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The Youth Academy Challenge


RandomGuy.

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And it came down to one game to have a chance to seal our place in the Championship next season.

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And we lead at half time! Would the perennial bottlers from EK hold on? (Apologies about the image quality, .GIF files are the only ones uploading due to 800kb .PNG files apparently being over the 2mb limit....)

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Into the next season we go, and as always, no transfers in:

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Steven McLean had dropped to a level where he was nowhere near the team; he left alongside a couple of youth players and Cran who I've high hopes for left on loan.

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Our current squad is as above; for reference 4* players are decent for championship level.

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The board, snakes to a man, accepted bids for two of my best up and coming players, citing finance issues despite us being 200k in the black. They left for a combined £20k. Embarrassing.

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Jackson our right back and Fraser in central midfield were both 17/18 and would've no doubt improved a lot as we'd went on. Both have 40% sell ons in their tranfer clauses, but still it's a pitiful amount and one that leaves us a lot (a lot) weaker.

At the 3/4 mark, we seem safe-ish from relegation at the moment, but we've not being doing all too well:

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The youth intake this year was reasonable, but I wish I stopped getting these good keepers. This guy Fernandez looks like he's the real deal.

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Had a quick look at my confidence review during the season; board in full troll mode with the major criticism.59c3dd0f54fc0_EastKilbride_ConfidenceConfidence.thumb.png.a9dcb02a404e41f42397d9e89bba2999.png

And at the end of the season, it was a 7th place finish for the Kilby!

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The squad looks like this.  Blair Yule being out for 6-7 months with a damaged achilles is a massive blow.

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Cups so far have went better than expected.  Beat Albion Rovers in the Betfred Cup with a penalty victory over East Fife following that after losing 3-1 to Rangers after taking the lead and getting completely outclassed by Hibs.  Challenge Cup victory over Ross County under 20s was more comfortable than scoreline suggests. 

Edited by GordieBoy80
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Bit of a mixed bag of results in first month.  Beat Edinburgh City before drawing with Stirling Albion.  Lost at home to Annan before winning on penalties against Stenhousemuir following a 1-1 draw and then had the same scoreline in the league, last game of August we got a right pumping from Montrose.  Jamie McCluskey is now out with a broken ankle which is pish.

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Sitting 8th in the table.  Think the main thing this season is to ensure we stay out of 10th. 

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The month of September was better as we went through it undefeated.  It began with knocking Dumbarton out of the Challenge Cup which set up an away tie with Raith so hoping that brings in a few quid.  Went to Cowdenbeath and defeated them 2-1 before drawing with Clyde and Albion Rovers.  Disappointed at losing a late goal and giving the Wee Rovers their first point of the season but at least there is a decent gap down to the bottom spot.

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Not expecting anything at all from Stark's Park as we have already massively overachieved in the Challenge Cup doing much better than the pre-season prediction of first round cannon fodder. 

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A pretty shit league season is almost at an end.  Finished 6 points adrift of Cowdenbeath, the players deciding to give their best performance in a completely meaningless match against Elgin. 

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Playoff against Selkirk then... 

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Finely balanced going into the 2nd leg.  Can Cove Rangers remain in League 2 or are they going back to the Highland League and will I be signing on next week?

 

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A sigh of relief but the board  have my card marked imo

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  • 2 weeks later...

Not been able to update much as uni has kicked in. We started off our second season in the Championship by ensuring that we punted another of our best players, this time Craig Dowie our star left back:59ddef640a254_CraigCassells_Inbox.thumb.png.2f4eb01c6496a6ce695a5f6931999d2b.png

So we now have one recognised full back, Kenny Keatings, who isn't really very good. Because of this, I had to gamble this season and play with a three at the back formation of just centre halves. From last years youth intake, we got a couple of defensive midfielders, so it was to be a 3-1-4-2. Horrific stuff.

 

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Also sold on were Goalkeeper Shaun Pettigrew (was becoming a starter), first choice right winger Kenny Love and back up left winger Brian Graham. Cheers lads, cheers a bunch.

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The youth candidates this season were OK, more centre halves.

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But it was not to be this season. I take some of the blame for this, as I tried to change tactics a lot the last ten games and we didn't win one. Wish I was good at making tactics, but other than that Nairn game where I became a lower league Guardiola I fear I'm not up to much. Distinct lack of updates for this season, another thing for us to improve upon when we're in the league below.59ddf0854033c_LadbrokesChampionship_OverviewProfile-5.thumb.png.dcd20b2a51d202671f862f2a5fa69bda.png

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  • 1 month later...

