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Glentoran F.C.

March 2014

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Employing my new tactic has brought us relativaly some succes. Not losing this month could very well mean we still have something to fight for. Winning 2 fixtures in the league was not quite what I was asking for, but I could live with the draw away against Ballinamallard Utd. They only real disappointing result was that we couldn't beat Dungannon in the first match for the Irish Cup, but we did beat them in the replay, getting us throught to the Semi-Finals. The fixtures against Limerick F.C. really impressed me. Never expected any result against Limerick F.C. but the away game laid the foundation to further on. The partnership up front between Murray and Kok seems to work out fine, can't get the best out of Murray yet, but we're getting there.

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33 games played. The split is upon us now. Only 5 more fixtures remains. Linfield is on top of the league, with our good results of late, we're second 2-points away. At this point anything can happen and the pressure is immensly. Crusaders still are the dark horse in this race and only 4-points behind Linfield and 2-points away from us. We need to win all 5 games coming to gain the title. It's not impossible, but seeing we have to beat Linfield and Crusaders makes it a very tough challenge. This season proved to be exciting and everything is very close.

The Irish Examiner:

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My first award for Manager of the Month. Somehow I can't shake of the feeling I deserved this award earlier, being top in the league and with good result previous months. Never the less, I finally got myself an award and to be honest, I am proud to recieve it. Too bad my focus is on winning the league, maybe I could've enjoyed this award more.

---> April 2014

- 8 fixtures, 4 games for the Danske Bank Premiership, with our first 2 matches against Linfield and Crusaders. We need to win this to secure top position in the league

- League Cup Final against Cliftonville

- All-Ireland Cup Semi Final against Cork City, a 2 legged fixture.

- Irish Cup Semi Final against Coleraine

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Glentoran F.C.

April 2014

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This month was nerve wrecking! Our first match, which was in my opinion, as to the fans and newspapers, the true battle for the title. The away game against Linfield. Unfortunately we lost, we controlled the game, couldn't manage to score within 90 minutes and therefor lost on the break. Poor result and maybe we've lost the championship with it. After the lads we're disappointed, they recovered amazingly by winning the League Cup against Cliftonville. We needed extra time in a very exciting match, but I couldn't care less. We've won the League Cup! another trophy to the club to display our greatness. The All-Ireland Cup Semi-Finals were won aswell, which I really didn't have much expectations for, but going through to another final pleased me. Irish Cup Semi-Final against Coleraine was a thriller of a match. Getting up with 2-0 I thought that we could already focus for the final. Never the less, Coleraine pushed us back to 2-3. Luckily for us we managed to score another 3 goals, meaning we're off to that final aswell. The last 3 results in the Danske Bank Premiership we're absolutely stunning and much needed after the Linfield loss. This might give us an advantage or an edge in the competition. To illustrate the nerve wrecking part: Did you notice most goals were being scored in the second half? We played magnificently, yet scoring seemed to be hard. At the end of the month I had no fingernails left...

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Yes! we're back at the top! The last results really helped in our bid for championship. Linfield didn't take an advantage after beating us, it seems they had some bad results after our match. Linfield are still trailing behind 3-points and the next match in the league is the final one and decisive for the title. We have 2 options next match: Win or draw and we are Champions, losing that match would mean we're dependent on Linfield. I am pretty sure Linfield is going to win their next match and worse case scenario would mean they lift the title once more. They have better results, better goal average, beating us once and a draw to show for meant we needed to press for a win.

---> May 2014

- 3 more fixtures. The final fixture for the Danske Bank Premiership against Cliftonville at home.

- Irish Cup Final against Linfield.

- All-Ireland Final against (shocker) Linfield.

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Glentoran F.C.

May 2014

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Yes! We did it! Champions!! The draw agains Cliftonville ment we did it, in a very exciting match, we got behind, going all out attack second half with an equalizer from young striker Kok. Linfield weren't too happy with losing the title and gave us hell in the 2 cup finals following. I believe we've given it all, but our squad isn't qualified enough to overturn Linfield every time, yet.

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Top of the table, Champions. 1 draw saw us 1-point clear from Linfield in what most have been one of the most exciting season in years. There were moments I thought we lost it all, but it the end we did it.

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I am most proud of this award, after winning the league I suppose there was no question about it.

End of Season 2013/2014

What an exciting season! Reflecting on it back now I must say it almost caused me a heart-attack. My main worry is our inconsistancy and our lack of dealing with pressure. Pressure from the outside world or pressure from me. My love for The Glens has shown some fractional cracks as I can't seem to figure out why we buckle so easily. A summers rest and starting over with new tactics might work for now.

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The board seemed to be pleased with my overal performances. A good end of the season review and with my contract expiring I am looking forward to new contract talks.

