[FM'16] The Fixer

[neilhoskins77]

July 2015.

It's the day that footballers dread. Not me though. I've been planning for this day for a long, long time. Retirement. It can, in many cases, whether it be forced or voluntary, be the start of problems that footballers never expect. The lack of routine, the unfilled hours, an account full of expendable cash. Depression, coming off the rails, making bad decisions of a financial and personal nature. Addictions, a very public fall from grace. It's a tale that has unfolded many times across the beautiful game. I was determined it wasn't going to happen to me.

My playing career had been a long one. I started at 16, becoming one of the old style apprentices at my local Football League club, and making a League debut at the age of just 17. Soon enough, I was a mainstay in the team, and from my position wide on the right, I started picking up some goals too. Two years after breaking into the side, I was part of the group that won promotion, and in the process, earned a move to the Championship. It turned out to be a bad move, as I spent much of my time in the second tier sitting on the bench, used as an impact player, with varying degrees of success. Desperate to play, I moved back down to the fourth tier, and immediately earned a second promotion, this time through the Playoffs, getting to play at Wembley in the same season. With some money behind us, we became the surprise package of League One. With a team that didn't look like it would be out of place in the Championship, we pipped the long term leaders on the last day of the campaign, and I had my first League winners medal.

For the second time in my career I'd reached the second tier of the game in England, and started the season in a real purple patch of form, earning a call up into the Wales squad for the first time after some injuries. I didn't make the park in that International break, and I never made the International squad again. While my form was good, our start to the season in the Championship as a club was indifferent, and in the November of that season, my campaign was ended early, a crunching challenge for a 50/50 ball resulted in a broken leg. While my leg would eventually recover, the clubs form that season never did, and the campaign ended in relegation. When things were going well, and we were moving up the Leagues, the money men were always happy. Now with a relegation, they started to crunch the numbers in an entirely different way, and the cuts started to come when they realised that gaining a place in the promised land of the Premier League was easier to achieve on a piece of paper than it was on a football pitch. After two seasons of mediocrity in League One, they withdrew their funding altogether, and my contract was amongst the cull.

I found myself a new club in League One, but another season of struggle was to come, and as fate would play the cards, we would face my previous employers on the final day of the season, with the losers facing the drop into the fourth tier. With the game all square, and six minutes remaining, we were awarded a penalty. I was on spot kick duties, and faced one of my former team mates with everything on the line. He read the double bluff, as I sent my penalty towards my favourite spot, but he couldn't quite get anything more than a finger tip to the ball, and we were safe, while my former club were condemned to relegation. I couldn't bring myself to celebrate too much, and I was lucky that the fans understood my morale dilemma. Over the next few seasons, we were to make a habit of escaping the drop zone in the last few matches, and relegation battles became the norm for us. Eventually, that would catch up with us, and in my first season as a player in my thirties, we had a stinker of a campaign, and we were all but relegated by Easter. We earned a few wins in the run in, but that did nothing but prolong the agony, and we were relegated. This time the cull that followed affected me in an altogether different way. A new manager was brought in, and he relieved the existing backroom staff of their duties. The new man in charge quickly offered me a Player/Coach role at the club as the restructuring took place, and I accepted the offer.

In my new role, I felt rejuvenated, and along with the club, had an excellent season, maybe my best ever. We bounced right back up into League One, though we did make a real meal of getting across the line and finally securing promotion. Despite being in the Coaching role, I locked down my spot on the right, and was an ever present for the first time in my career, also picking up a career best in goals. And we managed another trip to Wembley as well, though this time there was no winners medal, as we were defeated in the Final of the Johnstones Paint Trophy. My ambition of another crack at The Championship was swept away early in the new season, as it became clear that we were once again up against it to preserve our status as a third tier club. It was a fight we would lose on the final day, drawing at home against a club who needed a win to get into the Playoffs, but other results went against us, and we fell through the trap door. It was during this season, just one year after playing what I felt had been my best ever campaign, that the first doubts started to creep in about whether my legs were starting to show signs of age. An injury in pre season and missing the start of the new season did nothing to help that, and in a position of playing catch up, I was now struggling to get myself back into the team that would miss promotion, and then the Playoffs as well.

I wasn't wasting my time when I wasn't involved in the matches though. The thought of staying in the game was there, and my appetite for football was not diminishing in any way. The club were supportive too, covering half of the cost as I went for my first badge, and gained it successfully at the first time of asking. With that badge earned, and my role in the First Team starting to become more and more of a bit part, my duties on the coaching side were increased, and I would spend more and more time helping prepare the team for a First Team match that I would invariably not be a part of. I was like a sponge, keen to learn as much as I could, and the fire that was starting to burn for the second part of my career continued to grow. I had formations and tactical plans forming in my mind, and sometimes I'd get an opportunity to try them out when the First Team were asked to play one hour matches against the Reserves or the Youth sides. I spent the entire summer break on UEFA courses all over the world, funding the trips myself. I made important connections and contacts, learned more and more valuable information, and came back with another coaching qualification. A new manager moved into the hotseat, and I have to say, I wasn't impressed with him. He was an ex Premier League manager who had walked into the job without paying any managerial dues. He flopped in the job, and had been steadily falling down the Leagues since. I was amazed at how much work he delegated out to his backroom staff, as I found myself doing more work than ever before. He seemed pretty good at taking credit for the success, and then laying the blame when things went the other way. He found himself doing the latter a lot more than he'd have liked, and the Board lost patience with him in February. I was offered the job until the end of the season, but I wasn't ready to hang up my boots just yet, and instead took caretaker charge for three matches. In came another new manager, and I was moved up to Player/Assistant Manager. Though the 'player' part may as well have not been included, as I didn't make another appearance in the remaining of the season, as we missed the Playoffs by a handful of points.

With the season finished, I announced that when the new season began, it would be my final season as a player, and that I would officially hang up my boots at the end of the season, no matter what happened. The summer of 2014 was spent mostly away from the club, and again at my own expense primarliy, I attended every UEFA course that my time would allow, getting my face known amongst the people who frequented these courses, making contacts and connections, gaining more qualifications, and telling everyone that this time next year I'd be on the lookout for a manager's job. The couple of games as the man in charge had cemented the path for my future. I wanted to be the man in charge, I wanted to make all the work I'd done over the last few seasons and the experience I'd gained throughout my career, be the foundation for a managerial career. I'd been through enough relegation battles to know a few tricks, and I envisaged being in the thick of that kind of battle as a manager. With the contacts I now had, and no wife or kids to tie me to any particular location, I was free to go wherever the work opportunities presented themselves. If I'm giving the impression I couldn't wait, then we're setting the right tone.

As it was, the 2014/15 campaign would provide one last hurrah, and one last medal. The new manager, with myself as his assistant, didn't make wholesale changes, but he got the team working hard, a good starting point in the lower Leagues, and an absolute must for any success. The games we were losing last season started to turn into draws, and the draws became wins. We spent the entire season in and around the hunt for automatic promotion, and I got some game time, mostly as a substitute, and often utilised as a wing back or defensive midfielder, as the boss tried to make use of my experience and positioning. As the final weeks of the season were upon us, we put together a great winning run, and dragged ourselves clear of the pack, to win League Two. I had ended my playing career with a winners medal, despite my tongue in cheek protests that I should have had two, one as a player and another as a member of the backroom staff. On June 30th, my contract expired, and I was off into the world of football management for myself. I was keen to get into work, but not so that I would accept the first offer that came along necessarily, as I had a pretty clear idea of what kind of job I was looking for to start with. I was sure it was going to be exciting times ahead.

*This is my first save as a full game in FM'16. There are nearly 90 nations loaded, with around 300 Divisions activated. I actually had a 'dummy run' at this save, primarily to check the Leagues that had been added ran well etc. That save turned into a pretty decent one, and I wish I'd documented it for a story, so now it's a second take on it. The idea for the story came about based loosely as a result of Rafa Benitez being appointed manager of Newcastle United and attempting to save them from relegation. I hope you enjoy the story, and as always, comments and questions are more than welcome.*

[neilhoskins77]

I'd been officially unemployed for less than two weeks when the first interest in my services arose. Both offers to attend interviews came from the UK. One was from the club where I had served as an apprentice and been part of the promotion side over 20 years ago, Newport County. They were my local Football League club, and it would have been really easy to go there and make life comfortable for myself. That wasn't what I was looking for though. After their first season back in the Football League had seem them achieve a mid table spot, County were now looking to push on and try and get themselves in the promotion fight. I wasn't so sure they had the resources or squad to achieve that, and declined their interview offer. Besides, the pressure of being the local guy at the local club was something I could do without for a first job. The other offer came from much further north of our islands, as Livingston of the Ladbrokes Scottish Championship also offered me an interview. This was the kind of job that I think I'd see myself in a few years down the line when I'd picked up a bit of experience....and when the Championship in Scotland didn't look so damned strong too! Livingston wanted to avoid relegation in 2015/16, and I wished them luck, but suspected they would be battling with Alloa and Dumbarton to stay up.

Goal.com reporter, Robert Leong, called me twice that day, insisting on an answer as to why I had elected not to throw my hat into the ring for the job in Newport. With a reputation for being someone who repeatedly misquotes people, Leong was told to mind his own business. Part of the issue was that it was very difficult to know which jobs I should targetting and applying for. As a new manager, there was no way of knowing which clubs would be interested, and which would simply laugh off any interest I may have. I didn't want to get myself a reputation as a guy who was going to apply for any job that came up. So I was very fortunate to have done some of my UEFA courses in previous years with former Liverpool and West Ham United defender, Rigobert Song. The man who was capped 137 times by his nation, was given his first managerial assignment as a temporary manager for Cameroon in 2012. Now in permanent charge of his nation, he has given me an opportunity to get some experience under my belt. It was brought to my attention that he was short on staff for his age group sides, and I sent him an email asking if he was currently looking for some help. He replied right away, calling me and saying he could certainly use some help, but he would need someone there right away, as the Under-23's had just played their first leg of their African Nations Under-23 Cup Third Round Qualifier. They had won 3-2 in Algeria, and the second leg was scheduled for the coming weekend. I told him I was available, and he offered me the job right there and then.

A flight was booked for me, and straight away, I was on the way to Cameroon, where my new team would host Algeria in Saturdays crucial second leg. How about that for a first match as a permanent manager, a game to qualify for the Under-23's version of the African Cup of Nations. I had to change flights twice, and expected that the squad would already be in place and at the hotel. Not so. Tired, and caught on the hop to say the least, I checked into the hotel, and was met by Song. He told me I'd have time to grab a quick shower and change of clothes, and then to meet him in the function room the Cameroon FA were using at the hotel, as the squad for Saturday needed to be picked in the next three hours! It would certainly be fair to say that I was pretty under prepared for that. But the quality of player available to me was surprisingly good, and as the lads had won in Algeria last weekend, I didn't feel the need to make too many changes to the squad. I was quite satisfied to see nothing in the way of critisism in the media when the squad was announced, which was about as good an indicator as I was going to get that I got it about right.

[b][u]Cameroon Under-23 Squad to play Algeria on Saturday 1st August 2015 in African Under-23 Cup of Nations Qualifier[/u][/b]

[b]| Name                 | Position          | Age      | Club                    | Height   | Value    | Caps     | Goals    | [/b]
[b]----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [/b]
| Stanislas Lebongo    | GK                | 17       | Olympique Lyonnais (FRA)| 5'9"     | £70K     | 0        | 0        | 
| Fabrice Ondoa        | GK                | 19       | FC Barcelona B (SPA)    | 6'1"     | £71K     | 0        | 0        | 
| André Onana          | GK                | 19       | Ajax Amsterdam AV (NED) | 6'3"     | £81K     | 0        | 0        | 
[b]----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [/b]
| Marc-Gauthier Bedimé | D (RL), WB (R)    | 20       | ASM Belfort (FRA)       | 5'7"     | £68K     | 0        | 0        | 
| Jovanie Tchouatcha   | D (LC), WB (L)    | 20       | AC Amiens (FRA)         | 5'11"    | £64K     | 0        | 0        | 
| Macky Bagnack        | D (C)             | 20       | FC Barcelona B (SPA)    | 5'11"    | £250K    | 2        | 0        | 
| Stephen Sama         | D (C)             | 22       | VfB Stuttgart B (GER)   | 6'2"     | £350K    | 0        | 0        | 
| Ibrahim Amadou       | D (C), DM         | 22       | Lille OSC (FRA)         | 6'0"     | £775K    | 0        | 0        | 
| Jérôme Guihoata      | D (C), DM         | 20       | Nîmes Olympique (FRA)   | 6'0"     | £22.5K   | 12       | 0        | 
| Lamine Fall          | D/WB (L)          | 21       | Vendée Herbiers (FRA)   | 6'0"     | £30K     | 0        | 0        | 
[b]----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [/b]
| Joseph Minala        | DM, M/AM (C)      | 18       | Bari (ITA)              | 6'0"     | £275K    | 0        | 0        | 
| Wilfrid Kaptoum      | M (C)             | 19       | FC Barcelona B (SPA)    | 5'9"     | £235K    | 0        | 0        | 
| Lionel Enguene       | M (C)             | 19       | FC Barcelona B (SPA)    | 5'5"     | £190K    | 0        | 0        | 
| Daniel Ndi           | M/AM (C)          | 19       | Sporting Gijon (SPA)    | 5'10"    | £1.1M    | 4        | 0        | 
| Axel Ngando          | M/AM (C)          | 22       | SC Bastia (FRA)         | 5'10"    | £1M      | 0        | 0        | 
| Serge Tabekou        | AM (R), ST (C)    | 18       | CS Sedan Ardennes (FRA) | 5'9"     | £185K    | 0        | 0        | 
| Joel                 | AM (R), ST (C)    | 21       | Santos (BRA)            | 5'10"    | £1.2M    | 0        | 0        | 
| Clinton N'Jié        | AM (R), ST (C)    | 21       | Tottenham Hotspur (ENG) | 5'9"     | £7.5M    | 13       | 6        | 
[b]----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [/b]
| Jean-Marie Dongou    | AM (R), ST (C)    | 20       | FC Barcelona B (SPA)    | 5'8"     | £1.9M    | 0        | 0        | 
| Fabrice Olinga       | AM (RL), ST (C)   | 19       | Royal Mouscron (BEL)    | 5'8"     | £140K    | 8        | 1        | 
| Charles Eloundou     | AM (RL), ST (C)   | 20       | Colorado Rapids (USA)   | 5'7"     | £155K    | 1        | 0        | 
| Steve Beleck         | ST (C)            | 22       | CFR Cluj (ROM)          | 6'2"     | £750K    | 0        | 0        | 
[b]----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [/b]

