz beat his man to put it home! 2-0!!!

Surely we couldn't throw this away? Well only 6 minutes into the second half Celtic grabbed a goal back and we looked shakey. I gave them an encouraging shout and it worked. A long throw from Hill found Thomson who was pushed in the back and the referee pointed to the spot. Montalto stepped up and sent Mvogo the wrong way! 3-1!!!!

Now we just had to keep our heads….yeah maybe not. Captain Jack Thomson lunged in, missed the ball and caught Datro Fofana, a second yellow and we now have 16 minutes plus injury time to hold on.

Celtic huffed and puffed but the Queen's Park door held firm, we sat back and soaked up the pressure. 

5 minutes injury time…..HOLD ON!!!!

THE WHISTLE BLOWS!!! QUEEN'S PARK WIN THE SCOTTISH CUP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Eventually, all those defeats, all those close games, we have done it, we have beaten Celtic in a cup final!!!

Incredible scenes, I really hope that now gives the players confidence that they can do it, they can stand toe-to-toe with the mighty Celtic!!!

Now let's look over who have been our key men this season

Rodrigo Muniz nearly left in the Summer and I'm so glad I kept him around, a brilliant season ends with him winning the clubs player of the season and scoring 29 goals in 40 start, 20 of those in the League. Will he be here next season though? Rumours are circling that a move may be on the cards, whoever it is better cough up!

What a first season at Queen's Park for Winger Fabrizio Montalto, he ends as the clubs young player of the season. A club record signing (£3m) in the Summer and he has just got better and better. 51 starts, 20 goals and 17 assists, an absolutely massive player and I need to keep him around, the issue at the moment is his agent will not let me give him a new contract with a release clause more than £12.5m, if he goes for that I'll be gutted.

Defender Waylon Renecke wins the clubs signing of the season, playing as the left-sided central defender (wide centre back) he has been a revelation and one of the reasons why we've done so well. He's chipped in with 4 goals and 2 assists in 47 starts as well.

The last player I want to speak about is 2024 intake star Kier Hamilton, the central midfielder hasn't played as much as I hoped this season but next season he is getting his chance, with Okeke leaving in the Winter and it looking highly likely Kilkenny will go I want to give Hamilton the chance to cement a first XI spot. I think he has it in him to become an absolute superstar.

Here is the clubs Best XI for the season.

And here's the whole first-team squad.

With the finances looking really good I expected some decent budgets for the upcoming season and what we've been given is solid at best. 

We've made over £4m this season and have over £20m in the bank with projections only looking one way and that's upwards so I did expect a bit more on that transfer kitty, £7.3m though is more than enough for me to do what I need to do, especially as I am expecting a few players to leave. The wage budget is really good though, a bit increase on last season and it gives us around £70k per week spare. 

It's going to be an interesting Summer, once again we have a lot of players wanted and I expect a few of them to go, the like of Bonazzoli and Kilkenny have already said they will not be signing a new contract which expires at the end of next season, I'll be looking to cash in. Muniz is also wanted but I really don't want to lose him.

I want to try and give some of the academy lads a go next season, Hamilton will most definitely be in the first-team next season but I have my sights on a few others who I'll mention in the pre-season post. My main aim this Summer is to look to improve two areas, Right Back and Left Wing, Tanner and Kwateng at RB haven't been amazing this season and I want to bring in a much better first-choice, on the Left Ilie has been decent but the players in reserve haven't really done it.

As for other transfers it will depend on who leaves as ever!

Now for some Scotland updates.

Firstly, we have announced our 30-man provisional squad for Euro 2028.

No real surprises here and I'm really going to struggle to cut the squad down when that comes about. 

The other news is we've had our Nations League Division A group draw and for once it doesn't look too bad.

Italy are decent and Croatia aren't bad but we should be expecting to end above Ireland.

The next update will be the Euro's, wish me luck!! I'm going to need it!

27/28 Season - March & April

We are closing in the business end of the season and we are still in with a chance of winning three competitions!!!

Europa League

With us ending in the top 8 of the League Phase we bypassed the playoff round, so I expected an easy draw in the Last 16, or not!!! We were handed Juventus, an impossible ask I hear you say? Well the first leg was away and for 60 minutes we played incredible, 2-0 up and coasting but in true FM style Juve scored, then scored again and then in the last minute came back to win the tie 3-2! Gutting but we had ran one of the better teams in Europe all the way and we still had the home leg to come!!!

With 11,000 fans behind us we turned and played amazing, we dominated, Juve only had 1 shot all game but, even though we scored courtesy of a James Hill header late on, we couldn't find another goal and it was to go to penalties.

Where Fisher in goal was immense, saving two penalties, Trevitt missed for us but then up stepped Dembele, a player who hadn't featured massively this season, to win the game, he sent the keeper the wrong way and we had won!!!! ABSOLUTE SCENES!!!!!

A shock win and we were into the Quarters where we were drawn against Athletic Club, another tough ask but after what we had just achieved I had faith. We went to their place and put in another amazing performance, Muniz scored early to give us then lead and then it was the Andrew Fisher show, save after save after save, he was unbeatable and sealed us a 1-0 win, surely we couldn't make the semi finals?

The home leg started OK, we had the best of the chances and looked to holding firm but, as the game drew to a close, we ran out of legs and their key men stepped up, 3-0 was a tough score-line to take, we didn't deserve that, a gutting way to go out but what a run!!!

Scottish Cup

Now we come to domestic action and firstly the Scottish Cup. In the Quarters we had a relatively easy game against Airdrie and it proved to be just that. A 3-0 win and we coasted into the semi's

Where we missed Rangers and Celtic (Celtic beat Rangers on penalties in the other semi final) and were drawn against Hibernian. With the Hampden park crowd behind us we put in a brilliant display to ease past them 2-0, another final and once again we'll face Celtic!

Premiership

Now to the main one, could we win the League? Well the answer is, we still don't know!!! The sheer number of games have been really tough on us, fitness issues have been rife and we have struggled in parts. 

5 games, 3 wins and 2 defeats, we got battered by Celtic but it was the Kilmarnock home game which was most disappointing, it came 3 days after the Juventus win, everyone was knackered so I had to mix the team up and it didn't work. So we now have 5 games to go to try and claw back Celtic's 4 point advantage.