Danske Bank Premiership - Champions

Co. Antrim Shield - ​Semi Final (Winners Linfield)

League Cup - Winners

Irish Cup - Runners up (Winners Linfield)

All-Ireland Cup - Runners up (Winners Linfield)

Euro Cup - First Qualifying round (Winners Arsenal)

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Topscorer - Marty Murray 18 goals

Most Assists - Stephen Carson 11 assists

Highest Average - Jay Magee 7.29

Fans Player of the Year - Richard Clarke

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A nice offer from the chairman. For a part-time manager this seems a good deal, not quite sure what to do, but going to negotiate the best out of this.

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So I signed the new deal. I got what I wanted and that's a one-year deal and drove the wage up.

---> Pre-Season 2014/2015

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Congratulations on the title!
What Daz said :D - well done on beating Linfield to the championship :)

Cheers!! It was a hard fought battle, but worth it. Let's see if next season will be as good as this one

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Fantastic job in the league! Very close, but ultimately, you did it!
Congrats on the title!
Pity you lost the cups, but you got the one that mattered!

Cheers guys. I agree with you Delta, Cups are nice to win if your not competing for the league, but I won that!!

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Glentoran F.C.

Pre-Season 2014/2015

I needed a well deserved break in the summer and so did my team. With my dislike for friendly's there won't be many played and I gave them a maximum break. Winning the league also ment we play in the European Champions League! We're seeded to play in the second qualifying round. After watching some old tapes from Manchester United grand history I noticed that in the 25+ years Sir Alex Ferguson manage his team he never made any changes to his tactics. it's alway's a 4-4-2. Figure that and lookin at my squad available it was set in stone that 4-4-2 would be my next tactic for The Glens.

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No luck in draws. Slovan Bratislava is one of the worst opponents we've drawn. We've done quite well in the matches played, just unlucky in finishing as there star-striker R.Vittek, formerly Bundesliga-player, was on fire. Every single player of Slovan was better then my best player. One good thing for the club is that we cashed in for 500K euro's. To be honest I was quite happy the way we played and reassured me in the new tactic. The Dundela result showed how much we've improved.

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During the transfer period I was looking for a defender with heading abilities, I almost forgot we only had 2 strikers... Signing Owens for 60k Crusaders was a shock for Crusaders, our fans and the nation really. I blew our transfer budget and having still room left in the wage budget I was partically happy with this signing.

Andy Hall - Back up, probably not seeing much action, but had a good season last year.

Cameron Grieve - Only God (or some other celestial being) knows why I signed him...well he's a free transfer and we needed a back-up left back. Scout's gave him a good commendation, turned out that it was a bad commendation.

Christopher Rodgers - Turning him to left back. Going to be a good first team player, 4-star potential. Just have to get him adjusted to the left side of the pitch.

Gareth Tommons - Another bad signing, with good recommendations from our scouts, which I relied on. He's going to be a back-up for the reserves.

Garry Breen - A decent defender and first team player. I needed a defender who know how to head and I think I've found him. Going to replace Colin Dixon as he's getting old with 36-years.

Jordan Owens 60k signing. He's going to be in a rotation team. He can't compete with Martijn Kok and Andy Murray, but he's going to be imported as a last ditch resort. His heading ability gives him an edge, something I am keen on.

---> August 2014

- Start of the competitions!

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Glentoran F.C.

August 2014

Media expactation - 50/50 with Linfield for Title Challengers

Board expactations - Title Challengers

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A wonderfull start to this year campaign! The draw agains Cliftonville was a mediocre result. The partnership between Murray and Kok seems to be excellent. Breen showed he's a good addition to the squad, he's been playing so far, he replaced injured Magee. Owens proved to be a good signing aswell, scoring from crosses. Now I might have a team who are more consistent then last season. Wining over Linfield, finally, gave me a real confedence boost. 5 games played, 5 games unbeaten so far.

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Already 3-points clear from Linfield and Cliftonville. Season is still early ofcourse, but this is an excellent start and hopefully we could continue on this magnificent form we're on.

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no suprise really, haven't lost 1 single game in August, automatically made me winner for the Manager of the Month.

---> September 2014

- 7 fixtures. 4 games for the Danske Bank Premiership.

- Co. Antrim Shield against Donogal Celtic

- League Cup against Bangor

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Great start to the season, shame you couldnt do more in the CL, money is great though.

The money is great! no more worries for the red number :lol:

Very confident start this year.

Yep, it seems I even things out. We seem much more balanced this season

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Glentoran F.C.

September 2014

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Another great month with excellent wins over Donogal Celtic and Bangor sees us going on to the semi-finals of the Co.Antrim Shield. Winning a second Bangor match for the League Cup to go on to the 3rd round. The loss against Coleraine was a bad one, as they caught us napping. It broke our non-losing streak of 6 games. Winning at Portadown away was a massive result and not something I think we're able to achieve at that point. But maybe I am misstaken and having signed some decent players to balance out the team, it might mean we're going to take Linfield on for a serious title challenge.