Later that evening, I sat with Rigobert Song and had an evening meal, and on TV we watched Congo's youngsters over run the young stars of Zambia. The following night, in an altogether closer tie, Nigeria squeezed past Egypt 5-4 on aggregate to book their place in the Finals that would be held in Senegal, starting at the end of November. What I had seen left me in no doubt as to the quality of football that was being played out on this continent, and sat in my hotel room the night before the match, I couldn't help but think that a successful stint out here would be a great way to kick off my career, and really start making a name for myself.

*Heading away for a long weekend. Next update will be Monday or Tuesday.*

[tenthreeleader]

This looks like fun, Neil. Good luck with this, will be following!

[neilhoskins77]

Cheers TenThree, good to have you along. It may be a bit of a slow burner at times, as the nature of the save may mean there are periods without a job on the game. We'll see how it goes.

August 2015.

The squad I'd selected for the crucial game in Dschang showed four changes from the squad that had secured a narrow lead in the first leg in Northern Africa. With a large party of backroom staff from the other Cameroon squads present for the game, I took the liberty of checking if I was obliged to play a certain formation or tactic. I was pleased to hear that I had free reign to do exactly what I thought was best.

Saturday 1st August 2015 - African Under-23 Cup of Nations, Third Qualifying Round, Second Leg

Stade Municipal, Dschang, Cameroon

Cameroon Under-23's (3) v Algeria Under-23's (2)

(4-3-2-1) :- Andre Onana; Marc-Gauthier Bedime, Jerome Guihoata, Macky Bagnack, Jovanie Tchouatcha; Axel Ngando, Joseph Minala, Wilfrid Kaptoum; Clinton N'Jie, Jean-Marie Dongou; Joel (capt).

Substitutes :- Stephen Sama, Fabrice Ondoa, Lamine Fall, Ibrahim Amadou, Fabrice Olinga, Daniel Ndi, Steve Beleck.

After noting, and then having it confirmed, that Algeria rely heavily on their flair wide players, I set about installing a tactic that would hopefully see us dominate the middle of the park, and allow us to use the possession we should get to do to the visitors, exactly what they hoped to do to us. With a flat back four, I then deployed three central midfielders, and two wide men slightly further forward. Brazilian based striker, Joel, would take up the lone striker role.

Just as we expected from the Algerians, they made every attempt to bring their wide men into the match, and with nearly a quarter of an hour on the clock, left winger Yanis Rahmani created a yard of space and made his way into our penalty box. To our relief, he ignored the two players in the centre screaming for a pass, and went for goal himself, planting his effort well over the cross bar. I motioned for the three central midfielders to hold their line a little further up the park, as they were collapsing back into the space ahead of our back four too much and allowing Algeria to pin us into our own half for spells. Once they did that, the play evened up a bit more, and their wide men got a bit less of the ball. We created very little ourselves, but while Algeria weren't getting much joy, I could live with that in this situation.

Half Time :- Cameroon Under-23's 0 Algeria Under-23's 0.

My opposite number made a change at the break, and then made two more in the 61st and 66th minutes respectively. He was only changing personnel at this point, their tactics remained the same, and for us, they were becoming fairly predictable. It was only really with fifteen minutes left that they showed any real change, and started to look to assert themselves more as an attacking threat. I responded within two minutes, bringing on Ibrahim Amadou, normally a centre back, but also capable of playing in midfield, and also introducing Fabrice Olinga on the left. He would offer more pace than Jean-Marie Dongou should we get an opportunity to launch a counter attack.

And counter attack we did in the 87th minute. It didn't produce a goal, but we did win a corner. From that set piece, Clinton N'Jie's delivery was headed out of the box by Remy Benesbaini, and fell straight to Ibrahim Amadou. He took a touch to bring the ball down, and one more to settle it, then put his foot through it from 25 yards out, and found the top corner with a thunderous effort that visiting keeper Amine Erriri could only watch fly past him. I leapt out of the dugout, delighted with his effort, but also keen to make sure the players didn't lose concentration for the last few minutes. There was no danger of that, the goal had the effect of absolutely deflating our opponents, and it was pleasing to see Rigobert Song and co on their feet at the final whistle, clearly as delighted with the win as I was.

Cameroon Under-23's (0) 1 Algeria Under-23's (0) 0 - Cameroon Under-23's win 4-2 on aggregate

Scorers :- Ibrahim Amadou (87)

Andre Onana; Marc-Gauthier Bedime, Jerome Guihoata, Macky Bagnack, Jovanie Tchouatcha; Axel Ngando, Joseph Minala (Ibrahim Amadou 77), Wilfrid Kaptoum (Daniel Ndi 88); Clinton N'Jie, Jean-Marie Dongou (Fabrice Olinga 77); Joel (capt).

Attendance :- 391. Man of the Match :- Ibrahim Amadou (Cameroon).

As our game was just starting, South Africa were completing their second surprise win over Morocco in the space of a week, and booking their place in the Finals. After our match, DR Congo nearly pulled off a surprise of their own. 3-1 down from their game in Tunisia, they produced a 4-2 victory in the second leg, only to exit on the away goals rule. With five nations now qalified to join the hosts, Senegal, there would be just two place left up for grabs on Sunday. Both went according to plan, as Ghana held a 4-1 lead from the first leg in Sudan, and scored five more unanswered goals to book their place. The final place went to Ivory Coast, who took a four goal lead to current holders, Gabon, where they then played out a 1-1 draw. With the Qualifers now over, we would need to wait until early September to find out who we would face in the tournament.

[neilhoskins77]

I was pretty pleased with that first game, and the good news was that so was Rigobert Song. A few days after the match, with the dust settled, I had a meeting with the manager of the Senior National side, and he told me that he'd liked what he had seen on the weekend, particularly the tactical choices that were made. He said that the Senior side had some matches coming up in September, and that if I wanted to join in with the preparations, I was very welcome. There was no work for me there as such, but he figured it would be good experience for me to be involved. I accepted his generous offer. I took the opportunity to ask him how it would sit should I manage to get myself a club job, and the good news was that he was fine with it, as long as I would be able to be in Senegal for the age group African Cup of Nations. I knew full well that my services would no longer be required once the tournament was over, as the age group side would have no upcoming fixtures after that.

The reality was however, that very little had grabbed my interest up to now as far as club management was concerned. As Song and his team started their preparations for Cameroon's games next month against Mauritania and Angola, most of the backroom staff were based in France, so I did the same, while keeping an eye firmly on what vacancies came up. Part of the issue was still that I wasn't really sure where the bar should be set in the type of jobs that I should be targeting. As August progressed, the traditional Summer-Spring leagues got underway across the globe, but my eye was being drawn to the opportunities in the 'summer leagues'. Two in particular that came up were attractive enough for me to throw my hat into the ring for them. Both were heaveyweights in their own nations, but were having poor seasons by their own lofty standards. Dinamo Minsk were in danger of missing out on the top three in Belarus, and being without European football next season. Their expected challenge to the kings of the country for almost a decade, BATE Borisov, had failed to materialise, and it had cost Vuk Rasovic his job. In Norway, 22 times Champions of the country, Rosenborg, were having a torrid season, and found themselves in 8th place with a quarter of the campaign to play. Kare Ingebrigsten got the bullet. In both cases I was told I had not made the shortlist to be interviewed. At least that gave me a better idea of the kind of jobs I could look at as feasible opportunities now.

September 2015.

In Dakar, on the first Friday of the month, the continents football body came together, and drew the Group Phase for the age group African Cup of Nations. We avoided the host nation, and were placed in Group B, though that fact didn't make the group any easier, as we would face Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Tunisia, with the three games coming in a 6 day period, starting the day after my birthday in the end of November. That left Congo, Ghana, Senegal and South Africa to compete in Group A. The top two in each group would progress to the Semi-Finals. With just one solitary match under my belt, I asked the Football Federation of Cameroon if it would be possible to arrange a Friendly or two before we headed out to Senegal. They replied that it was notoriously difficult to arrange games at that age group, but they would see what they could do. They came back to me a few days later with the news that they had arranged home matches against Sudan and Rwanda. Within a day, Sudan pulled out, but rather than go back to the Federation again, I arranged an alternative myself, persuading South Africa to come to Cameroon for a tune up game, a match that would likely serve us much more of a competitive game than the Sudan fixture would have done.

Cameroon had started their African Cup of Nations Qualifying campaign back in June, beating Gambia by a single goal at home. I made the trip out to Mauritania for the second qualifier against the minnows of the group, which Cameroon won once again by a single goal. Then it was back into Cameroon, and the city of Yaounde, where the Friendly against Angola was played. It was another win for Song's Senior side, a 2-0 victory, making it three consecutive wins, and each with a clean sheet. It would be a busy end to the year for his side as well, as they would play Mozambique in a Friendly, before twice facing Gabon in the Qualifiers for the newly created African Championship of Nations. They would then get their 2018 World Cup Qualifying campaign underway, with a two legged tie against Guinea.

Around about this time, a fair few managers lost their positions with their clubs, and I had some new options potentially. I may well have taken full leave of my senses when I got myself intrigued enough to apply for a job in China. At the bottom of the League, and already confirmed as being relegated were Shanghai Dongya. Sorry, let me rephrase that, these guys weren't just bottom of the League. They got relegated weeks ago, and there was still nearly a fifth of the season to play. Ok, so they're a bad team you're thinking? No, you're still not even close. They have played 25 games this season, and haven't won any of them. Worse than that, they haven't drawn any of them either. That's right, zero points. It gets worse too, as in those 25 games, they have managed just four League goals, while shipping 78 at the other end. They did have the fact that they share the Shanghai Stadium with Shanghai Shanggang, a venue of nearly 57,000 seats, though Dongya were managing an average attendance more like 15,000, and you'd have to imagine the majority of those were away fans eagerly anticipating a goal fest. Yet, I still couldn't shake the idea that working out there in an up and coming football market with money pouring in, would be both an experience and a challenge. The challenging part was a dead cert with this lot, the experience, well, that could be good or bad.

A week later, a job that looked interesting came up in Slovenia, as NK Olimpija Ljubljana sacked their boss. After consecutive seasons as runners-up, they have finished the last two campaigns in 7th, and then 4th. A poor start to this season, with just nine points from as many games, and they decided to make a change. I applied for that one, and was informed that they would get back in touch with me, but were going to give the assistant an opportunity as caretaker manager to try and prove he was up to the job. Ten days after sending my application to the club in China, they got back in touch with me, and invited me to an interview. I couldn't stop myself going along, if only to find out who the hot shot was who had managed to be top goalscorer for this club. It actually went very well too. There were a couple of strange questions, asking why I appeared to be linked with so many different jobs at the moment, to which I replied I had no control over media speculation. It was difficult to say whether I thought they would offer me the job. It was even more difficult to work out what I'd do if that were to happen.

As September drew towards a close, three more jobs came up. Matsumoto Yamaga FC were the Japanese J-League One equivalants of Shanghai Dongya, in that they were already relegated from Japan's top tier after earning just two wins and eight points in their 29 games so far. They were at least nearly in double digits for goals though. In Bulgaria, 26 times Champions of the 'A Group', and the club generally regarded as the top side in the country, Levski Sofia, had made an abysmal start to the season, drawing five of their opening ten matches, and losing the other five. And in Latvia, the season was just about to draw to a close, and Skonto Riga had failed to win the title for the fifth season in a row, locked in second place behind first time winners FK Liepaja. My interest in the Skonto job prompted the bookies to immediately make me the favourite for the role. But as we moved into October, I still didn't have a club job.