To do that we're going to have somehow beat them at Celtic Park in the final game and hope at some point they drop points and we win every game! A tough ask but I am delighted with how this season has gone already. We have equalled our highest points tally for a season and we still have 5 games left, we've made both domestic cup finals and had an amazing European run, whatever happens from now until the end of the season will be a bonus.

Finally, we've had our Euro 2028 draw and once again it's a shocker

I'm beginning to wonder if UEFA have some kind of vendetta against us, we won our qualification group with ease but were seeded 4th in the draw!!! We could've got Iceland, Greece and Austria. We got Italy (hosts), Norway (Haaland) and England (rivals). Could it have been any tougher? No, but we had a tough draw in the World Cup and caused a few shocks, so we can do it again!

Thanks mate, it's definitely chaos!!!! I need to find out how to make it more defensively solid as we start challenging more in Europe but so far I can't complain!

27/28 Season - Youth Intake

I wouldn't usually do a separate post for my intakes but I just got this through and had to share it!

A golden generation, four elite talents, three top talents!! This is the one!!!

So after a gander through it comes about that we have some serious talent here……

Ray Hillcoat - Centre Back 

• Positives: He can tackle, is brave and has good teamwork and work rate, he is also good at heading.
• Negatives: Pace and strength, also with me playing BPD and Libs I need to get his passing up,
• Overall Opinion - This lad, with a bit of work could be amazing! - 7/10

Nathan Brannigan - Striker/Left Winger 

• Positives - He is darn quick and has brilliant physicals for a 15-year old, good passing and first touch
• Negatives - For a striker he only has 8 finishing and some of his mentals are poor. Low determination as well
• Overall opinion - could be decent but needs a lot of work - 5/10

Ryan McArthur - Centre Midfield 

• Positives - Where do I start? This lad looks incredible!!!!! 10's+ in so many areas, this is the lad!!!!!
• Negatives - Not much!!! Strength and Concentration is below 10 and has 9 for passing, easy to improve though
• Overall opinion - OH MY WORD!!!! 10/10

Ross Holmes - Centre Back 

• Positives - Decent physicals and has good pace which you don't tend to see in young defenders.
• Negatives - Technicals are really not good, heading and jumping is low and needs to improve his positioning
• Overall opinion - Could be decent but is going to need some serious work - 5/10

Josh Boyd - Centre Midfield 

• Positives - Good work rate and first touch amongst others
• Negatives - For a CM he needs to improve his passing and tackling, his mentals also need a bit of work
• Overall Opinion - A solid player who with a bit of work could get a spot in the first-team squad - 4/10

What an intake, we have a couple of lads there who could become superstars of this teams in the coming seasons, they need to continue to improve though as the club improves, otherwise they will be left behind. I am really excited by Ryan McArthur and he will come straight into the main squad to be mentored by our more experiences midfielders.

27/28 Season - January & February

I fully expected a really busy Winter window but actually, bar a couple of early bids, I managed to hang on to most of my key men. I say most because two players actually left.

Michael Okeke was the big loss, Al-Wehda activated his release clause and he was gone, a key player to lose but we have Kilkenny, Trevitt and Hamilton who can play in CM, another player was needed, more on him in a moment. We also lost Striker Joe Taylor, he never really got going here and when St.Gallen came in with a £2.2m bid I had to take it, he was signed for nothing so a big profit for probably my third choice striker.

I said I planned in bringing a few players in but I never really found that player who would improve the side. A new keeper was needed, as was an Okeke replacement, I also wanted a new striker but that never came about as most players I was either priced out of or their wage demands were stupidly high.

So please welcome two new signings.

Josh King - Central Midfield - Season loan from Fulham

I didn't really want to spend a load of money who, with the other option I had in central midfield, would probably be a back-up at best. King comes in for a relatively cheap loan and will provide a decent option when injuries or suspensions occur.

Santiago Silva - Goalkeeper - Free Transfer

Finding a keeper was really hard, Fisher is really good and the bids I expected for him never materialised, I decided to bring in another option in goal anyway, Siva looks quality and in comparison is just as good as Fisher.

And that was it, two out, two in. This is really the way I have to do things at the moment, we have max'ed out our Europa League squad with no other spaces available for non-Homegrown players. So players will only join from now on if I know a player is leaving.

Now to the results.

Europa League

We had two games remaining in the League Phase and we knew one win would seal a spot in the knockouts, bypassing the dredaed playoff round. We sealed a really good win over Olympiakos before a fantastic 3-3 draw away to Dortmund!

And that meant we have ended in 4th place.

Absolutely amazing and we end unbeaten as well! Bring on the knockouts!

Then came the Last 16 draw and we were handed the toughest possible tie!

I mean that is harsh!!!

In other news we are the last club standing in Europe.

In the Champions League Celtic lost in the playoff round to Liverpool

In the Europa League Hibernian blew a 3-1 first leg advantage against Young Boys to lose the second leg 3-0 and go out

In the Conference League Hearts lost to Besiktas on penalties!

Shocking but luckily our co-efficient total for this season sits at 13.833 and provisional rankings have us moving up to 9th meaning we gain a Champions League League Phase spot.

Scottish Cup

We entered in the 3rd Round and faced League One's Cove Rangers, I expected a win so made a raft of changes and we smashed them 5-0!

Into the 4th round where we played fellow Premiership side Motherwell at home, I rotated quite a bit but we came out with a fantastic 3-0 win and very dominant as well!

In the Quarter finals we will face an away tie to Championship side Airdrie.

Premiership

Oh my word we have done well, we had a mini-wobble after the Winter break, that's if you can call two draws that!!! But after that, well just look at this…

5 straight wins including back-to-back 3-1 wins at home over Celtic and Rangers!!!!! In the Celtic game we were incredible and for the first time in the save were the better team!

And that run of wins puts us well in the title hunt now, it's a two-horse race between us and Celtic, can we come out on top? It's going to be tough but I will more than take second, just look how far ahead we are of the chasing pack!!!

Our amazing February form then was rewarded with a clean sweep of the Premiership awards. I won the Manager of the Month but we also won the Player and Young Player of the Month.

I said at the end of the last update that I was disappointed in the lack of goals from my Strikers, well Muniz, even though he has asked to leave, has been banging them in left, right and centre! 6 in 5 in February pushes him into contention for the Premiership top scorer.

Winger Montalto ended second in the Player of the Month but also won the Young Player of the Month, this lad is incredible and I really need to tie him into a new contract with a higher release clause!

The futures bright!