A new season, a new way to fail

 

THIS IS SPARTA.......ns

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SEASON 1 2018-2019

Club Info | Finances | 1st Team Squad |Profile

 

Why......why do I do this to myself.  I have had a number of attempts in Scotland which lead to abject failure, yet I start again with hope to topple the might of Celtic with a plucky newcomer, this time I take over The Spartans. 

The starting squad doesn't give me much to deal with, no current youth team so stuck with the 18 man squad which includes 3 goalkeepers.

SEASON REVIEW

League - No surprises here but I finished up at the bottom of the table.  Everytime I seemed to get a bit of momentum going it falls apart a couple of games later.  Still I wasn't expecting to do much here other than avoid relegation through the playoffs.  I drew East Stirlingshire and after a 2-1 first leg win, a repeated scoreline secured my status in the league.

In the Cups I lost all games in the league cup, got to the 2nd round in the Challenge Cup and 4th round in the Scottish Cup before losing to Killmarnock in a game I oddly did ok.

YOUTH INTAKE

Having no youth squad to start with I wasn't sure how this was going to work.  I hired a Head of Youth Development and just waited.  Then at the beginning of March I get a message possibly talking of a golden generation.....well lets see then.  HELLO!!! Some decent players here, definitely a few getting promoted into the senior squad for next season.   Everyone gets signed on with hope on the following 3 players.

Gary Page YP01 - The top player of the intake, and well be put into the senior squad without a doubt, hoping he could provide a few goals next season.

Euan McCabe YP01 - Another striker, well be used a few times, but mostly leaving in the youth team.

Brian Ireland YP01 - Although I'm losing 1 keeper next season, I still have 2 so I will allow Brian time to develop in the youth team before possibly giving him a few cup games the following season.

 

This is possible right......I mean it's been done hasn't it.....*sigh*

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THIS IS SPARTA.......ns

The_Spartans_FC_Logo.png

SEASON 2 2019-2020

Club Info | Finances | 1st Team Squad |Profile

 

Ok, survived the first year but need to rework my tactics if I'm looking to make this a success.  Normally I focus on keeping it tight and attempt to hit on the counter, however looking at the abundance of players who can play up top I've decided to use a 4-3-3 formation, keep it narrow and hit it long......it aint going to be pretty but it's the best I can do.

SEASON REVIEW

So with the new tactic, how was this going to play.

League Cup - Early days of the new tactic and not looking good, got well and truly beat in all games.  Finished bottom again.

Challenge Cup - Lost on pens to the Hearts youth team.....not sure this is going to work.

Scottish Cup - Lost to the Ghost of Lama's in Gretna 2008.

League - ermmm.....how did this happen.  I got promoted via the playoffs.  The new tactic lead to some high scoring games, but tacking inspiration from Kevin Keegan's entertainers at Newcastle, if they score 1 we score 3.  Truth is we had been near the top or even top for a fair amount of the season, Clyde however had a much better run in while I was still hit and miss.

YOUTH

We lost Gary Page YP01 to Hibs on a free, this was my error in not getting a part time contract in early enough and tie him down.  £10.5k in compensation is about 1/5 the value I put on him as well.  Lesson learned the hard way.

Another nice intake, I'll be honest I let a little yelp of joy when I saw it.  A complete back line to grow and develop the Gods have been kind.  I sign all of them really to build depth.

Petrit Krasniqi YP02 (DL) | Brad Lavery YP02 (DC) | Euan Smith YP02 (DC) | Mark Dicknson YP02 (DR)

I managed to increase the coaching and network over the season, I have decent enough facilities for this level for the time being but by the end of the season I'll be committing £15k per month to the youth, I think this is as far as I can go without really screwing over the club.

OTHER STUFF

Transfers - Fee & Released players.  Not much here, lost 2 goalkeepers who were not terrible but not good enough to make a claim for the number one jersey.  Lost a few senior defenders who for one reason or the other didn't want to resign.

Takeover - This happens more often in challenges and can take a long time....however I have never seen one completed in a day (offer/accepted the next day. The new Chairman must have been worried when the old one wept tears of joy and skipped out of the stadium singing 'Happy Days are Here Again'.  There was a bit of a cash injection (went to improving youth coaching) and I managed to re-introduce the philosphy of developing youth players for the first team.

Senior Affiliate - During the close season and after a battle in the boardroom with the new Chairmen, I managed to convice him of the benefits of having a senior affiliate.  I was given the choice 2 Premiership sides, Queen of The South or Ross County.  There was only one choice and I welcome the money, and home tie that Ross County will be giving me.

NEXT SEASONS AIM

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Edited by Mackie The Staggie
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