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3 wins over 4 fixtures makes us still league leaders. Only 2-points ahead of Linfield. I feel confident that the lads can show me some consistency and get on with some fine display of perfomances next month. The season is still in it early months, but I am happy being on top of the league so early.

---> October 2014

- 5 fixtures coming up. 3 games for the Danske Bank Premiership.

- Co. Antrim Shield Semi Finals against Linfield.

- League Cup 3rd Round.

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Absolute quality read this mate do you plan to stay with Glentoran or are you hoping to get a better offer sometime in the near future which you will take

Cheers!

At this point my love for Glentoran is back. Not quite sure what I am going to do in the future. It all depends on what offer I get from which team. I am not likely to jump Glentoran for some other team. Knowing myself, I mostly hold on to a club for a couple of years before I want something else.

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Any preferences for what league you would like to manage in next

No not really, I definitely need some affection for the team or the league they play in. I love Australia for example, if an offer came from there I would really consider it

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Glentoran F.C.

October 2014

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A fairly easy month, with only the Linfield match standing out. I am happy the way we play, having possesion and being constantly dangerous on goal. The Linfield match was a good game, the only thing we lacked is scoring within the 90 minutes. Other then that, we've dominated the game completely. The loss against Institute wasn't the result I was after, but 4 days after a massive fixture against Linfield I started with reserves and back-up players, to give first-team players a well-earned rest. Somehow it came back and bit me in the arse, considing thrice. It's not something I wished for, but this gives me a chance to really concentrate on the league.

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What happened? Linfield are 8-points behind, with 1 game in hand, and Cliftonville are 7-points behind. Linfield is struck by disaster, having over 7 players injured at the time and Cliftonville isn't the side to compete for the title. This means we're on top and with this gap between us I am sitting there comfortably.

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Not a real hard decision for the NIFA. Glentoran won all there league games as where direct rivals failed to do so in this month.

---> November 2014

- 6 fixtures. 5 games for the Danske Bank Premiership including away agains Cliftonville and Linfield. Winning these is taking an advantage on the title.

- Co. Antrim Shield Finals against Distillery.

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Glentoran F.C.

November 2014

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Almost a perfect month for us, with only a draw against Cliftonville. Too bad they lads grew too confident in the second half, otherwise we could've had a perfect month. Winning the Co. Antrim Shield was never a suprise, Distillery is a mediocre, at best, team in the league and sometimes a good cup-fighter. They really gave us a run for our money, but we weren't in any much danger. Therefor The Glens could add another cup to their already impressive honours cupboard. The Linfield away game was, for me personally, a huge result. The Linfield manager trying to outsmart us and me using his psychologically tricks. This time he field and I won, thus I refer to the Medie-evil point and shout: Niener niener!! The other fixtures didn't cause me much trouble as we're comfortable winning, despite winning with a 1-goal difference.

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And we're cruising through the league. 10-points away from 2nd Cliftonville and 14-points away from Linfield although they have a game in hand. Nothing much to say, but if we keep this up, we might get that championship early this year.

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Another Manager of the Month award. I am collecting these things like pokemon at the moment, but I never grow tired of it. It's nice to get appreciated by the nations FA for your hard work and accomplishments.

---> December 2014

- 5 fixtures this month. All 5 games played for the Danske Bank Premiership.

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The leagues proving very easy, any luck involved in the three back to back 1-0 wins or did you deserve to win them?

Having possesion over 55% to 65%, more then 15 to 30 shots, 5 to 10 on goal and that over all the games played so far. No luck there :cool:, it's all us ;)

Dominating! :thup:

Yup, seems like we're the big cojones this season ;)

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Glentoran F.C.

December 2014

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Almost, almost...Almost a perfect month! again. Crusaders gave their all and got lucky with the draw, couldn't say I was happy, but at that point we're on an unbeaten run which statisfied me hugily. Not much to say about the fixtures, they weren't strolls in the park, but it never looked like we're going to lose. Specially during the holiday's, we've got some good results. I know it's still december, but I feel like we can hold on to this form and hopefully our competition can't.

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Sitting comfortably on top, 11-points from league chasers Linfield. Linfield showed they had a perfect month in December. But the question this season asked by various pundits: Can Linfield keep up their form? This season a major transformation has taken place, seeing their best players went out and they only brought in talented youth-players who have yet to prove themself. It's funny to see, that rival manager Jeffries of Linfield, is in the same position as I was, 2 seasons ago. Good thing for us is that I already layed down the path to succes and already in december everyone can see where the league leaders without a doubt.