[neilhoskins77]

October 2015.

This would be a busy month, as the quest to find a club job that suited me hotted up. In Latvia, the press were all over the story that I'd applied for the job at Skonto Riga. In the ex Russian state, they are very fond of their English football, but it was still very surprising to discover they knew who I was and a fair amount of the details of my playing career. The club themselves reacted to the press reports by releasing a statement to neither confirm or deny that they were planning on speaking to me, instead just saying that they were still in the process of compiling their shortlist. The fans were delighted with my name being associated with the job though, and maybe fan power might swing things in my favour with the Board?

At this point, there hadn't been any word from Japan, but the news from Riga of the potential interest in employing me did spark a response from Shanghai Dongya. On the day that a sports daily quoted a Skonto official as saying that I was the leading candidate for the post, the Chinese sent me an offer. It was a good one too, a decent wage with good incentives, but I'd started to cool a little on the idea of moving there, and some people around me suggested that I had nothing to gain by moving to Dongya. We agreed to terms, and then I asked them for some time to think things over, I didn't necessarily want to burn my bridges with them right away.

The options seemed to be down to three, when NK Olympija Ljubljana notified me that they would not be inviting me for an interview, citing the interest from other clubs and their own deemed inability to be able to offer me a competitive contract. That didn't put off either Skonto Riga or Matsumoto Yamaga FC, and within days both had invited me to attend an interview for the position with them. I had the distinct impression that both chats went well, particularly with Skonto, who were already asking what changes I would require to the backroom staff, and what I imagined I'd be able to achieve with the club next season. The media in Riga reported that the job was as good as mine, subject to terms being agreed. That brought an anxious Chairman of Dongya back to the table, Jiang Pei returned with the offer I had negotiated with them a week ago, and this time, he wanted an answer. He got one, but maybe not the one he wanted. It was a no, and I was down to just two potential offers on the table by the time Tuesday 13th October was over.

The following day, Skonto made their move and came to the table. They offered me a one year deal, with a starting offer wage that was almost exactly one seventh of what was on offer in China. That wasn't a big surprise, and at this stage, the opportunity meant more than the salary, though saying that, I did push them up a little bit, and negotiated a bonus should I be able to deliver a League title to the club. I then asked for some time, this time for two reasons. Firstly, because I wanted to see if an offer was forthcoming from Japan. But also, there were still two League games remaining in the current campaign, and I kind of wanted a clean slate to start with in the off season.

I didn't have to wait long for the offer from Japan, as it arrived the very next day. Their Chairman, one Ryohei Sugiura, was a very likeable guy, but it was clear that he was concerned about his clubs ability to persuade me to go to Japan, and to do so for a salary that was actually lower than the original one from Skonto. However, the bonus incentives on offer, and the chances of hitting them, were considerably higher than what I would earn in Latvia. The club had a very good fan base in proportion to their stadium as well, regularly hitting 75% attendance in their stadium of just over 20,000 capacity in Nagano. They also have some very good young Brazilian players already at the club, they just badly needed some good homegrown players to compliment them. They were also asked for some time, and I now had a very tough choice to make, I was impressed with what I'd seen.

The next week flew by, and I knew both clubs would soon be knocking on the door again, wanting an answer. I had stayed on in Japan for the weekend, and travelled to Niigata, enjoying the opportunity to see a little bit of Japan, and also got to see Matsumoto Yamaga pull out a 2-1 win on the road to mid table club, Albirex Niigata. I still hadn't made a decision, it was just such a tough choice, so I asked each for another week, which was granted. Both of their fates were sealed, so I guess they really had nothing left to lose. That following weekend, Saturday 24th October, in Latvia, it was the penultimate match of the campaign for Skonto Riga, an away trip to mid table FK Jelgava, shown live on National TV. They were comfortable 3-0 victors in that match. On the same day, though several hours earlier thanks to the time difference, also live on TV in Japan, there was a second consecutive League win for Yamaga for the first time this season, a 2-0 home victory over Sagan Tosu. In fact, if you take into account their Emperor's Cup win a fortnight ago, they had now won three in a row. By the miracle of the internet, I was able to take in both matches from my rented appartment in France, and took pages of notes, hoping to find a good enough reason to pick one over the other.

D-day was closing in. On Wednesday 28th October, Skonto came back to the table, with their offer of the contract that had been negotiated by myself a fortnight ago. It was now decision time, accept this offer, and take the plunge into Latvian football with a club that had designs on returning to the top of the tree in their nation. Or, refuse this offer, and accept the offer that would arrive tomorrow to go out to Japan, and manage a team that would look to bounce back from a relegation with a solid season in a Division many feel they are destined to be in, as they lack the financial clout to stay at the top table. So, Latvia.....or Japan.......

[neilhoskins77]

28th October 2015.

Riga, Latvia.

I couldn't resist. The original heavyweights of football in this country since it regained it's independence from the Russians in 1991. The club are oficially classed as formed in that year, and won the Latvian Higher League Championship in each of the first fourteen seasons of the League's existence. They added seven Latvian Cups during that same time frame, reaching the Final in all but two of those fourteen seasons. Since then though, things have changed for Skonto, and other clubs have started to overtake them. Since those glory days, they have won the League just once, and the same for the Cup. The club's Chairman, a fella by the name of Karlis Villerruss, had seen enough, and wanted a fresh approach. In almost perfect English, he told that he didn't care if I don't speak the language, though it would of course benefit me to start learning the basics at least. All he cared about, was Skonto going back past their rivals, and winning the League in 2016. It's not very often in my football life that I've ever come across someone who has as much love for their club as this guy clearly has.

[font=Tahoma][b]Club :-[/b] [i]FC Skonto Riga.[/i] [b]Country:-[/b] [i]Latvia.[/i] [b]League :-[/b] [i]Latvian Highest League.[/i]
[b]Formed :-[/b] [i]1991.[/i] [b]Stadium :-[/b] [i]Skonto Stadium, Riga.[/i] [b]Capacity :-[/b] [i]8,089 all seater.[/i]

[b]Status :-[/b] [i]Professional.[/i] [b]Finances :-[/b] [i]Okay.[/i] [b]Reputation :-[/b] [i]National.[/i] [b]Club Colours :-[/b] [i]Red, with White trim.[/i]
[b]Estimated Value :-[/b] [i]£1.7m.[/i] [b]Affiliated Club :-[/b] [i]CSKA Moscow (Russia) - Financial link up.[/i]

[b]15 times Latvian Higher League Champions. 8 times Latvian Cup Winners.[/b] 
[i]4 times Latvian Higher League Runners-Up. 7 times Latvian Cup Runners-Up. 1 time Latvian Super Cup Runners-Up.[/i]

[b]Transfer Budget :-[/b] [i]£310,000.[/i] [b]Wage Budget :-[/b] [i]TBD, likely to be around £10,500 - £12,000 per week.[/i]
[b]Contract :-[/b] [i]14 month deal at £725 per week. £3,500 bonus to win the League in 2016.[/i]
[b]Agreed Target :-[/b] [i]Win the League. Non-negotiable.[/i][/font] 

I had been hoping to delay my arrival in Riga until the back end of the year, after I'd been to Senegal with the Cameroon Under-23's. However, Mr Villerruss had other ideas. He convinced me it would be better if I got myself to the club in time for the last game of the season. He reasoned that the club had a lot of players who were due out of contract, and if I had a chance to see them in action first hand and in charge of the side myself, I'd be better placed to make decisions on who would get a new deal, and who would leave the club. I couldn't argue with that logic, and signed a deal through till the end of next season. I met the media within hours of my arrival, and my assistant manager came with me to act as a translator for the press call. I was surprised to see maybe eight or nine journalists in the small media room, and my assistant told me that was double what it would be normally. But my arrival hadn't necessarily sparked interest for the right reasons in the media. Some believed Skonto had made a mistake by hiring a rookie manager at a time that they desperatley need to turn their fortunes. Others believe that bringing in a manager who doesn't speak the language will make the transition period too long and could leave Skonto out of the Title race in 2016 before I can make my mark.

The first day went by in a whirl, as I adjusted to my new surroundings, met my backroom staff, and started to form some opinions on the players at the club. A meeting with the scout gave me some idea of who was currently in favour, who wasn't performing as they should and the areas where the club needed to improve. I had one game to make my own judgements beyond that, a trip to an already relegated club, while we are already landlocked in second place. These circumstances make the fixture a risk free one as far as I'm concerned. But 23 year old left winger Martins Milasevics wouldn't get the opportunity to impress, twisting his knee in the afternoon's training session. The next day brought another press call, and a question as to how productive my relationship with the Chairman was. It had been one day!

There were some players who I didn't need to see in a First Team match to know I needed to keep them at the club. Veteran keeper, Andrej Pavlovs was one of those players, and the 36 year old signed a new one year deal. His competition, 28 year old Germans Malins, also signed on the dotted line, with a new two year deal. Frankly, I'm stunned he isn't getting a shot in goal for Latvia, despite being a regular in the squad. He's still waiting for his first cap, and he'll have a chance to earn it in upcoming Friendlies at home to Gibraltar and Scotland. He's joined by four team mates in the Senior squad, while there are four representatives in the Under-21's, and another seven in the Under-19's. For me, it was immediately noticeable that the Latvian's in the Skonto squad lacked a little in the way of star quality. Right away I set about trying to change that, and there were a few foreign players that caught my eye too......

[neilhoskins77]

November 2015.

He wasn't happy. It wasn't difficult to see why. He had spent almost his entire career trying to appease people who were underwhelmed with him. A flash of genius here, a sparkling run of form there. It never seemed to amount to any more than that, partly down to injuries, hugely down to a lack of consistency. Back at the club where it all began for him, he hadn't appeared in a single First Team match this season. When it all started here as the century was turning, he was the local hero. His career would then be spent primarily in the English Premier League, where millions of pounds were spent in transfer fees to sign him. No one ever managed to get the best out of him, and when he arrived back for a second spell at his first club, he was struggling to make an impact. A free transfer to another club north of the border was nothing short of a disaster, and he spent an entire season with no football. The 2015/16 season looked like it was going exactly the same way after returning for a third spell at the club where he had made his name 15 years ago.

There was no doubt about it, James McFadden needed a new challenge. He wanted to get away from Motherwell again, and this time, he wasn't too fussy where it was. That was a very good thing for us, as McFadden was now prepared to consider all options. I wasted no time making a move, and with his short term contract due to expire on January 31st, I contacted the players agent, and started negotiations. I was keen to get the deal done, and that helped negotiations run a bit more smoothly than they might have otherwise done with McFadden's agent. He came out of the deal with £20k himself, which would come out of our transfer budget. The player would get a £35k signing on bonus, and then a wage of £1.2k per week, making him the highest paid player at the club for the duration of his deal through to the end of next year. He would also pick up appearance and goal bonuses that were more than a lot of the players were picking up as salaries at Skonto. I think that shows the significance of this kind of signing for the club. He would be a marquee player, provided he could stay injury free and return to some kind of form. The 47 time capped forward wouldn't be the only Scotsman at the club either, as he will be joining twice capped former Dundee United centre back, Garry Kenneth. He's just completing his first season in Latvia with us, and it has been badly affected by injuries. But from what I'd seen in the training sessions that had taken place since I'd arrived, Kenneth was one of the two best defenders we had, and I offered the 28 year old a new two year deal, which he quickly agreed to sign.

The other one of those two centre backs was twice capped Ghana defender Ofosu Appiah. The 26 year old six footer is widely regarded as one of the best players in the League, and has shrugged off Skonto's disappointing campaign to have a superb personal season, maintaining a very high average rating while missing just one League match. He signs a new two year deal, a clause in his contract that he would match the top earner meaning his wages would match that of James McFadden's. Veteran midfielder Viktors Morozs signs a new one year deal, the 24 times capped Latvian is the clubs top goalscorer in the League this season, belying his 35 years with 7 goals from the middle of the park. As I approached my first club game as a manager, I was fairly happy that the nucleus of a good side for next season was in place, but there would still be plenty to do if we were to battle with FK Ventspils and this seasons Champions, who had won the Title just two years after being formed, FK Liepaja.

[neilhoskins77]

Saturday 7th November 2015 - Latvian Highest League

Sporta Kompleks Arkadija, Riga

FC Caramba/Dinamo Riga v FC Skonto Riga

(4-3-2-1) :- Andrejs Pavlovs (capt); Olegs Timofejevs, Ofosu Appiah, Garry Kenneth, Ingus Slempe; Viktors Morozs, Serge Tatiefang, Nikita Ivanos; Aleksejs Visnakovs, Igors Kozlovs; Vladislavs Gutkovskis.

Substitutes :- Levan Makharadze, Germans Malins, Renars Rode, Vjaceslavs Isajevs, Andrejs Kovalovs, Igors Semjonovs, Jegors Morozs.