27/28 Season - November & December

These months seem to get busier and busier!

Premiership

It's been an absolutely incredible few months!!!!

Just look at that! 8 games, 8 wins!!!!! Ok we've not faced Celtic or Rangers but who cares! There have been some amazing performances, very few goals conceded and going forward we have shared the goals around, 13 different scorer in 8 games!!!

Unfortunately Celtic have been as good!

Second place is well and truly sealed, 15 clear of Hibs with 2 games in-hand, Celtic though sit top, still unbeaten and look way way too good!!!!

Europa League

Three more games and three more wins!!!

This is going so well and because of the results we have already sealed a playoff spot. We now have games against Olympiakos at home and Dortmund away, one win should seal a Top 8 spot, meaning we bypass the playoff round.

League Cup

We're into a second League Cup final in 3 years and once again we faced Celtic, a tough ask but we ran them all the way, we took an early lead, injuries didn't help us but we played really well and probably edged it, Celtic then grabbed a leveller just after half-time and after that we struggled to create many chances, luckily we held firm and took the game to extra time, this is where we ran out of legs, Celtic looked fitter and stronger and took hold of the game, they scored twice and we had no answer. Another gutting cup final defeat.

Youth Intake Preview

Now this is exciting!!! Will it actually be as good as it looks?!

Now we move into the Winter window and I am slightly worried about the amount of rumours circling about my players, Okeke, Kilkenny, Muniz, Tanner, Morrison and many more, all have rumours coming out that clubs want to sign them, luckily there have been no bids so far but I'm expecting a raft of them when the window actually opens. 

I do need to look at strengthening in certain areas, we have really struggled with our Strikers, Muniz has been OK in bits but then goes 5 games without scoring, I also need to look at another keeper as Fisher has had a couple of 4-5 week injuries already this season and we have no real decent backup, then I have to look at who ends up leaving, I have been scouting with the expectation of losing players so already have my targets lined up, I just can't make the move until I know people are going.

Tactical Evolution

It's been a good season or so since I spoke about the tactic, the amazing “double-Libero” tactic! It's still working but it has evolved, especially this season where I felt we needed to make some slight changes.

There have been some small changed to the roles and positions, the two full-backs have now moved forward into the wing-back role, I just felt they sat too deep and with 3 central defenders I didn't need them as far back. One of the central midfielders has dropped back into a Segundo Volante role, this is just as I felt Kilkenny and Trevitt suited that role better and also, as they come deeper than when they play as the Carrilero they offer better passing options to my defenders. The other big change is in central defence where one of the Liberos has been removed and we now have a Wide Centre back. Again this is more of a preference of the players I have, it also offers a bit more help to the attacking Wing-back, the Libero seemed to sit back and play short passes, the WCB seems to get forward move and offer options when attacking. 

As you can see from the results it seems to be working……so far!

Euro 2028 Qualification

If you remember way back when I mentioned the group we had you will know it looked pretty easy! We had Sweden, Iceland, Kosovo, Faroe Islands and San Marino. Sweden were the highest ranked team (bar us) in 34th. The top two go through, a foregone conclusion, right?

CORRECT!!! It was even easier than I expected!

What an amazing campaign, qualification was sealed by game 8 so in those final 2 matches I picked a heavily rotated squad, only one game where we dropped points and that was away to Kosovo when I rested a raft of my key players.

Stunning!

Over the 10 games I have managed to give numerous players their debuts for the national side so below is a few players who made their debuts and I think will be key as we progress, not only to Euro 2028 in Italy but also in the years to come.

Andy McCarthy - Goalkeeper - Dundee United

McCarthy joined up the final squad in the qualification stage and played really well. He needs to improve his quickness if he going to become a top quality sweeper-keeper but I have high hopes and plan to keep to him in the squad as my 3rd choice keeper behind Angus Gunn and Callan McKenna

Ricky McKeown - Right Wing - Aberdeen

McKeown mad his debut in the Nations League victory over England and then, due to injury wasn't called back up until the September/October games, he's been in the last 2 squad, mainly due to his amazing form at Aberdeen where he has 5 goals and 6 assists in 18 starts. He played in the final game against San Marino and scored.

Matthew Anderson - Left Back - Queen's Park

One of my Queen's Park boys after his move from Celtic last season. He has been on really good form for me this season and got his first call-up in the final squad of qualification. He played really well in both games and if he continues to develop he will end up taking over from Josh Doig to become my 1st choice left back.

Ethan Laidlaw - Striker - Brentford (on loan at Hibernian)

I am really short of decent striker, Che Adams has been incredible for me over the save so far but he's now 31 and not playing for Southampton so I've had to start looking for alternative options. One of those is Ethan Laidlaw who's been on decent form since joining Hibernian, scoring 7 goals in 5 starts. He's been in the last 3 squads, making his debut in the away tie to San Marino where he banged in a hat-trick, since then he's made 3 sub appearances and scored in the final game against San Marino

Tommy Conway - Striker - Rotherham

Another striking option is Tommy Conway, he's been on decent form for Rotherham, scoring 7 goals in 16 games which has helped Rotherham into the Championship playoff spots this season! Conway came in for the June squad and has been in all the squad since, he made his debut against Faroe Islands and like Laidlaw he scored a hat-trick! He's made 2 appearances since, playing against Faroe Islands and played well without scoring and then coming on as sub against Kosovo where he didn't make an impact.

The future really is bright, with the like of Luke White (CB/DM), Charlie McArthur (LCB) and Ben Doak (RW/LW), who I've mentioned before, we have a really decent-looking, young squad which can only improve!

Now it's time to take the Euro's by storm!

27/28 Season - September & October

It's been an action packed few months!

League Cup

A couple of close games but we deserved to win them both. We are into the final where we face, yes you guessed it, Celtic! Wish me luck!

Premiership 

Just look at all that green, two blemishes though, the Celtic game was a close one, we are getting better against them but just not good enough. The St. Johnstone game at the end of October was one of those games, we hammered them, their keeper was POTM, a crappy loss but it is what it is!

So over all 9 games, 21 points, I'll take that!

Around about a third of the way through the season, we are comfortably in second, 8 clear of Rangers but 3 behind Celtic and they have a game in-hand.

Europa League

What a start!

3 games, 7 points, the 2 home games you'd expect us to win but we also played really well. Atalanta away was one of our toughest games and we did amazingly, we had most of the chances and came out with a respectable 1-1 draw.