--->Januari 2015

- 7 fixtures. 6 will be played for the Danske Bank Premiership

- Irish Cup 4th Round against Glenovan

- Transfer market opens, with no transfer budget and a cheap chairman, don't expect anything from us.

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Glentoran F.C.

Januari 2015

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A decent month, not getting the maximum out our away games. Still playing well, comfortably in possesion and our shots on goal are good aswell. We could improve in goalscoring, but I am not too worried about that. The Glenavon away loss was a pity. I was way too arrogant and so were the players. Thinking it would be an easy win, but Glenovan reminded us that we need to stay focussed to the end of the season if we want to be champions once again. On that note.....

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We redeemed ourself a little by beating Glenovan in the 4th round, proving that we still are a good side, but our mentality seems to catch us offside sometimes.

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14- to 11-points drifting away from league chasers Linfield. With only 10 more matches to play, I am starting to feel magic in the air and providing we have another decent month, we could be crowned champions once more.

Tranfers

There were no transfers made. It was a busy month with the league clubs signing free-transfers. We however stayed away from any transfers. I feel we have a decent, balanced team that could accomplish championship.

---> Februari 2015

- 5 fixtures. 4 Danske Bank Premiership matches including a home match against Linfield. This one could make us champions.

- Irish Cup 5th Round against Ballinamallard Utd.

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Glentoran F.C.

Februari 2015

Glentoran_FixturesFebruari2015_zpsed64a9b9.jpg

Good month, the win against Linfield was well deserved and we battled hard for it. Linfield defended with all their might and did well untill the 70th minute. This result could be decisive for the championship and if we continue like this we can celebrate in March this year. Throwing all our energy in the Linfield game had to come at a price and therefor we played with reserves in the Ballinamallard Utd. fixture. Too bad they forced us to play a replay match. But at the same time, winning away isn't our forte. Marty Murray seems to be on fire this month, scoring 6 this month. He's our biggest prospect and most important player. Shamrock Rovers declared to be keen on signing him. Nice to see Jordan Owens stub his former club in what they thought was a won fixture.

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19- to 16-points ahead of Linfield. It's all up to Linfield now, the next result in the Danske Bank Premiership is very imported to us and them. If they lose we win the title. Having a good month sees us on top easily and now, with 6 more games to play nothing can stop us from being league champions again.

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Not losing one game made me Manager of the Month again. As always I am pleased to receive this award for my accomplishments.

---> March 2015

- 4 fixtures. 1 for the Danske Bank Premiership. If Linfield fail to win their game in hand early in March, would mean we're champions without playing for it.

- Irish Cup Quarter Finals against Ballymenna Utd.

- 2 legged All-Ireland Cup Quarter Finals against Shamrock Rovers

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Glentoran F.C.

March 2015

Before we played any league game, we've won the title! Linfield failed to win their in hand game, therefor making it impossible to catch up with us.

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It's been an ok month result wise. We've won the title! This season wasn't really exciting at all. We were cruising from the beginning and there was never any excitement or any thrills in it. Winning the league so early is nice, but I prefer a last ditch effort winning in injury time, in the last match of the season. On the other hand it shows that we're superior in the league and hopefully next year we can continue. Shamrock Rovers proved to be a too big of a hurdle to take. Topstriker Matty Murray had an injury as did Martijn Kok. I had to bring reserves and back-up to the squad. That made it easier to explain to the fans. Atleast we're trough in the Semi-Finals of the Irish Cup, maybe we could go for the Treble.

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The split is upon us. 19-points divide us with Linfield. A gap that could never been closed by them. I wonder how this will reflect upon my team. I can't say at this point I am eager on winning more as my main target was met. Maybe some luck in the Irish Cup would do us fine. Still 5 more games for the league to come aswell.

---> April 2015

- 5 fixtures. 4 matches for the Danske Bank Premiership. Including an away game against Linfield

- Irish Cup Semi-Final against Linfield.

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You should be fired. You lost two league games. :D

Great stuff mate. :thup:

Cheers!!

Haha! fortunate for me, our new chairman is lazy and cheap ;)

He probably doesn't even realise my contract runs out this season :D

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Glentoran F.C.

April 2015

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What's there to say? We're already champions, I tried to rally the guys for a result for the Irish Cup, to no avail and winning 50% of the league fixtures this month. The last couple of results were really poor. I think my players already booked their holiday's. Linfield definitely felt they had to get something out of there miserable season and went all out in the Irish Cup, forcing a replay and beating us. I couldn't be bothered much since we already won the double, a treble would be nice, but not something I wanted to achieve.

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1 more game to go, still 16 points ahead and crowned league champions. What can I possible want more than this at the moment. I take a moment to admire our supremacy.

---> May 2015

- 1 more fixture for the Danske Bank Premiership against Ballymenna Utd.

- End of season

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