When I sat down to start looking at my side to play in Saturday's final League match of the campaign, the problem with Skonto Riga was staring me right in the face. In goal, and in defence, the club were very well off. Out wide, there were options as well. But in the centre of the park, the cupboard was bare. Viktors Morozs has 24 caps for his country, and is still a very good player, but he is now 35 years old. At the other end of the spectrum, 19 year old Nikita Ivanovs already has eight caps at Under-21 level, but his performances in the League for Skonto to date show that he still has a lot to learn before the club can rely on him to be a regular starter. Today though, I have no choice but to play him. The trio is completed by Cameroonian ball winner, Serge Tatiefang. He's not a bad player at all, but at a club already waist deep in foreign players, and more likely to arrive, he needs to impress big time if he's going to have a future here I think. Up front, I only have one viable option to start this game, though it is a good one, despite his recent goalscoring slump. Vladislavs Gutkovskis is 20 years old, and amassed 24 caps for Latvia Under-21's, and has just received his first call up to the Senior squad. As a club, his rise in status is an issue, as his contract is due for renewal, and he now has an agent who is playing hardball.

A short trip across the city of Riga is my welcome to Latvian football. This game had nothing on it at all, with our hosts already relegated. The small stadium, a capacity of just 648 and a synthetic playing surface, was barely a third full. Everything about this match screamed end of season wind down. It took the start of the forecasted rain late in the first half to liven things up. Nikita Ivanovs and Serge Tatiefang combined to find their midfield colleague Viktors Morozs, and he attempted to liven up the crowd with a low 25 yard curler that Roberts Ozols pushed around the post. It looked destined for the bottom corner but for the home keepers intervention. From the resulting corner, Caramba/Dinamo attempted a counter attack down the left, that was crudely stopped by Oleg Timofejevs, our right back somehow avoiding a booking for that.

Half Time :- FC Caramba/Dinamo Riga 0 FC Skonto Riga 0.

I wish I could tell you that the second half was more entertaining than the first half, but the reality is, that even at £2 a ticket, you'd still have thought you'd wasted your money attending this match. The elements didn't help the fans either, as those that had turned up on the open terraces were subjected to an ever increasing wind that was bringing gradually more persistent rain with it. Our hosts were giving their supporters very little to cheer about, and there was certainly an feeling that if a goal were to come, then it would be Skonto that would provide it.

As it was, no goal was forthcoming. Ivanovs managed to get just past the hour mark, before the strain of a second match in four days forced me to take him off, not a move I wanted to make, as I had to replace a playmaker with a defensive midfielder, Vjaceslavs Isajevs the only other centre midfielder who was available to me today. Morozs tried his luck again from range, this time rifling in a dipping effort that beat Ozols, but just cleared the angle of cross bar and post. In the 77th minute, I brought an end to Garry Kenneth and Aleksejs Visnakovs afternoons, Ukranian defender Levan Makharadze getting some match time, as did Igors Semjonovs. As time ticked down, Vladislavs Gutkovskis got himself into a position to end his scoring slump, but scuffed the shot across the face of goal. A bore draw. But if you were looking for a positive, at least we looked decent at the back.

FC Caramba/Dinamo Riga (0) 0 FC Skonto Riga (0) 0

Scorers : None

Andrejs Pavlovs (capt); Olegs Timofejevs, Ofosu Appiah, Garry Kenneth (Levan Makharadze 77), Ingus Slempe; Viktors Morozs, Serge Tatiefang, Nikita Ivanos (Vjaceslavs Isajevs 62); Aleksejs Visnakovs (Igors Semjonovs 77), Igors Kozlovs; Vladislavs Gutkovskis.

Attendance :- 232. Man of the Match :- Roberts Ozols (Caramba/Dinamo).

Ok, so that wasn't exactly an inspiring start, but at least I'd managed to have a look at what we had to work with, and I now knew exactly what was needed to try and help us out next season. And it was definitely some more quality in the middle of the park. By the next day, I'd made an offer for someone who I believed would certainly provide that extra bit of quality. 26 year old right back, Olegs Timofejevs signed a new one year deal the day after the match, and he stated he was delighted to be staying, and was now focussed on helping the club have a successful 2016 and getting back into the Latvian squad as well. Sunday also saw the club hold it's end of season awards ceremony in one of the corporate suites at Skonto Stadium. It was no surprise to see Ofosu Appiah named Player of the Season, taking almost half of the votes. The Young Player of the Season award went to 22 year old Colombian defender, Ivan Mena.

The following morning, I called the players in for a team meeting before they all disappeared for their off season break. In the clubs video room, I told the players that I wanted them back on Monday 25th January, and that I expected them to be in decent shape when they arrived back, as I had ambitions of bringing the Title back to Skonto in 2016. The reaction around the room was just what I had hoped it would be, and the players left in good spirits. Meanwhile, I would stay in Riga, making preparations for Skonto for next season, and announcing the Cameroon squad for the upcoming African Under-23 Cup of Nations.

Tuesday would be a very busy day. It started with the news that 18 year old striker, Jurijs Krivoseja had signed the new contract he had been offered. He didn't make his Senior bow for Skonto in his first season with the club, but he did score a couple of goals for the Under-19's, and also played twice for Latvia Under-19's in their European Under-19 Championship Qualifying campaign. By the time lunchtime had arrived, I had officially named the 21 man squad that would represent Cameroon, with the squad due to meet up in five days time for a couple of warm up games. The day was completed with a signing for Skonto, as we made another big addition to our squad, a player that I hoped would really help push us forward next season. Meanwhile, things were about to take a big turn in Africa......

[neilhoskins77]

Christian Holst is one of the better players that the Faroe Islands have ever produced. The 33 year old midfielder has never played club football in his home nation though, and was just about to sign for HB, when we stepped in and made a transfer offer of £3.5k. Much like McFadden, he can play almost any of the attacking roles, though I see him playing in our centre midfield three. He jumped at the chance to negotiate terms with us, and the talks went smoothly. He quickly signed a one year deal for a wage of £750 per week. With his agents fee on top of the transfer fee, £7.75k will be taken out of our transfer budget. This will be the first time that Holst has played his football outside of Denmark, and before he leaves the country, he still has ambitions to help Fremad Amager get promoted from the Second Division into the First Division. He has also just retired from International duty following the Islands finishing bottom of Group F in the Qualifiers for the 2016 UEFA European Championship Finals next summer. The only win in the campaign was a victory over Greece, and Holst will remain on 49 caps, notching four goals for his nation.

He'll have two new players battling for places alongside him as well, as another two midfielders join in quick succession, making it three signings in as many days. I had my doubts about the first, as Andrejs Prohorenkovs is now 38 years old, and will turn 39 before the season begins. But my Scout tells me that I shouldn't take that into consideration, and that the 32 times capped Latvian is still in very good condition from a fitness perspective, and he can still pass a football with the best of them in the country. He signs a one year deal on £375 a week, and there is a further couple of thousand deducted from our transfer budget to pay his agent. Also arriving will be a player under the age of 30 for a change, in the shape of Ivans Lukjanovs. The 16 times capped Latvian International was keen to move back to his homeland for the first time since finishing his second spell with Skonto in 2009. Since then, he has played in Poland, Ukraine, and most recently, in Russia, where he has been turning out in the second tier for Volgar Astrakhan. He takes a bit of a hit in his pay packet to the make the move, but that doesn't mean it's been a cheap move for us, as he commands a transfer fee of £35k, which demolishes the previous club transfer record of £11.5k. The day ends with the squad getting another full International player, though this one was already with us. Striker, Vladislavs Gutkovskis is handed his first International cap for Latvia in the 4-2 Friendly victory over Gibraltar.

Speaking of Internationals, my relationship with Rigobert Song has hit the skids in a fairly major way. After weeks of planning the squad, I received an email from Song the day before I was due to make my way to Cameroon for our warm up matches. I was shocked to read that my squad had been decimated, primarily by Song himself. He had decided that he wanted to take a look at some of the players I had selected for my squad, eleven of them to be exact. He had taken it upon himself to remove them from my squad for the Finals in Senegal, and promote them to the Seniors for a Friendly match instead. His email went on to let me know that two of my squad had declined the invite, as they were hoping to receive call ups for other nations, and didn't want to damage their chances, and another three were now injured. The best was yet to come though. With sixteen of the twenty one players selected now not going to Senegal, the Cameroonian FA, along with Song, had decided in their wisdom to reselect my squad for me, with no input from myself at all! Most of the lads didn't even have clubs at the moment, much less the experience to play in a major age group tournament.

I vowed to give myself a bit of thinking time, but I didn't need much, and the more I thought about the situation, the more angry I was getting. I cancelled my flights to Africa, and then composed an email to Song, copying in the FA at the same time. I told them that while I appreciated the opportunity when it was given to me a few months ago, it was my understanding that the forthcoming tournament was considered very important. Clearly that was no longer the case if the squad I had selected had been ripped apart for the sake of a pretty meaningless Friendly, and that I saw no reason why the decision would be made to do that, when the players could potentially have been more accurately scouted in competitive games in a Continental tournament enviroment. The email went on to say that I would never accept that kind of interference in a club I was managing, and there was no reason why I should do so on the International platform. I had no desire to be part of a group that were happy to go to a tournament with a group of players I'd had no say in selecting, and that were not fit for the purpose in my opinion. I wasn't prepared to risk my professional reputation in that manner, and as a result, I resigned with immediate effect.

I can't pretend that it didn't hurt to be treated that way by someone who I thought was a friend. I made up my mind that somewhere down the line, I would put myself in a position that I would be able to get even for what Rigobert Song had done. Rightly or wrongly, I felt that he'd put me in a situation where I either had to stand up for myself and show I wouldn't have things dictated to me in that severe a manner, or I accept mediocrity. I felt better about my decision when I saw that Cameroon Under-23's were thrashed 4-0 at home to South Africa in the first of the warm up matches. In my mind, it was the first step of vindication of the decision, and that I was far better off staying in Latvia and building up Skonto Riga's squad. At least that was going a bit better, as a string of players signed new deals to stay at the club beyond this season. Among those to sign were defenders Renars Rode and Levan Makharadze, young midfielder Nikita Ivanovs and teenage striker Aleksejs Davidenkovs. They were quickly joined by Colombian centre back Ivan Mena, kept mainly due to his willingness to stay and sign on with no increase in his wages, and Latvian left winger Martins Milasevics. The fans weren't so sure that he deserved a new deal, but I'm of the belief that the 23 year old will prove a good squad player. He'll have to compete with four times capped Arturs Karasausks, who has also extended his stay after arriving as an 18 year old five seasons ago. A few years ago the lad notched a 16 goal season, and also had a season on loan with Dnipro in Ukraine with a few to them signing him before they decided against making an offer for a permanent transfer. If he can regain that kind of form, the fan favourite could well yet earn himself a big money move down the line.

[tenthreeleader]

I'd say that international management can be a pitfall but I've never done it in any version of the game so I will simply say o_O

[neilhoskins77]

10-3, when it goes well, and you achieve something, it may be more rewarding than club football, as you are working with what you're given. On the other hand, when you have nothing to work with, it can feel like working with a club that have a Conference budget who have just been put into administration and thrown into the Premier League for a laugh.

December 2015.

Instead of being in the warmth of Africa and the heat of a major age group tournament, I was still in Latvia, and the cold of a Baltic winter season. And it certainly was cold. The Higher League Relegation/Promotion Playoff Final was played in sub zero temperatures and heavy snow. BFC Daugavpils lost their top tier status to a goal in the final two minutes of the season, and we'll have to adjust our sat nav for away games in Rezekne, as the First League Runner's Up of 2015, in the form of FK Rezekne/BJSS will join FB Gulbene in the top division. Meanwhile, in our corner of Riga, came the news that the fans had been waiting for. 20 year old striker, and now twice capped Latvian International forward, Vladislavs Gutkovskis, has signed a brand new contract with us at Skonto. A three year deal at a potential bargain £525 per week disappoints a clutch of clubs who were hoping to pounce for the 6'2 goalscorer. They might be less pleased with news on Scottish centre back, Garry Kenneth. Within weeks of signing a new two year deal that many of them thought he had yet to earn, he comes to the office to say he is homesick, and isn't sure if remaining in Latvia is the best thing for him. As it's the off season, I tell Garry to take himself back to Scotland for a month and hopefully that'll solve the issue. He wasn't convinced even before he left though, and I make clubs aware he is available without transfer listing him.

I take no pleasure in reporting that Cameroon's campaign out in Senegal was exactly the disaster I feared it would be when I quit the job. It started well in Dakar, as the Lions were two goals up inside half hour. It was all downhill from there however. Ivory Coast scored twice inside a minute as Cameroon switched to a defensive mode. They were then beaten 3-0 by both Nigeria and Tunisia, and tumbled out in the Group stages with just a single point on the board. In the Semi-Finals, it was plain sailing for Ghana and South Africa, who beat Nigeria and Tunisia respectively by two goal margins. In the final, it was the Bafana Bafana boys of South Africa who prevailed with a 2-0 win, to earn the nation their first Continental age group Championship. Further north in Europe, it was time for the spotlight to shine on UEFA, who made the draw for next summer's European Championship Finals in France, where all of the home nations will compete, but Latvia will not. The hosts might have the home turf, but they did not benefit from an easy draw, as they were pitched into Group A with Belgium, Romania and Russia. In Group B, England are likely to consider their draw as favourable compared to what they could have got, as they will face Denmark, Switzerland and Ukraine. The defending Champions are pooled into Group C, as Spain are joined by Bosnia-Herzegovina, Republic of Ireland and Turkey. In Group D, an old rivalry will commence once more, as Germany and Holland are drawn together, joined by Croatia and Sweden in a particularly tough looking quartet. Group E will see an all home nations battle, as Wales and Scotland will meet. Both will have their work cut out to make it into the knockout stages however, as they are joined by Italy and Serbia. Finally, in Group F, the Green Army from Northern Ireland will quite fancy their chances of progressing, as they are grouped together with Austria, Greece and Portugal.