Already in the top 8, can we stay there?

Finally, I want to talk about a couple of players who have been playing really well.

George Tanner has been amazing the past few months, I brought Kwateng in to take his place at RB but he wasn't setting the World on fire and when he got a 2 week injury Tanner got his chance and hasn't looked back. He's only missed 2 games in the last 2 months and has averaged well over 7, getting 3 assists and a goal. Not bad!

This lad is bloody insane! Summer signing Fabrizio Montalto is a revelation!! He's been our best performer so far this season, chipping in with 5 goals and 4 assists from his 14 starts with 3 POTMs, I mentioned when we signed him he had an £8.25m release clause, well he's been given a new deal and that release clause has increased to £12.5m, my plan is to keep giving him improved deals until I can remove that clause completely!

27/28 Season - July, August and Transfers

Another season is here and it's been a busy Summer!

Let's firstly talk transfers and there have been a few out's

The big one there is defender Nelson Abbey who moved to Leicester for a fee which could rise to £11.5m, the board went over my head and accepted it! The only other first-teamer on that list is Winger Churlinov, signed on a free last season, he was crap, a good profit! We also lost three first-teamers who left when their contracts expired, we say goodbye to Lewis Macari, Tom Lawrence and Alex Bannon.

Now to the in's, we really did need to improve the squad and improve it I did!!

Ryan Porteous - Central Defender - Free from Watford

My replacement for Nelson Abbey and all for no money. He also helps out with the homegrown rule. A top quality centre back.

Siriki Dembele - Winger - Free from Birmingham

You'll see with most of my transfers there's a running theme and that's the fact they cost no money. Dembele comes in to add depth out wide, when I've had him in my Scotland side he's always done a decent job and I have high hopes he can do the same at Queen's Park.

Rares Ilie - Attacking Midfielder - Free from Nice

With me looking at switching to a 4231 (I haven't as yet), I wanted to bring in a top quality player who can play there, this lad fits the bill, he can also play as a CM and on the Left Wing.

Enock Kwateng - Right Back - Free from Ankaragucu

With Macari going I needed a new RB and this lad is a major improvement, not only on Macari but also Tanner who was my first choice. 

David Longwell - Full Back - Free from Bolton

A player I'd been looking at for a while, his technicals worry me but his physical and mental attributes are top notch for a 20-year old

Waylon Renecke - Left Back/Central Defender - £950k from Norwich

I really needed a new LB with me losing Wilson-Esbrand due to his loan expiring, I couldn't find a freebie so went for this lad, only 21 so plenty of time to grow, he already looks really good and can also play LCB if needed.

Fabrizio Montalto - Winger - £3.1m from Padeborn

And now for the biggest deal of the window! This lad looks incredible and could be a massive player for us for years to come. The only issue is he has an £8.25m release clause!

There were very nearly a lot more out's, Saudi Arabia and UAE came calling and bid for Kilkenny, Okeke and Muniz but there offers were woeful and they were all rejected.

Now that's all done let's see how the results have gone in the opening few weeks.

In domestic action it's started pretty well.

10 points from 4 games in the League is a decent start, we should've beaten Hibs but I am happy with how it's started.

Now we come to Europe, we were supposed to be in the 3rd Qualifying round of the Europa League but somehow managed to bypass it meaning we only had a single round to get through to qualify for the League Phase. That game was against Nordjaelland, a tough ask but I had confidence.

The first leg was away and we managed to win the tie 2-1 courtesy of a late goal.

Then in the home leg we went mad, 4 goals in the first half sealed the tie, they did score twice but we sealed it with a 5th goal to win the tie 7-3!

A second straight season in the Europa League and we have a decent fixture list in the League Phase

All those home ties are winnable. Can we end in the top 8 once again?

In more good news, we had 6 teams in Europe this season due to Hibernian winning the Conference League last time around. St Johnstone fell early in the Conference League, losing in the 2nd Qualifying Round but all the others managed to get through to the League Phases of their respective competitions.

Champions League - Rangers and Celtic

Europa League - Queen's Park and Hibernians

Europa Conference League - Hearts

A massive season ahead for the Scottish teams!

26/27 Season - Championship Group & End of Season Review

With third place all but wrapped up the aim for these final five games was to see if we could chase Rangers and Celtic down, the past few games have been a frustration, out of the Scottish Cup and Europa League in the space of a few days, overall though it's been another good season, we've over-achieved in the main, I did however want to win a trophy this season.

The final five games have been hard work, the players are shattered and we have had numerous injuries. After losing the opening Championship Group game to Celtic our chance of the top two was all but over, so I used the last four games to test out some different players and mess around with my tactics. The double-Libero tactic has been brilliant but I do feel we need some kind of fall-back tactic, something less mental, for when we face those tough games or if we hit a bad patch. Overall it worked well, we lost to Rangers but, in the other three games, we didn't concede a goal!

That tactic I decided on was a 4231 with 2 DMs and personally it hasn't worked but trying out a new tactic when it's not pre-season always tends to be a struggle!

In that final game I gave a debut to 2027 academy star Glenn Moore, playing as the anchor man, he put in a fantastic performance and scored!!

So a decent end even if we did lose to the big two.

We end the season in third place, a few points shy of where we ended last season but with all the extra game I have to be happy with how it's gone, would I have liked a trophy? Hell yes but when you look at what we've achieved this season has been a success!

• Premiership - 3rd
• Scottish Cup - Semi final loss to Rangers
• League Cup - Semi final loss to Celtic
• Europa League - Quarter final loss to Genk

Really really good!

Third place this season gets us a Europa League spot for the next campaign, we will enter in the third qualifying round.

The board have also give me solid budgets for the upcoming Summer.

The bank balance is looking really good. We end with £16m in the bank, a profit of £9m since the end of last season. Most of this has come from prize money from our European travels, £11.5m to be exact, an increase of £4.5m from last season. So I expected the budgets to be decent, it gives us around £35k per week in spare wages and a really decent sized transfer budget. Will I spend it all? No, but we do need to make improvements.

As for our key men well there weren't that many players that excelled this season, only 8 players averaged over 7 and 3 of those are kids who only played a handful of games. Our best and most consistent performer was goalkeeper Andrew Fisher, a signing last Summer he had a fantastic campaign, he made 57 appearances and kept 22 clean sheets. He also ends as the clubs player of the season.