The next few weeks would be dominated by looking to upgrade my backroom staff ready for the players return in January, and the press speculation that Cameroonian midfielder Serge Tatiefang would not be offered a new contract, and would leave at the end of the year. The truth was that Serge's future depended almost entirely on how the player recruitment process and board budgets went. The fact that he was a foreign player, and that we were already over quota, would count heavily against him. But if I couldn't bring in any more decent midfielders, I'd have little choice but to keep him. I decided to wait until the budget was announced before making any more moves. With that in mind, I moved all but £50k of the transfer budget across to the wage budget instead, giving us a new weekly budget of around £15k per week to work with for the moment.The backroom staff upgrades went very well. 27 year old Daniels Novikovs arrived as the Senior squads new Fitness Coach, while at the same time, Aleksandrs Ryndziuk was appointed to the same role for our Under-19's squad. The specialist role of Goalkeeping Coach was also addressed, and a little bit of cash was spent to get the man we wanted for the Senior squad. It cost £3k in compensation to Romanian club, CS National Sebis, to secure the services of 46 year old Dan Tapos, who is a UEFA 'A' Licence holder and is top notch in his field. Hopefully 30 year old Janis Spasjonnikovs will learn a lot from him, as the Latvian takes his first job in football to be the Goalkeeping Coach for our age group side. He already has a UEFA 'B' Licence to his name. Two more general Coaches were hired for the First Team, 33 year old Deniss Teremko takes his first job in the game to put to use his UEFA 'A' Licence, while 32 year old Vitalijs Jasvins holds a 'C' Licence. The badly under staffed Under-19's gets help in the form of Arturs Viksna, a 'B' Licence holder. Our beleagured Head Physio also has reason to be happy, as 55 year old Dimitrijs Jefremenko will help with the First Team, while 25 year old Jevgenijs Sandis Strods will hope to learn from his elder colleagues and apply his knowledge to help the Under-19's. Our Scouting department up until now had consisted only of former Skonto player and seven times Latvian International cap winner, Vadims Mikuckis. He will now have two new people to boss around, Jevgenijs Zotovs and Vadims Brils. With all the positions I wanted filled now successfully recruited for, it was only left to decide who would run the Under-19's in 2016. I wanted them to be a serious outfit that played to win, and the prime candidate for the role was Vadims Teremko, our current Head of Youth Development. He accepted the role.

On the day before Christmas Eve, I was invited to the clubs Financial AGM, where the figures would be discussed and crunched, and the budgets for the new season would be provisionally decided. I thought it would be your usual boring meeting that would take about half a day longer than it needed to. Not a bit of it though. Maybe it was rushed through due to the lack of heating in the room. With my secretary sat next to me to translate, she told me the club had made a profit of just over £600k in the last year, thanks mainly to two large sponsorship deals, and some fairly healthy prize money from the UEFA Europa League, despite being dumped out in the First Qualifying Round by Croatian side, HNK Hadjuk Split. With no debt at all, and the same kind of profit predicted for next season as the sponsorship money would remain the same and we would also be in the Qualifiers for the UEFA Europa League again, the Board had decided to really make an effort to bring the League Title back to the Skonto Stadium. With that in mind, they would provide another £130k for transfer funds, and would set a provisional wage budget of £27k per week, which was double what it had been last season. Naturally, I was absoloutely delighted, and if I hadn't been wearing gloves in that cold room, they'd have heard me clapping in delight.........

[neilhoskins77]

With money to spend, I set about strengthening our squad still further, and my first target was a striker. Maksims Danilovs was the joint top scorer in the League last season with 15 goals for for FS Metta/Latvijas Universitate Riga. It was deemed a successful season for them as they avoided relegation, and the 6'5 target man was responsible for nearly half of their goals. I went in with a bid of around £25k for him, envisaging him as a support act for Vladislavs Gutkovskis. On Boxing Day, we recieved an email to say that Latvian International left back, Antons Kurakins, had been transfer listed by his current club, Hamilton Accademicals of the Ladbrokes Scottish Premiership. He had been back and forth between Scotland and Latvia for several years, counting Celtic and our big rivals, FK Ventspils, amongst his former clubs. Ok, he's not a Scot, but he does speak perfect English, and may well help Garry Kenneth settle in Riga. He would also improve our left back options, where right now, Ingus Slampe is perceived by many as a weak link in the club. I make an offer, Hamilton asking for £20k, but accepting our offer of £15.75k.

It may have been the festive period, but things were still moving fast, Maksims Danilovs quickly accepted our offer of a two year deal for £100 a week wages. For us, this is an excellent signing, and it will keep Vladislavs Gutkovskis very much on his toes. Already, many in the media are saying the 20 year old striker is out of his depth in International football, citing his poor record last season, where he netted just three times after scoring twenty eight the season before. We weren't quite done either, as an opportunity came up to bring in a Latvian midfielder that would make Serge Tatiefang redundant. 29 year old midfielder Artis Lazdins is coming off the best season of his career, helping unfancied FK Jelgava to a safe mid table finish, and netting as many goals as Gutkovskis managed despite being a ball winning midfielder. He's a former Ventspils player who also has experience of playing abroad, and I was determined to get him into our squad. A club record transfer fee of £150k is offered for him, and there was never any danger of Jelgava saying no to that kind of money, which is double what they would make in sponsorship money next season. We had to move some money from the wage budget into the transfer pot, the wages level is now at around £24k a week. Within a day of each other both Antons Kurakins and Artis Lazdins sign for the club, the left back on a two year deal worth around £1.2k a week, while Lazdins signs for three years on £950 a week, a deal which could eventually be worth a transfer fee of £175k.

Those deals meant that just days later, some players would be leaving the club. Winger Andrejs Kovalovs loan deal came to an end, and it was decided that we wouldn't take up an option on the 26 year old, who returns to Dacia Chisinau of the Moldovan Divizia Nationala. Ten players are released on Free Transfers by the club, the most notable of them included Serge Tatiefang, Vjaceslavs Isajevs, young Colombian winger Santiago Vasco Jimenez, and Ukranian striker, Ivan Lukanyuk. As 2015 drew to a close, the Board agreed to foot the bill for me to start my UEFA 'B' Licence qualification. It means that for the opening months of the new season, I'll be relying a bit more on my backroom staff to take care of the training, but there is certainly enough of them to cope with a slightly higher workload now. The year ends with good news as well, as Garry Kenneth returns from Scotland, and assures everyone at the club that he is over his bout of homesickness and is ready for the season ahead.

As we roll into the new year, we chance our arm with a bid for another Latvian midfielder playing in the Russian First Division. 24 year old Arturs Zjuzins is playing for Gazovik Orenburg, who are fighting for promotion into the Russian SuperLeague. They accept an offer of around £40k, but Zjuzins wage demands are three or four times more than anything that anyone in our squad is earning, and the talks break down fairly quickly. It seems that while we are making progress on the financial front, we're nowhere near being in a position to compete with the clubs across the border in Russia who are rich from the natural resources in the huge country. The final act of the year is to appoint an actual manager to the Under-19's. Our Head of Youth Development is happy to step aside an give a full time manager the chance to run the team while he concentrates on his normal duties. The man who steps into the role is 35 year old Romanaian manager, Ghita Chitic, who is taking on his first managerial role and is eager to impress.

January 2016.

Despite it now being over five years since we'd been Champions of Latvia, when the end of year stats are released in Latvia, there's no doubt about which club are still the most popular and prestigious in the country. In 2015, the eight clubs in the Higher League earned a combined sponsorship windfall of around £1.8m, and almost exactly half of that money found it's way to us at Skonto Riga. The first time League Champions of FK Liepaja have enjoyed the highest increase in their profile, but still lag a fair behind ourselves, FK Ventspils and FK Jelgava. We're asked if we still wish to continue keeping our Under-19 squad involved in age group League matches. That's an easy decision to make considering the work that has gone into giving them a legitimate manager and backroom team through the winter.

Ten days into the month, and the fixture list for the new campaign is released. We start away from home against FK Jelgava, and a week later we'll play our opening home match, hosting newly promoted FB Gulbene. We'll then play our Latvian Cup Quarter-Final match. Yep, the Quarter-Final. While the League operates on a March-November basis, the Cup starts in July, and the final eight resume the competition in March, with the Final scheduled for mid-May, and a place in the UEFA Europa League up for grabs for the winners, plus £30k in prize money. With the season now scheduled, the Board confirm the budgets, and announce I have £67.5k remaining in the transfer budget, and a weekly wage budget of just under £24k per week will be allocated. With those figures in place, they expect us to win the League, and at least reach the Final of the Latvian Cup. We'll certainly be favourites for our Quarter-Final match, where we will play away from home against semi-professional fellow Riga club, FK Auda Riga who play in the second tier.

The following day, with half a dozen new signings arrived at the club, the Latvian media hacks attended the press conference we'd arranged, and asked the same tedious questions that you hear in every other press conference. These guys are so unimaginative. After 35 minutes of the usual questions about money left in the bank, players adjusting to new languages and cultures, changes in formation, and if the players who had arrived would make a huge difference to our squad, I managed to escape. There's very little to like about press conferences. I had other things to think about, like whether to make an offer for 6 times capped Montenegrin forward, Nikola Vujovic. His agent was trying to find him a new club, and it seemed the player had his heart set on moving on Skonto, though that may be due to the fact that we were the only club who held any real interest in the player. We agreed a deal with the former Partizan Belgrade players current club, and then heard his absolutely ludicrous salary demands. I think he may have got us mixed up with some other club, but the negotiation was very short, as it was clear there was no deal to be done with Vujovic.

My assistant manager has organised a trio of pre-season friendlies against First League clubs, while I then added another as well, with a home game against a top tier club visiting from neighbouring Lithuania. We'll start that schedule of games in mid-February, and the final pre-season game will be one week before the domestic season begins. We did have a match briefly arranged against our Latvian Cup Quarter-Final opponents, but I veto'ed that one. I didn't want to give them the advantage of being the opposition while our players bedded into the club, squad and tactics. I was surprised to get a call from Nikola Vujovic's agent to ask if I'd be interested in returning to the table to negotiate once again. I was even more surprised to hear that they had hugely dropped their wage demands. Clearly they were chancing their arm first time around. This time terms are agreed fairly swiftly with the 34 year old and his agent. He might yet regret not doing that first time around though, as just one day after agreeing terms with him, we're offered the chance to loan an 18 year old Brazilian forward for the season with no fee and no wages to pay. It's not uncommon for South American teams to ship out the players that they'd already decided weren't good enough to clubs in Europe who wanted the prestiege of having a Brazilian or Argentinian in their clubs colours. Jeremias was a little different though. He'd just enjoyed a good campaign in the Sao Paulo Junior Cup for top flight team Atletico Paranaense. He can play in several positions, is a hard worker, and is more than capable of creating and scoring goals. It suddenly became a very easy decision, and now it's Vujovic and his people's turn to be angry that their time had been wasted.

[neilhoskins77]

February 2016.

As of February 1st, the club have sold 588 season tickets for the 2016 campaign, and they expect that number to rise up around the 800 mark before the season starts, which would be a healthy increase on last season's number. James McFadden isn't personally taking any of the credit for that, though he probably feels like he doesn't need to, as he got himself a pay rise as soon as he set foot in Riga. Our new signing has a contract that states he will match the highest earner at the club, and that means his contract goes up to fall in line with Ofosu Appiah's. Nice work if you can get it, hopefully he can be a star attraction at Skonto Stadium. He gets his first opportunity to show what he can do when we kick off our pre-season campaign.

Saturday 13th February 2016 - Pre-Season Friendly

Celtnieks Stadium, Daugavpils

FC Daugava Daugavpils v FC Skonto Riga

(4-3-2-1) :- Germans Malins; Olegs Timofejevs, Ofosu Appiah (capt), Garry Kenneth, Antons Kurakins; Christian Holst, Artis Lazdins, Viktors Morozs; Jeremias, James McFadden; Vladislavs Gutkovskis.

Substitutes :- Levan Makharadze, Andrejs Pavlovs, Renars Rode, Ivan Mena, Ingus Slampe, Ivans Lukjanovs, Igors Semjonovs, Andrejs Prohorenkovs, Igors Kozlovs, Martins Milasevics, Arturs Karasausks, Maksims Danilovs.

The venue for our opening warm up match will also be the venue for our second game on Wednesday night. For our opening match, I'm not expecting too much, with a high turnover of players, and some tactical changes. They have changed from the one game that I have managed for Skonto as well, as the backroom staff believe we'll be a much more effective team if we try and play more narrow style. So my two wide men have been moved infield to play behind the striker, who in turn is reverting to the target man role. Christian Holst will play the centre midfield role, with Artis Lazdins next to him asked to be the ball winner. Viktors Morozs is the playmaker. Ahead of that trio, Jeremias will be the shadow striker, with James McFadden playing in the 'Enganche' role, where it is believed he'll be most effective, though he does need to sort out his match fitness.

Right from the off, our hosts attempted to capitalize on the space we were leaving out wide, Aleksandrs Solovjovs making headway on the left, but Olegs Timofejevs stepped across and made a really good tackle, putting both ball and player into touch. We lost Jeremias in the 27th minute, our Brazilian forward felt the weight of a heavy tackle just as he was striding away from his marker, and he's injured his groin. He was substituted immediately, and replaced by Igors Kozlovs, who is a like for like replacement. A very quiet first half was brought to life ten minutes before the break, starting with Solojovs trying to break us down once more on their left. Timofejevs had a little help this time, as Christian Holst came across to force Solojovs to play his attempted cross earlier than he'd have liked. Timofejevs blocked it, and Holst set off at pace down the touchline. Our new lad showed an unexpectedly quick turn of pace, and left the Daugava chasers in his wake, before delivering a cross to the near post area, that Vladislavs Gutkovskis met with a thunderous half volley that found the net off the post. It'd be lovely to see a bit more of that this year.

Half Time :- FC Daugava Daugavpils 0 FC Skonto Riga 1

At half time, I changed the remaining ten players who had started the game, a planned move. The only one who wouldn't get a game today unless we suffered another injury, would be Martins Milasevics. I had to play Arturs Karasausks out of position, he usually likes to play wide on the left, but takes McFadden's position this afternoon. The hosts elected to stagger their changes, which did nothing for the flow of the game. It wasn't a performance for the ages or anything like that, but it will do for a starter.

FC Daugava Daugavpils (0) 0 FC Skonto Riga (1) 1

Scorers :- Vladislavs Gutkovskis (35)

Germans Malins (Andrejs Pavlovs 45); Olegs Timofejevs (Levan Makharadze 45), Ofosu Appiah (capt - Renars Rode 45), Garry Kenneth (Ivan Mena 45), Antons Kurakins (Ingus Slampe 45); Christian Holst (Ivans Lukjanovs 45), Artis Lazdins (Igors Semjonovs 45), Viktors Morozs (Andrejs Prohorenkovs 45); Jeremias (inj - Igors Kozlovs), James McFadden (Arturs Karasausks 45); Vladislavs Gutkovskis (Maksims Danilovs 45).

Attendance :- 111. Man of the Match :- Edvins Bovins (Daugava).

The press weren't impressed with our performance at all, reporting that we had barely done enough, and would need to be better when the competitive action starts. We won't be seeing Jeremias again in this pre-season, as Dags Cuda reports back that it's a groin strain for the forward, and he'll be out of action for about four weeks. Our Under-19's were also in action today, drawing 0-0 with First League club FK Tukums-2000 age group side away from home. Man of the Match is our 17 year old keeper, Nils Purins, who made two good stops to keep the hosts at bay.

[neilhoskins77]

Wednesday 17th February 2016 - Pre-Season Friendly

Celtnieks Stadium, Daugavpils

BFC Daugavpils v FC Skonto Riga

(4-3-2-1) :- Germans Malins; Olegs Timofejevs, Ofosu Appiah (capt), Garry Kenneth, Antons Kurakins; Christian Holst, Artis Lazdins, Viktors Morozs; Igors Kozlovs, James McFadden; Vladislavs Gutkovskis.

Substitutes :- Levan Makharadze, Andrejs Pavlovs, Renars Rode, Ivan Mena, Ingus Slampe, Ivans Lukjanovs, Nikita Ivanovs, Andrejs Prohorenkovs, Igors Semjonovs, Martins Milasevics, Arturs Karasausks, Maksims Danilovs.

A quick return back to Daugavpils, where we'll face the BFC side who have just been relegated from the Higher League. They are expected to give us about as tough a test as we can expect without facing a club in our own League. With Jeremias out, Igor Kozlovs moves into the starting eleven. Nikita Ivanovs is called back up from the Under-19's squad, and will sit on the bench for this match, which is played in pouring rain in the early stages.

We should have put ourselves ahead with just 75 seconds on the clock. Some beautiful slick passing dragged the BFC defence all over the park, and Viktors Morozs played the ball into James McFadden's feet on the edge of the box. The Scot played a great reverse pass beyond the reach of the last defender and into the run of Vladislavs Gutkovskis, who needed only to slide it between the goal frame. Instead, the big striker went for power, and rather than finding the back of the net, found the back of the car park instead, blazing over from half a dozen yards out. He had another great chance five minutes before the break, as Christian Holst played a long through ball towards the right corner of the oppositions penalty box. Gutkovskis showed a decent turn of speed, along with a bit of strength to get himself there first in front of the defender, and once goal side, he was always going to get in on goal. This time, he produced the side footed effort that was required in the opening stages. And this time, BFC's keeper, Jevegnis Nerugals, made the stop with his feet to deny our striker.

Half Time :- BFC Daugavpils 0 FC Skonto Riga 0.

No changes at the break this time, as I had decided that the starting eleven would get an hour today. In the 50th minute we produced some more crisp passing to create another chance, Igors Kozlovs finding Gutkovskis on the edge of the box, the striker had company in the form of a defender, so played it square to McFadden. This chance would also go begging, McFadden opting to try and curl the ball into the far corner, but Nerugals was well positioned and made a fairly comfortable save.

With 61 minutes on the clock, I made my changes, all eleven players rotated at the same time. Sub keeper, Andrejs Pavlovs was called into action moments after coming on. A mix up in midfield between Nikita Ivanovs and Ivans Lukjanovs allowed BFC their first real sight of goal, and Vitalijs Dubrovskijs took advantage of Ivan Mena losing his footing, and picked out Eriks Kokins, but Pavlovs spread himself well, and Kokins fired right at him. That was the last good chance either side created, and the match meandered to a conclusion.

BFC Daugavpils (0) 0 FC Skonto Riga (0) 0

Scorers :- None.

Germans Malins (Andrejs Pavlovs 61); Olegs Timofejevs (Levan Makharadze 61), Ofosu Appiah (capt - Renars Rode 61), Garry Kenneth (Ivan Mena 61), Antons Kurakins (Ingus Slampe 61); Christian Holst (Ivans Lukjanovs 61), Artis Lazdins (Nikita Ivanovs 61), Viktors Morozs (Andrejs Prohorenkovs 61); Igors Kozlovs (Igors Semjonovs 61), James McFadden (Martins Milasevics 61); Vladislavs Gutkovskis (Maksims Danilovs 61).

Attendance :- 60. Man of the Match :- Janis Vaitkus (BFC Daugavpils).

A bit surprisingly, both the media and fans were pretty happy with that outing, citing the reason that they were pleased with the number of chances we created. I suppose I can see their point, we were playing a stronger side than on the weekend, created more chances, and took more control of the game with a good percentage of possession. On another day, we may well have won that match comfortably. It would be nice to get that sorted out by the time we start the competitive matches.

By the end of the week, Aleksejs Visnakovs is back in training, which is good. James McFadden has stubbed his toe, and will miss around a week, which isn't so good, as these are the sort of niggly things that have plagued McFadden over the years. The press describe Visnakovs as unsettled, and looking for a move. That's the first I've heard of any issues, so maybe they know something I don't. We'll have to see if anything develops there. We have ten days until our next game, so both Visnakovs and McFadden have some time before they need to be ready. Our final warm up match, which will be the first time I've managed at Skonto Stadium, is pushed back one day to the Sunday. The League's partners in Latvian National TV announce that our home game with bitter rivals FK Ventspils on Saturday 4th June has been selected for live national coverage, which is not a surprise at all. By the middle of the following week, we've lost another man, as Igors Kozlovs strains his back while lifting weights, and will miss over a month.

When the odds are released for this seasons Highest League, one thing is clear, nobody is getting rich from the back of it. We're made 1/2 favourites for the Title on the back of our squad strengthening. The bookies can't be that confident though, as both FK Ventspils and FK Liepaja, the defending Champions, are also odds on, as both are priced at 4/5. It's then FK Jelgava at 5/4, FK Spartaks Jurmala at 7/4, and FS Metta/Latvijas Universitate Riga at 10/1. The two promoted teams are predicted to struggle, with FB Gulbene at 80/1, and FK Rezekne BJSS the firm favourites to go down at 2000/1. More games are picked for live TV coverage, and both of our opening two League matches are selected. The squad numbers have now been selected, and a new club captain has been appointed too. Ofosu Appiah has been appointed to replace Andrejs Pavlovs, while his vice-captain is our new left back Antons Kurakins, who takes over the role from Igors Kozlovs.

The weights room has claimed another victim, as Garry Kenneth injures a muscle in his stomach while doing some work, and will be out for around a month as a result. I hope the injury at a key stage of pre-season, and the frustration it could cause, doesn't bring on another pang of homesickness for the Scottish centre half. The Under-19's preparations for the new season take a blow when they are thumped 3-0 away from home by FK Jakabpils. Even our usually optimistic Head of Youth Development struggled to find anything positive to say about that one.

Sunday 28th February 2016 - Pre-Season Friendly

Sporta Kompleks Arkadija, Riga

FK Rigas Futbola Skola v FC Skonto Riga

(4-3-2-1) :- Germans Malins; Igors Timofejevs, Ofosu Appiah (capt), Renars Rode, Antons Kurakins; Christian Holst, Artis Lazdins, Viktors Morozs; Igor Semjonovs, James McFadden; Vladislavs Gutkovskis.

Substitutes :- Deniss Kacanovs, Andrejs Pavlovs, Levan Makharadze, Ivan Mena, Ingus Slampe, Ivans Lukjanovs, Nikita Ivanovs, Andrejs Prohorenkovs, Aleksejs Visnakovs, Martins Milasevics, Arturs Karasausks, Maksims Danilovs.

Our last away game of the pre-season schedule, and we take the trip across town to face RFS of the First League. Some changes are required, with Renars Rode starting in the centre of the back four with Ofosu Appiah following the injury to Garry Kenneth. That means that Levan Makharadze will be covering at centre back on the bench, and there's a call into the matchday squad for Deniss Kacanovs, our veteran right back. With Igors Kozlovs injured, there is a place in the starting lineup for Igor Semjonovs, the returning Aleksejs Visnakovs taking his spot on the bench. James McFadden passes a fitness test, and will also start, but won't play anymore than 45 minutes.

On a cold, but clear day, apart from the odd snow flurry, we took to the synthetic surface at RFS' home. The hosts defended in numbers early on, and we were forced to shoot from range, a 9th minute effort from distance by James McFadden just whistling by the wrong side of the post. That would be as close as we would get in the first half, as the RFS defence held firm, and the first half was goalless.

Half Time :- FK Rigas Futbola Skola 0 FC Skonto Riga 0

I took McFadden off at the break as planned, and the rest of the changes were made with just over 25 minutes left on the clock. Ten minutes later, with the players on the park better suited to a wide formation, I changed things up a little, and asked the two forwards behind the striker to move to wider roles, in an attempt to find another route through this stubborn defence. In the 78th minute, Deniss Kacanovs sent a long, direct ball up to Maksims Danilovs. The support was slow to arrive for the tall striker, and he went for goal himself, but missed the target. The story of not just our afternoon, but our pre-season. Another goalless draw.

FK Rigas Futbola Skola (0) 0 FC Skonto Riga (0) 0

Scorers :- None

Germans Malins (Andrejs Pavlovs 64); Igors Timofejevs (Deniss Kacanovs 64), Ofosu Appiah (capt - Levan Makharadze 64), Renars Rode (Ivan Mena 64), Antons Kurakins (Ingus Slampe 64); Christian Holst (Arturs Karasausks 64), Artis Lazdins (Nikita Ivanovs 64), Viktors Morozs (Andrejs Prohorenkovs 64); Igor Semjonovs (Aleksejs Visnakovs 64), James McFadden (Ivan Lukjanovs 45); Vladislavs Gutkovskis (Maksims Danilovs 64).

Attendance :- 94. Man of the Match :- Igors Semjonovs (Skonto Riga).

26 chances, while the opposition created just two. The telling stat however, is that of those 26, we only managed to get four of them on target, and none of them found the net. Add to that our 64% possession, winning 74% of the headers, and a pass completion rate of 83%. Yet we still didn't manage to win the game. In the five matches I've managed so far, I've seen my side score just two goals. In the same five games, I've yet to see my side concede a goal. Maybe I don't need them to score too many goals if we carry on that great defensive effort. But it would sure make my life easier and less stressful if we could manage to start hitting the net with some kind of regularity.

[neilhoskins77]

March 2016.