With the challenge of Joe Taylor coming in Rodrigo Muniz stepped up his game and ended as the club top scorer, he managed 20 goals in 35 starts and over-performed his xG by 3. 

The final player I want to speak about is Winger Bobby McLuckie, even though he wasn't an ever-present in the side he ends with the most assists at the club, 22 starts, 22 sub appearances, 4 goals and 10 assists.

And here is the whole squad.

And the clubs Best XI for the season.

As you can see, very few players averaging over 7. There were some good performers though but I really need to start improving this squad and replacing some of the poorer players. I need to look at replacing Tanner at RWB, Wilson-Esbrand, on-loan from Man City wasn't great and won't be hanging around so a new LWB is needed. I want to bring in another midfielder to help Okeke, Trevitt and Kilkenny who are all decent but suffered with the sheer number of games. We then could do with another wide-man, injuries have really affected us in those positions, Byrne has struggled, Bonazzoli has spent half the season injured and Churlinov has been rubbish, so big changes are needed out wide.

A big Summer ahead!

Now let's discuss Europe, it's been a really good season for Scottish clubs. Of the five teams who entered into Europe four progressed to the League Phases of their respective competition, two in the Europa League (Us and Celtic) and two in the Europa Conference League (Rangers and Hibernian).

All four of us got our of the League Phase, us and Celtic bypassing the playoff round by ending in the Top 8 spots, in the Conference League both teams ended in those playoff spots.

In the knockouts Rangers went out in the Last 16 of the Conference League followed by ourselves when we went out in the Europa League quarters. 

Celtic were the next team to go out when they lost to Spurs in the semi final of the Europa League.

This left one team standing, Hibernian has made it to the Conference League final where they faced Hoffenheim and they only went and won!!!

A massive boost for the nation co-efficient, we end this season with a total of 19.8, the third highest of all the nations and that means we jump two places in the rankings, it doesn't change the qualification places that we currently have but, with the average being over five years this means that it will give us a big boost in the coming seasons!

Finally, a few screenshots of how we have progressed over the four seasons so far.

What an amazing four seasons it's been!

26/27 Season - March, April & Youth Intake

This may be a long update! We have lot's to go through, the continuation of our Europa League campaign, the Scottish Cup, the Premiership and then another decent looking Youth Intake!

Let's start with that intake, there is a known bug in the game at the moment, which I'm sure will be fixed in the full release tomorrow, no matter what intake you get it always says it's a “poor intake”, that's because, if you look at the screenshot below, you'll see the “intake distribution” has 0 players for every position! Well, as you can see, that's not the case!

One elite talent and four possible top talents. After looking through them all I have high hopes on a couple of them!

Central Midfielder Glenn Moore is the elite talent and he looks really good, he has aggression and bravery and for a 15-year old has really good physicals. I am really excited to see how good he becomes!

The other exciting talent we have is Striker Ewan Cardno, he scored twice in the intake game against the under 18's in a POTM performance. 

The future continues to be bright!

Now to the results and we have reached the end of the Premiership regular season and as expected we are sitting in 3rd place.

We've only played 4 League games in the past couple of months but overall it's been good, especially with so many games being played. We now have 5 games left to attempt to chase down the big two.

A defeat to Falkirk the only blip but in that game we were decent but couldn't finish and hit the woodwork twice. 9 points from 4 games is brilliant, including a rare win over Celtic!

Only the second time in three season's we've beaten them in the league.

Now to the Scottish Cup, we faced Hearts away in the Quarter final and at half-time it was 1-1, the game then turned on a substitution, Churlinov got injured and with academy star Calvin Leslie the only man who could fill in on the RW I brought him, 9 minutes later he had scored twice to seal a 3-1 win! This lad is going to become a legend at this club!

Into the semi's we go and we had the tough ask of facing current league leaders Rangers, the game wasn't great, very few chances and it was settled by a late penalty, unfortunately for us it was for Rangers, Danilo sent Fisher the wrong way to seal a 1-0 win, absolutely gutting as I really wanted a trophy this season.

Finally we come to the Europa League, we had already massively exceeded expectation by getting to the Last 16, we had Young Boys to play for a spot in the quarters.

The first leg was away and we played really well taking a 2-0 lead by half-time, then came a minute of madness, Young Boys scored, a header from a corner, we kicked off, the won the ball, won another corner and scored from it! A 2-2 was a solid result but after being 2-0 up we go home frustrated.

With the Hampden massive behind us we took the game to Young Boys in the home leg, they took the lead but we instantly hit back and at half-time it was 1-1, the game looked to be heading to extra-time until, with 8 minutes left Muniz pounced on a Byrne cross to beat the keeper and seal a 2-1 win! WE'RE INTO THE EUROPA LEAGUE QUARTER FINALS!!!

And when the draw came out I was really optimistic, of all the teams we could've drawn we got probably the easiest tie, we could've got Ajax, Newcastle, Spurs and more, we ended up drawing Genk.

Away leg first and I expected us to win, the players however failed to show up, we hardly made a chance and managed to lose the game 2-0.

I still expected us to come back in the home leg and we really tried, Genk held firm until with a quarter of an hour to go when sub Joe Taylor grabbed a goal to half the aggregate deficit, we huffed and puffed but failed to blow the Genk house down, the whistle blew and we were out.

A frustrating way to go out but when I look back I am delighted with the run we've been on, we started in the Champions League qualifying, we got all the way to the Europa League last 8!

In good news though Celtic have managed to go one step further than us after beating Ajax in the Quarters, the face Spurs in the semi final, Hibernian are also through to the Last 4 of the Conference League and will face Omonoia Nicosia.

A huge boost to our co-efficient, our season total is currently at 17.6, our highest that I've seen so far in the save and we sit 5th in the season rankings. If we continue this we should move up a few places in the overall co-efficient rankings.

Fantastic season mate. Looking forward to seeing where you head off to next

26/27 Season - January & February

Welcome back! Once again there was a bit of business done. Firstly, we lost one of our CBs, Baptiste, who frankly hadn't been amazing for us left for Burnley after they activated his £3m release clause. A big loss but a decent amount of money for a player signed on a free.

We ended up signing three players, one whom can't play for the club this season as I cocked up and he'd already played for two teams!

Bolstering the midfielder is Conor Noss, signed on a free from FC Blau-Weiss Linz, he looks really good and gives us solid option as a CM, an AM, out wide and up front!