Levan Makharadze is the latest player to take a knock, suffering a bruised shin during a training session. He'll be out for our opening game at Skonto Stadium. There is a match there before we get to play there though, as in the Latvian Super Cup, the current League Champions of FK Liepaja defeat last springs's Latvian Cup winners, FK Jelgava by 2-1. That was the fixture that forced our Friendly against our visitors from Lithuania to be pushed back by one day. The club announce that the final season ticket sales are not quite as high as they had expected, totalling 716 in the end, though that is up by 25 on last season. In an attempt to kick off the season at Skonto Stadium on a right, and hopefully loud note, I persuade the club to make Sunday's friendly match included in the season ticket. Unfortunately, it didn't lead to a very high turnout for the game....

Sunday 6th March 2016 - Pre-Season Friendly

Skonto Stadium, Riga

FC Skonto Riga v FK Klaipeda Granitas

(4-2-3-1) :- Germans Malovs; Olegs Timofejevs, Ofosu Appiah (capt), Renars Rode, Antons Kurakins; Artis Lazdins, Viktors Morozs; Christian Holst, Igors Semjonovs, James McFadden; Vladislavs Gutkovskis.

Substitutes :- Deniss Kacanovs, Andrejs Pavlovs, Nikita Berenfelds, Ivan Mena, Ingus Slampe, Ivans Lukjanovs, Nikita Ivanovs, Andrejs Prohorenkovs, Aleksejs Visnakovs, Martins Milasevics, Arturs Karasausks, Maksims Danilovs.

My first game at our home Skonto Stadium, and it's cold, windy, and there is snow in the air. Our visitors, a top tier A-Lyga club from across the border in Lithuania, have brought a 17 man squad with them. Jeremias passes a fitness test before the match, and is made available, though it's recommended he doesn't play anymore than 30 minutes. I ignore the advice, and decide not to name him in the squad at all. He'll be better off building up his fitness with a good week of training and making sure he's ready for next weekend instead. At the same meeting, we bounce around some ideas to try and solve our goal scoring issues. One of our midfield trio will be sacrificed and pushed up into a shadow striker role, while the two already there will be moved out wide. Nikita Berenfelds is called up from the Under-19's to take Levan Makharadze's place on the bench. Christian Holst is moved from the midfield three into the wide right position, James McFadden will play on the left, Igors Semjonovs takes up the shadow striker position.

The conditions made it hard going for both sides in the opening stages, and chances were at a premium. In the 37th minute, Antons Kurakins corner was headed clear, and Igors Semjonovs retrieved the ball. He played it back to Viktors Morozs, who broke the offside trap, as a disorganized Granitas defence headed upfield following the set piece. Vladislavs Gutkovskis timed his dart perfectly, and was in on goal, but ruined his good work by shooting straight away from distance when he had acres of space, and plenty of time. His shot was on target, heading towards the far top corner, but Franko Lalic saw it all the way and easily dealt with it. Moments later, and we broke the deadlock. A ball into space from the visitors midfield down their left channel was aimed at Ignas Packauskas, but Ofosu Appiah challenged him quickly and cleanly. He sent it straight back upfield, and found Gutkovskis on halfway. The striker held the ball up, and then played it into the path of Semjonovs who was running beyond him. His powerful run took him to the edge of the box, where he was crowded by defenders, but picked out James McFadden on the far corner of the box. His first touch with his chest gained him a yard on his marker, and his second touch sent a low curling shot beyond the reach of Lalic and inside the far post. It was a relief to see us get a goal at last.

Half Time :- FC Skonto Riga 1 FK Klaipeda Granitas 0

No changes at the break, just a request to keep up the performance from the first half, and I'd be a happy manager. We gave that a try too, Renars Rode heading a long ball forward from our visitors back up towards halfway, where Semjonovs took possession and went on another run. He got to around thirty yards from goal, and with no support around him, and the defence converging on him, he had a go from range, not quite getting the precision on his shot to beat Lalic. With 61 minutes on the clock, I changed up all six forward players, and the defenders and keeper followed in the 72nd minute. We were so nearly pegged back in the 80th minute by the Lithuainians. Packauskas was given the freedom of Skonto Stadium, and sent the ball wide on the right to Andzej Atmanavicius. He sent a drilled ball diagonally across the face of goal that had Andrejs Pavlovs scrambling across his goalmouth. Nerijus Aleskevicius arrived at the far post, but was a second too slow luckily for us. He reached the ball right on the dead ball line, and his attempt to send it on target hit the outside of the post and rebounded out of play. With five minutes to go, Granitas created another chance, Pavle Susic collecting a pass in the centre area midway into our half, and then lifted a left footed curling pass through our defence into the path of Aleskevicius. He hit the ball on the bounce, and tried to lift it over Pavlovs. He failed to get enough on it, and we managed to get a win to take us into the domestic season.

FC Skonto Riga (1) 1 FK Klaipeda Granitas (0) 0

Scorers :- James McFadden (40)

Germans Malovs (Andrejs Pavlovs 72); Olegs Timofejevs (Deniss Kacanovs 72), Ofosu Appiah (capt - Nikita Berenfelds 72), Renars Rode (Ivan Mena 72), Antons Kurakins (Ingus Slampe 72); Artis Lazdins (Andrejs Prohorenkovs 61), Viktors Morozs (Nikita Ivanovs 61); Christian Holst (Aleksejs Visnakovs 61), Igors Semjonovs (Igors Lukjanovs 61), James McFadden (Arturs Karasausks 61); Vladislavs Gutkovskis (Maksims Danilovs 61).

Attendance :- 285. Man of the Match :- Igors Semjonovs (Skonto Riga).

[neilhoskins77]

The Latvians will be the envy of Premier League managers in England, they'd love to have the transfer window slam shut on the eve of the domestic season's start. Not that there was much going on at Skonto Stadium, we'd done all our business early on. We would only be interested if there were top drawer Latvians available for transfer or loan, but there was nothing doing there. A couple of our players were made available for loan, but there were no takers there, so we managed to call it a day early on, and let the staff at the Stadium get the place closed up nice and early. The pre-season is done, the squad is set. It's time to introduce you all to our squad for the 2016 campaign.....

Goalkeepers.

Andrejs Pavlovs. Goalkeeper.

6'6. Latvian. 12st 10lbs. 37 years old.

Senior International Caps :- 2. Senior International Goals :- 0.

Senior Club Appearances :- 233. Senior Club Goals :- 0.

Germans Malins. Goalkeeper.

6'2. Latvian. 12st 6lbls. 28 years old.

Under-21 International Caps :- 10. Under-21 International Goals :- 0.

Senior Club Appearances :- 150. Senior Club Goals :- 0.

Defenders.

Deniss Kacanovs. Right Back.

5'11. Latvian. 12st 3lbs. 36 years old.

Senior International Caps :- 30. Senior International Goals :- 0.

Senior Club Appearances :- 257. Senior Club Goals :- 8.

Olegs Timofejevs. Right Back.

6'0. Latvian. 12st 1lb. 27 years old.

Senior International Caps :- 3. Senior International Goals :- 0. Under-21 International Caps :- 4. Under-21 International Goals :- 0.

Senior Club Appearances :- 185. Senior Club Goals :- 0.

Levan Makharadze. Centre Back. Right Back.

6'3. Ukrainian. 11st 6lbs. 22 years old.

No International Caps.

Senior Club Appearances :- 43. Senior Club Goals :- 2.

Ingus Slampe. Left Back. Centre Back.

5'11. Latvian. 12st 12lbs. 26 years old.

No International Caps.

Senior Club Appearances :- 141. Senior Club Goals :- 5.

Garry Kenneth. Centre Back.

6'4. Scottish. 14st 0lbs. 28 years old.

Senior International Caps :- 2. Senior International Goals :- 0. Under-21 International Caps :- 8. Under-21 International Goals :- 1.

Senior Club Appearances :- 195. Senior Club Goals :- 7.

Ofosu Appiah. Centre Back.

6'0. Ghanaian. 12st 1lb. 27 years old.

Senior International Caps :- 2. Senior International Goals. :- 0. Under-21 International Caps :- 20. Under-21 International Goals :- 0.

Senior Club Appearances :- 78. Senior Club Goals :- 2.

Renars Rode. Centre Back.

6'2. Latvian. 12st 12lbs. 26 years old.

No International Caps.

Senior Club Appearances :- 126. Senior Club Goals :- 13.

Ivan Mena. Centre Back.

5'10. Colombian. 11st 0lbs. 23 years old.

No International Caps.

Senior Club Appearances :- 24. Senior Club Goals :- 0.

Antons Kurakins. Left Back.

6'0. Latvian. 11st 6lbs. 26 years old.

Senior International Caps :- 10. Senior International Goals :- 0. Under-21 International Caps :- 15. Under-21 International Goals :- 0.

Senior Club Appearances :- 178. Senior Club Goals :- 5.

Midfielders.

Viktors Morozs. Centre Midfield. Defensive Midfield.

6'1. Latvian. 12st 8lbs. 35 years old.

Senior International Caps :- 24. Senior International Goals :- 0.

Senior Club Appearances :- 323. Senior Club Goals :- 47.

Andrejs Prohorenkovs. Centre Midfield. Defensive Midfield.

6'1. Latvian. 12st 8lbs. 39 years old.

Senior International Caps :- 32. Senior International Goals :- 4.

Senior Club Appearances :- 317. Senior Club Goals :- 46.

Artis Lazdins. Centre Midfield. Defensive Midfield.

5'11. Latvian. 11st 13lbs. 29 years old.

Senior International Caps :- 24. Senior International Goals :- 0. Under-21 International Caps :- 10. Under-21 International Goals :- 0.

Senior Club Appearances :- 181. Senior Club Goals :- 6.

Martins Milasevics. Left Midfield.

6'2. Latvian. 13st 0lbs. 24 years old.

Under-21 International Caps :- 6. Under-21 International Goals :- 0.

Senior Club Appearances :- 87. Senior Club Goals :- 18.

Nikita Ivanovs. Centre Midfield.

5'9. Latvian. 11st 6lbs. 19 years old.

Under-21 International Caps :- 8. Under-21 International Goals :- 1.

Senior Club Appearances :- 37. Senior Club Goals :- 6.

Igors Semjonovs. Centre Midfield. Right Wing. Attacking Midfield.

5'11. Latvian. 11st 11lbs. 30 years old.

Senior International Caps :- 12. Senior International Goals :- 0. Under-21 International Caps :- 7. Under-21 International Goals :- 1.

Senior Club Appearances :- 165. Senior Club Goals :- 20.

Aleksejs Visnakovs. Right Midfield. Right Wing.

5'10. Latvian. 11st 4lbs. 32 years old.

Senior International Caps :- 53. Senior International Goals :- 7.

Senior Club Appearances :- 320. Senior Club Goals :- 61.

Ivans Lukjanovs. Attacking Midfield. Right Wing. Left Wing. Centre Midfield. Right Midfield. Left Midfield.

6'1. Latvian. 12st 10lbs. 29 years old.

Senior International Caps :- 16. Senior International Goals :- 0. Under-21 International Caps :- 10. Under-21 International Goals :- 2.

Senior Club Appearances :- 209. Senior Club Goals :- 35.

Christian Holst. Left Wing. Attacking Midfield. Striker. Right Midfield. Centre Midfield. Left Midfield. Right Wing.

5'10. Faroese. 11st 9lbs. 34 years old.

Senior International Caps :- 49. Senior International Goals :- 4.

Senior Club Appearances :- 368. Senior Club Goals :- 144.

James McFadden. Left Wing. Attacking Midfield. Striker. Left Midfield. Centre Midfield.

5'10. Scottish. 11st 11lbs. 32 years old.

Senior International Caps :- 48. Senior International Goals :- 15. Under-21 International Caps :- 7. Under-21 International Goals :- 0.

Senior Club Appearances :- 317. Senior Club Goals :- 62.

Jeremias. Attacking Midfield. Centre Midfield.

5'7. Brazilian. 10st 7lbs. 19 years old.

No International Caps.

Senior Club Appearances :- 0. Senior Club Goals :- 0.

Arturs Karasausks. Left Wing. Striker.

5'10. Latvian. 11st 9lbs. 24 years old.

Senior International Caps :- 4. Senior International Goals :- 0. Under-21 International Caps :- 15. Under-21 International Goals :- 2.

Senior Club Appearances :- 108. Senior Club Goals :- 42.

Igors Kozlovs. Attacking Midfield.

5'11. Latvian. 11st 0lbs. 28 years old.

Under-21 International Caps :- 3. Under-21 International Goals :- 0.

Senior Club Appearances :- 198. Senior Club Goals :- 32.

Strikers.

Maksims Danilovs. Striker.

6'5. Latvian. 14st 0lbs. 29 years old.

No International Caps.

Senior Club Appearances :- 179. Senior Club Goals :- 39.

Vladislavs Gutkovskis. Striker.

6'2. Latvian. 12st 12lbs. 20 years old.

Senior International Caps :- 2. Senior International Goals :- 0. Under-21 International Caps :- 24. Under-21 International Goals :- 4.

Senior Club Appearances :- 82. Senior Club Goals :- 32.

Other Squad Members.