James Hill joins from Huddersfield for £95k, my replacement for Baptiste, a solid central defender who can also play right back.

And finally, the cockup, Matthew Anderson joins from Celtic for £700k, what I didn't realise was he had played for Celtic and whilst on-loan at Huddersfield, this meant he couldn't play for another team this season! D'oh!

Now to the results and let's start with the Europa League, it's has gone so much better than I ever expected!

We had two more games in January and managed to claim four points but there is so much more to it than that.

Besiktas was a solid point away from home, we then went in to the PAOK game knowing a win would seal a spot in the top 8, meaning we bypassed the playoff round, at half time we were 2-0 down and playing awfully, I switched formation and, well just look up!! Two injury time goals to seal a 3-2 win!

6th place in our first Europa League campaign and unbeaten, absolutely incredible, it's also good to see Celtic end in that top 8.

The playoff round has also been played and we will face Young Boys in the Last 16, Celtic face Stuttgart.

In other news both Rangers and Hibernian ended in the playoff spots in the Conference League and won their ties meaning they are into the Last 16, Rangers face Hoffenheim, Hibernian play Burnley!

Now to domestic action, what I will say is I hate playing Aberdeen!!!!

We've actually lost 3 games, twice to Aberdeen and then a shocker to St. Johnstone, I wouldn't say the wheels have fallen off, we are still massively over-exceeding expectations but we need to stop these defeats if we are to challenge the big two.

We are still well on for 3rd place but the top 2 look out of reach without a miracle happening, 3rd will still be an amazing achievement with all the extra games we've had this season and the little money I've spent.

The good news is we are still in the Scottish Cup and have an away tie against Hearts in the Quarter Final.

A really good closing stage mate bar the quarter final! Sure next season you will smash it

26/27 Season - November & December

A bumper couple of months have gone by, let's see how it went!

Europa League

Three absolutely amazing results, that away win over Real Betis was one of our best attacking performances of the season. 12 goals scored, 9 points on the board and we are now in pole positions for a top 8 spot and have already sealed a playoff spot alongside Celtic.

Premiership

An absolutely incredible couple of months, no defeats and all my pessimism from the previous Queen's Park update has well and truly gone. We had a fantastic 3-2 win over Rangers and a solid 0-0 draw at Celtic Park. Overall in 9 games we've gained 23 points, that is title challenging form!

And we are well in it, Celtic have actually lost a couple of games and we sit only a point behind them, Rangers are top and have just beaten Celtic 2-0, we are 6 behind them but know we can beat them. This should be a fun second half of the season!

League Cup

We had got to the semi-final where we faced Rangers, it was one hell of a game, defences were on top but Rangers scored minutes into the second half, we were playing well and eventually grabbed the equaliser midway through the second half, the game then petered out and extra time was terrible as all the players were shattered. The game went to penalties and we held firm scoring 4, Fisher in goal saved 2 Rangers penalties to seal the win and a spot in the final.

Against Celtic! Where overall we played very well, we had chances but Celtic were just too good and although we defended well they grabbed the all decisive goal just before half time, we couldn't get back into it, Celtic held on and claimed the trophy. Gutting!

So an amazing few months, it was a shame we couldn't win the League Cup final but we are getting closer and closer by the minute. We now have the better of Rangers on the whole which is great, now it's time to overtake Celtic!!

If you look closely at the results as a whole you will see a couple of names that have an “I” and a number after it, they represent a player that's come through a Youth Intake and the year they came through. In the past few months, due to injuries and the sheer number of games, some have been given a chance, well two in particular.

Firstly is Attacking Midfielder Kier Hamilton who came through the 2024 intake. With me switching the formation around a bit and going with an AM behind a pair of Strikers Hamilton has been given a few games before he got injured, he's made 5 starts in the past 2 months and 3 sub appearances, scoring twice and getting 2 assists. 

The other player is Striker Calvin Leslie, he's actually only made 1 start and 1 sub appearance but has 3 goals, a late winner in the game against St. Johnstone when he came on as sub and then a brace in the 4-0 win over Trabzonspor in the Europa League.

The future is bright!

In other news, we've had the Euro 2028 Qualifying group, we were seeded 1st and were given a rather easy-looking draw.

We are ranked 17th, the next is Sweden who are 34th, Kosovo are 51st, we really should be winning this group and at worst ending 2nd which seals qualification for the Euros which is being held in Italy.

2026 Nations League

Let's take a brief look over how our Nations League campaign went, well we're in Division A and we have a shocking draw. France, England and Belgium, if we avoid bottom spot I'll be delighted

We opened with a home game against France and came back from 2-0 down to seal a famous draw……in the 96th minute…..courtesy of an own goal!!!

Next up was a trip to Wembley where we faced old foes England, we were battered but Angus Gunn in goal was possessed, Kane scored a penalty right on half-time but with 2 minutes left Billy Gilmour scored to seal a 1-1 draw. Massive!

We then faced Belgium at home and played amazingly to claim a 3-1 win, Che Adams with a brace, this lad is a goal-scoring machine!

And the big one, England at Hampden!! We took the lead just after the half hour mark but then, mid-way through the second half Declan Rice grabbed a leveller, after that we took total control. Jacob Brown, playing for Che Adams as he needed resting grabbed two goal and even though Smith-Rowe scored in injury time we had done it, we beat England!!!!

This means with two games left we couldn't end bottom which was massive but the next game would decide who won the group, we went to the Stade de France and unfortunately lost to a late Kolo Muani goal, the man who knocked us out the World Cup! Gutting but we had done so much better than we ever expected.

In the final game we faced Belgium away and we ended with a 2-1 defeat, a poor final two games but I have to be delighted, we beat England!!!

We end the group in 2nd place, above England!

Challenge wise (remember one of my aims is to top the FIFA Rankings), we have moved up to 17th place, a rise of 8 places since the start of the Nations league.

26/27 Season - September & October

It's been a very busy few months! I want to try and keep these updates shorter than I have been as I know what I'm writing is probably too much. So let's see the results.

Overall I have to be happy with those set of results given the sheer number of games, I am however frustrated, we are really not playing that well, we can hardly keep a clean sheet and have drawn too many games! Maybe my expectations are too high, when you drill down we have played 3 Europa League games and have gained 5 points..fantastic!

Just look badly Celtic are doing!

Then you look at the domestic results, we're into the League Cup semi where we face Rangers and in the League, yes we've drawn a few too many games but we still sit 3rd!

And only 4 points off Celtic, maybe I need to stop being so pessimistic and realise, although we aren't keeping clean sheets, we're doing so much better than anyone ever expected at this point of the save.

2026/27 Season - July & August

The World Cup is over and it's time to get back to all things Queen's Park. After last years amazing 2nd place finish we have another European adventure ahead of us which start in the Champions League qualifiers. The squad needs strengthening…..massively if we are to challenge. Was last season a fluke? Well we shall see!

Firstly, let's discuss transfers..

Out-wise there weren't that many. Will Fish left, he fell out of favour and moved to Samsunspor for £375k, Jack Spong also left, he was never going to be a first-team player and moved to Legia for £76k, we also lost Steele (GK) and Hanlon (CB) who both retired, also McKenna (GK) and Marshall (ST) who both went back to their clubs after their loans expired.

Now to the in's and there's quite a few so I'll go over them quickly!

Darren Allison - Midfielder - £155k from Raith

Signed for the future, I'll hopefully send him out on loan this season.

Bobby McLuckie - Winger - £650k from Sunderland

A lad I'd looked at last season but Sunderland nicked him, they now no longer want him so I brought him in, only 20 so plenty of years ahead of him.

Andrew Fisher - Goalkeeper - £750k from Swansea

With me losing both my main goalies in the Summer I needed a new 1st choice and Fisher will be that man, he looks really good, he has big boots to fill though after how Steele ended last season!

Joe Taylor - Striker - Free from Luton

Finding a decent Striker has been tough, Muniz was good last season but fell away towards the end and with Marshall going I was left with just Muniz. For no money Taylor looks good and will be a decent back-up.

Keyland Watts - Defender - Free from Swansea

I needed another left-footed centre back to provide back-up to Nelson Abbey and this is that man.

Ryan Trevitt - Midfielder - Free from Brentford

A signing I didn't need but when he popped up on a free I had to snap him up, he will provide decent back-up to Kilkenny and Okeke.

Darko Churlinov - Winger - Free Transfer

We really needed to strengthen out wide, Lawrence and Byrne were great last season but that was all we really had and both have struggled with injuries, with McLuckie and now Churlinov we have decent options on either flank.

Federico Bonazzoli - Striker - Free Transfer

A last minute signing, he looks really good and for no money, we now have 3 quality strikers, the difference between Muniz and Taylor is Bonazzoli can also play out wide, much needed versatility.

So some really good signings and only £1.55m spent. Wages have risen quite sharply though which is going to damage the bank balance slightly, Europe is huge, we need that prize money!

Talking of Europe, let's see how it went. 

Well our Champions League run did not last long! We were drawn against Panathinaikos and lost 4-3 on aggregate.

Weirdly, in that first leg we absolutely dominated but somehow had to come back from 2-0 down to scrape a draw, not the result we needed at home and that was to be our downfall, a 2-1 defeat away sealed our fate and this meant we dropped down to the Europa League.

Where, in the 3rd Qualifying Round we faced Neftci Baku or Azerbaijan. We were huge favourites and we made that count as we hammered them 3-0 at home. In the away leg we rested numerous players and defended like clowns but only lost 3-2 meaning a 5-3 win on aggregate.

We now had one round to get through, if we win we go into the League Phase of the Europa League, we lose, we drop down to the Europa Conference. 

Standing in our was Club Brugge. A really tough task…..or so we thought!

The first leg was at home, we had to make sure we had a lead to take to the away tie and my word did we win! A 4-0 hammering, a massive win, one of the best in this save so far, we were utterly dominant and clinical to boot!

We sat back in the second leg, soaked up the pressure and saw out a solid 0-0 draw, we had done it, we had qualified for the League Phase of the Europa League!

What an incredible win and £3m to add to the bank balance

We then got our fixtures and I won't lie, they don't look too bad.

Some tough tests, some winnable games, can we do enough to get into the playoffs spots? We shall see!

A quick word on the other Scottish teams in Europe…

• Celtic - Lost to Shakhtar in the Champions League playoff meaning they dropped down to the Europa League
• Rangers - Lost to FC Twente in the Europa League 1st Qualifying Round, then beat Marijampole and Celta Vigo to get into the League Phase of the Conference League
• St. Johnstone - Lost in the Conference League 2nd Qualifying Round to Lugano
• Hibernian - Managed to get through 3 Conference League qualifying rounds, beating Gent, Riga and Braga to qualify for the League Phase

So 4 of the 5 teams managed to get through, just a shame we don't have a team in the Champions League proper.

Finally, let's see how it's gone domestically.

Well it didn't start as we lost at home to Celtic but after that it's been green all the way. Some good results but we need some clean sheets! It was also nice to see Tom Lawrence grab a hat-trick in the final game of the month, his first game of the season after a 6-week lay-off.

A solid start and we're well in the mix, I'm not expecting a title challenge, nor am I expecting to end as high as last season, if we can get a European spot and hopefully win a cup I'll be more than happy.

2026 World Cup

Here we go, grab everything typical Scottish thing you own, we're going on a World Cup adventure to the USA, Canada and Mexico, with the group we have (Argentina, Germany and Costa Rica), it may not last long but it'll be fun nonetheless!

Just to recap, here are the groups, we are in Group K with Argentina, Germany and Costa Rica.

The top 2 from each group go through to the Last 32, alongside the 8 best 3rd place teams 

Scotland's 26-man squad has been announced and there's no real surprises, nor any major injuries.

The big surprises are in defence with Queen's Parks Liam Morrison and 17-year old Newcastle centre back Luke White getting a callup after some good displays in the March friendlies. Lawrence Shankland also gets a callup, I am really short of decent Striker and he was about the best 3rd choice Striker I could pick! 

If everyone is fit and available this is my Best XI, as you can see I'm using the “double-libero” tactic that's served me so well with Queen's Park and did well during the World Cup Qualifying Campaign.

The big decisions are in goal, where Gunn, Kelly and McKenna are all pretty even and at Left Back where we also have Doig and Hickey. On the bench we have the likes of McTominay and Lewis Ferguson who are both solid midfielders. As you can also see from the screenshot above, Ryan Gauld is currently unavailable, he contracted flu in the days before the first game and is our for up to 2 weeks! A big loss.

Game 1 v Argentina

I decided to do live updates on a Discord I'm involved in, here are those updates, pardon the language!

Here we go, up first....Argentina at the SoFI Stadium in California. We only have one player missing, Ryan Gauld has flu!

We're playing the double-Libero tactic that I use with Queen's Park, we may get hammered!

3 mins - OH MY GOD!!! It's 1-0 Scotland, a lovely move, its played out to Doak on the right, he nods it to McGregor who beats his man and slams it home!

10 mins - McGregor so close to a 2nd, his 20-yard shot is tipped over by Martinez

18 mins - THIS IS INSANE!!! It's 2-0 Scotland, we play a short throw , it falls to Adams, he squares it Doak, he turns his man and rifles it into the bottom left corner!

23 mins - OH MY F*CKING GOD!!! A Tierney corner is headered home by McKenna, Scotland 3 Argentina 0!!

38 mins - I am in shock, it's 4 F*CKING 0!!! Argentina play out, they pass it around and then bang, McGregor wins the ball back, he passes it to Adams, who with 3 men around and about 25-yards out smashes it into the goal!!!!!

It's half-time, it's 4-0, Argentina have an xG of 0!

I cannot believe what I've just witnessed

Well this is the most boring 2nd half ever!

There are no words, just look and let it sink in!

That was one incredible game, we were utterly insane in that first half. We now have one foot in the Last 32 already, Costa Rica up next in 4 days time, if we win we should be through!

Game 2 - Costa Rica

If we win and Germany beat Argentina we're already through to Last 32! We've made some changes, to keep players fresh. I'm not sure why the lineup isn't in position order. Morrison comes in for Welsh, Tierney replaces McKenna at LCB with Doig coming in at LB, McTominay replaces Gilmour with Ferguson coming into midfield instead of McGregor, Morgan comes in at LW with Jacob Brown instead of Adams up top (edited)

40 mins - It's been a really quiet game so far with the best chances falling to Costa Rica but with our first highlight we take the lead, it's a nice move through the middle of the pitch, McTominay picks it up, plays a nice throughball to Brown who slides it under the keeper, 1-0 Scotland!

43 mins - Jacob Brown has to score, Doig goes flying down the left, he plays a stunning cross, Brown is free, but his header goes well over

And that's half time, 1-0 Scotland!

57 mins - Doak hits the post, he does amazingly to spin his man, runs into the box but his efforts doesn't curl enough

75 mins - OH MY WORD! Stuart McKinstry comes on and rips the piss out of their left back, he totally skins him, runs into the box, lays it back from Brown who has an easy tap in! 2-0 Scotland!

And that's full time, not as exciting as the Argentina game but a win is a win!

We also had the good news at the end of the game that Germany had beaten Argentina 2-0, meaning we had qualified for the knockouts with a game to spare! Incredible!

Game 3 v Germany 

With qualification already sealed there was no need to live update this game and I didn't want this post to be longer than war and peace so I just played and this is what happened..

We rotated the side once again and left out the players who were a game from suspension, I decided as well to go with the more defensive double-Libero tactic which has the CMs dropping to DM and the WBs moving forward a little bit. Well it went well, we didn't play amazing but defended for our lives. It looked to be heading for a 0-0 draw until right at the end, a Gauld corner was headed home by McKenna. A 1-0 win! 3 wins out of 3 and we end top of the group!!!

Absolutely crazy, we're into the Last 32!

We then got the draw for the knockouts and were handed an easier tie than we expected. We would face Egypt in the Last 32, here is the knockouts as a whole.

Here is our possibly journey IF we win!

• Last 32 v Egypt
• Last 16 v France or Colombia
• Quarters v More than likely Brazil or Italy

Yeah we won't look any further than that!

Last 32 v Egypt

We do like playing at the SoFI stadium! A strong team put out. Gauld in for Ferguson, Gilmour isn't fit so McTominay plays

2 mins - First attack and we have a penalty, A cross from Doak and Gauld is tripped

McGregor steps up.....AND SCORES! 1-0 Scotland!

Not a single other highlight, half time 1-0 Scotland

This is the worst game ever seen, not a single highlight since the penalty!

Oh a highlight!

82 mins - It's a red for Egypt, Trezeguet dives in on McGregor, right on the edge of the box, it's a shocking tackle and he's gone

83 mins - McGregor seems OK, Gilmour takes the freekick and it's wonderfully tipped over the bar

88 mins - Holy sh*t, Egypt have a chance, it's awful defending from Kerr Smith who just passes it to Egypt, they break clear, their first shot is blocked, it falls to Elneny who half-vollies it over the bar

And that's it, full time, we win 1-0, a really poor game but it's all about winning. We so far haven't conceded a goal!

Last 16 v France

Yes it was France we would face after they smashed Colombia 5-1. A tough ask but with wins over Argentina and Germany under our belts I had hope we could cause another shock!

McTominay is out and Doak isn't fit. Gilmour in for McTominay, McKinstry in for Doak, McGregor is also rested as he is struggling for fitness, Ferguson comes in for him

13 mins - First chance to France, Theo Hernandez gets down the left, he crosses it and its met by Griezmann but he shoots wide

21 mins - Another France chance, this time a Griezmann freekick goes just over

43 mins - it's all France, we've not had a highlight yet, and Angus Gunn is there to keep it at 0-0, saving from close range after a Mbappe shot

And that's half time, we're doing well to keep it at 0-0 but at some point we need to create some chances

66 mins - Oh dear, it's a penalty to France, a corner came in and the ref blows for handball by Hyam. (edited)

Mbappe steps up........

AND GUNN SAVES! (edited)

It was an awful penalty in fairness

71 mins - It was coming and France eventually take the lead. Camavinga goes charging through the midfield, he lays it through to Kolo Muani who places it into the comer, Gunn no chance. France 1 Scotland 0. Now we somehow have to make a chance!

84 mins - We are going to need a miracle here, we've not had a highlight, we've defended well but not been at the races going forward. France make another chance, Kolo Muani cuts in from the right, he plays it to Dembele at a tight angle about 2 yards out but its blocked by Hyam

It's all over, France win 1-0, we were absolutely battered as you can see in the stats and the fact that Angus Gunn ended as POTM!

A poor way to go out but France were just too good. What a run though, to even get through that group with wins over Germany and Argentina was testament to this team. We will be back and with the youth coming through we will be better!

The World Cup ended up being won by Portugal who beat Netherlands in the final

A shock winner in my opinion.