Nils Purins. Goalkeeper. Latvian. 17 years old

Daniels Balodis. Left Back. Latvian. 17 years old.

Nikita Berenfelds. Centre Back. Latvian. 20 years old.

Janis Grindbergs. Centre Back. Latvian. 17 years old.

Davis Indrans. Centre Midfield. Latvian. 20 years old.

Jurjis Krivoseja. Striker. Latvian. 19 years old.

Jegors Morozs. Striker. Latvian. 17 years old.

Aleksejs Davidenkovs. Striker. Latvian. 17 years old.

First Team Staff Members.

Karlis Villerruss. Chairman. Latvian.

Neil Hoskins. First Team Manager. 38 years old. Welsh. UEFA C License Holder.

Genadijs Karavajevs. Director of Football. 62 years old. Latvian.

Jurijs Sevlakovs. First Team Assistant Manager. 56 years old. Latvian. UEFA A License Holder.

Vadims Teremko. Head of Youth Development. 41 years old. Latvian. UEFA A License Holder.

Dan Tapos. First Team Goalkeeping Coach. 47 years old. Romanian. UEFA A License Holder.

Daniels Novikos. First Team Fitness Coach. 27 years old. Latvian.

Moreira Ricardo Lundsedt. First Team Coach. 51 years old. Brazilian. UEFA A License Holder.

Viktors Lacis. First Team Coach. 45 years old. Latvian. UEFA B License Holder.

Vitalijs Jasvins. First Team Coach. 32 years old. Latvian. UEFA C License Holder.

Deniss Teremko. First Team Coach. 33 years old. Latvian. UEFA A License Holder.

Dags Cuda. Head Physio. 56 years old. Latvian.

Dimitrijs Jefremenko. First Team Physio. 55 years old. Latvian.

Vadims Mikuckis. Chief Scout. 44 years old. Latvian.

Vadims Brils. Scout. 36 years old. Latvian.

Jevgenijs Zotovs. Scout. 38 year old. Latvian.

[neilhoskins77]

Saturday 12th March 2016 - Latvian Higher League

Zemgales Olimpiskais Centrs, Jelgava

FK Jelgava v FC Skonto Riga

(4-2-3-1) :- Germans Malins; Olegs Timofejevs, Ofosu Appiah (capt), Renars Rode, Antons Kurakins; Artis Lazdins, Viktors Morozs; Christian Holst, Igors Semjonovs, James McFadden; Vladislavs Gutkovskis.

Substitutes :- Levan Makharadze, Andrejs Pavlovs, Ivan Mena, Andrejs Prohorenkovs, Jeremias, Ivans Lukjanovs, Maksims Danilovs.

After the long winter, the new season is finally here in the Baltic, and we start our campaign with a trip inland, heading nearly 30 miles south west to the city of Jelgava in the centre of the country. Germans Malins gets the nod in goal ahead of Andrejs Pavlovs, while in the heart of the defence, Ofosu Appiah wears the armband and leads the club. Renars Rode is selected to play alongside him, with Garry Kenneth still injured. Further upfield, Igors Semjonovs is selected in the shadow striker role, with Christian Holst and James McFadden both making their debuts for the club in the wide positions. The Brazilian youngster Jeremias is on the bench.

The snow flurries had just started to fall around the quarter of an hour mark, so Jelgava decided to find a way to help their fans keep warm, and getting themselves ahead would certainly go down well. Germans Malins didn't get much distance on his clearance after Renars Rode backpass. Nigerian wide man, Kennedy Eriba picked it up near the right touchline, and sent it infield to Arevsats Hacatrjans. The midfielder wasted no time in squaring the ball to Dariusz Latka, and his curling shot gave Malins no chance, as it found the top corner. This wasn't the start to the season I had hoped for, and things didn't improve through the remainder of the first half. We got to the interval still a goal down. It was a dead cert that the players wouldn't be enjoying their half time break.

Half Time :- FK Jelgava 1 FC Skonto Riga 0

The players were left in no doubt to what was expected from them of them in the second half, told that they had got us into this mess, and they had better make damned sure they get us out of it. With things not changing in any real way for the better in the opening stages of the second half, I finally made one of the changes that my backroom staff were highlighting for me, our defensive line moving further upfield. I also changed the teams mentality from structured to flexible. The reward was almost immediate. Artis Lazdins collected the ball just on the edge of the centre circle, and slipped the ball past an opponent, finding Igors Semjonovs. His hold up skills were impressive, and he found Vladislavs Gutkovskis in the penalty box. The defence did their best, making sure he stayed on his weaker right foot. It wasn't enough, and he fired across goal and inside the far post to level the match.

James McFadden came off shortly after the goal, replaced by another debutant, as Jeremias came onto the park. With twelve minutes to go, I made my next two changes, with Andrejs Prohorenkovs and Ivan Lukjanovs both making their debuts as well, replacing Artis Lazdins and Igors Semjonovs. With injury time upon us, and Jelgava having just wasted a free kick, Jeremias collected a knock down from Antons Kurakins on the left, and cut inside, and found the Ivans Lukjanovs. He curled a ball towards the right corner of the box, and Christian Holst showed more determination than the defender, and got ahead of him. He wasn't going to be stopped from there, and capped a decent debut by replicating Gutkovskis finish and stealing us the points. The home side were furious, claiming that Holst was offside. It wasn't even close. All I cared about was the three points that we had earned on opening day.

FK Jelgava (1) 1 FC Skonto Riga (0) 2

Scorers : Vladislavs Gutkovskis (68), Christian Holst (90+1)

Germans Malins; Olegs Timofejevs, Ofosu Appiah (capt), Renars Rode, Antons Kurakins; Artis Lazdins (Andrejs Prohorenkovs 78), Viktors Morozs; Christian Holst, Igors Semjonovs (Ivans Lukjanovs 78), James McFadden (Jeremias 69); Vladislavs Gutkovskis.

Attendance :- 638. Man of the Match :- Dariusz Latka (Jelgava).

The fans were, of course, delighted with Christian Holst's debut impact. Less excited was Jurjis Popkovs, the Jelgava manager, who insisted that we had barely deserved the draw, never mind the win. While I privately may have agreed with him, especially on the basis of our first half performance, when it came to giving the press a quote, I insisted that Popkovs was talking nonsense, and that our comeback in the second half had made us worthy winners on the day. Now we had a week to get our act together for our first home match of the campaign, one we would be firm favourites for.

[neilhoskins77]

The Skonto fans were certainly excited for our home opener, with predictions of a crowd up to around the 1,000 mark in the week leading up to the match. Our opponents would be newly promoted First League Champions from last season, FB Gulbene. They had got their season off to the perfect start with a 2-0 opening day home win against our cross city rivals from Riga University. That victory certainly jacked up the confidence levels of my next opposition manager, as Igors Korablovs had plenty to say for himself in Friday's press conference. When asked how his Higher League newcomers would compare with an experienced Skonto side, he replied that he considered our team to be just old, and not experienced. I smiled when told that, and told the assembled media that I wasn't about to get into a slanging match with the manager of a club who were unlikely to trouble us when we get to the business end of the season.

We'd be heading into Saturday's match without midfielder Artis Lazdins, who is suffering from a cold, and is sent home rather than risk passing it on to the rest of the squad. While we would be concentrating on our match, much of the other interest in the day's domestic football would be focused on the game of the day, where the two sides expected to be challenging us for the Title, would square off against each other, as FK Ventspils would host FK Liepaja. It's starting to look like our games will be shown live on TV more often than not. That was the case last week, and will be again today. Two of our matches for next month have also now been selected for live national coverage as well.

Saturday 19th March 2016 - Latvian Higher League

Skonto Stadium, Riga

FC Skonto Riga v FB Gulbene

(4-2-3-1) :- Germans Malins; Olegs Timofejevs, Ofosu Appiah (capt), Renars Rode, Antons Kurakins; Andrejs Prohorenkovs, Viktors Morozs; Christian Holst, Igors Semjonovs, James McFadden; Vladislavs Gutkovskis.

Substitutes :- Levan Makharadze, Andrejs Pavlovs, Ivan Mena, Nikita Ivanovs, Jeremias, Ivans Lukjanovs, Maksim Danilovs.

One forced change is made to both the starting lineup and bench due to the missing Artis Lazdins. His place in the eleven goes to Andrejs Prohorenkovs, who partners Viktors Morozs, and does give our centre midfield pairing a very veteran look to it. Maybe that was what Korablovs was referring to. That change opens up a space on the bench, which is taken by young midfielder Nikita Ivanovs.

If Korablovs lads had some confidence in their abilities to overcome an 'old' side, they certainly didn't show too much ambition in the early stages, and it was pretty clear they had come to Riga with a defensive mindset. It took us nearly half hour, by which time the persistent rain had cleared and the sun had peeked out, for us to put a decent move together. Vladislavs Gutkovskis had been heavily involved, performing well against the visitors back four and holding up the ball. He sent it to Igors Semjonovs, who curled a diagonal ball over the defence and towards the right corner, which Christian Holst kept in, and then sent low into the near post area. Gutkovskis controlled it with his back to goal, and then shot on the turn, his shot blocked by the shins of a defender. Right on the half time whistle, Gulbene got their first sniff of a goal, Sergejs Misins sending in a free kick from deep, and it went through a group of players and arrived at the feet of Nikita Parfjonovs, but his low shot was turned away by Germans Malins, and may have been off target anyway.

Half Time :- FC Skonto Riga 0 FB Gulbene 0

I wasn't overly pleased with the first half, but I didn't see any benefit in raising my voice at this early stage in the season, and instead reasoned that if they could take their work to the next level, the points were there for the taking. As the rain started to fall again five minutes after the break, we put in a well worked move, spear headed by Andrejs Prohorenkovs. He played a pass into the right channel of the box, and this time Gutkovskis created himself a yard of room, and managed to get a shot beyond the defenders, but Alberts Nikolskis got down low to his right and turned the shot away.

Prohorenkovs made it through to the 68th minute, before being replaced by Ivans Lukjanovs, as I attempted to inject a bit more pace into our play to try and break down Gulbene. That had very little effect, and a bigger change was required, so ten minutes later I took off Viktors Morozs, and replaced him with Maksims Danilovs, with Semjonovs moving back into the middle of the park, and Jeremias came on to replace Holst. We were going to two men up front to try and give them something else to worry about, with an attack minded version of a 4-4-2. The impact was immediate. James McFadden picked the ball on the halfway line, and played it into the feet of Danilovs, who had his back to goal and was thirty yards out. The striker held off two defenders as he kept possession, and then found the run of Gutkovskis with a clever reverse pass. The young striker sprinted into the box, and slid his shot low past the keepers feet, and into the far corner of the net. We had finally found a way through.

With a goal under our belts, we settled down, and didn't allow Gulbene an opportunity to hit back. In fact, we continued to go forward, and in the 86th minute, Danilovs lifted a ball over the defence for Gutkovskis to chase as it headed towards the byline. It's up for debate whether he would have reached it, we never got to find out, as Ivan Pylpchuk reached out and grabbed a handful of shirt to send him spinning to the floor, and the ref pointed to the spot, relying on his assistant for help as the long ball had left the ref out of position. Up stepped McFadden in his green boots, and drove a left footed penalty down the middle to open his account for the club. Judging by the amount of players who were keen to congratulate McFadden, the Scot is becoming a very popular member of the squad at Skonto Stadium.

FC Skonto Riga (0) 2 FB Gulbene (0) 0

Scorers : Vladislavs Gutkovskis (78), James McFadden (87 pen)

Germans Malins; Olegs Timofejevs, Ofosu Appiah (capt), Renars Rode, Antons Kurakins; Andrejs Prohorenkovs (Ivan Lukjanovs 68), Viktors Morozs (Maksims Danilovs 77); Christian Holst (Jeremias 77), Igors Semjonovs, James McFadden; Vladislavs Gutkovskis.

Attendance :- 912. Man of the Match. :- Vladislavs Gutkovskis (Skonto Riga).

Maksims Danilovs thirteen minute cameo impressed both media and fans alike, he had a hand in both goals after coming on, and certainly gave some food for thought on pairing the two together. But it was Vladislavs Gutkovskis who took the man of the match award with a goal and an assist. The media were falling over themselves to heap praise on the soon to be 21 year old, and in this early stage of the season, he is already just one goal short of his entire total for last season, though that probably says more about last year than it does about this season so far.

The players got another boost when they came off the park, hearing that Ventspils and Liepaja had held each other to a 1-1 draw. So just two matches in, and already we're the only side in the League with a 100% record. Not bad for a bunch of oldies.....

[neilhoskins77]

If Igors Korablovs wasn't a bitter man in the press conference, he was doing a remarkably good impression of one. It was through gritted teeth that he conceded experience had won the day, but he still had to get a shot in, insisting that Skonto didn't have the quality to make a run at the League Title. When I was asked for my comments, I told them I didn't feel vindicated, I didn't need vindication. I'd got what I wanted from Korablovs and his team, three points, and I was looking forward to taking plenty more points from them during the season.

On Sunday, the Board announced that due to our finances, 50% of any money generated from player sales would now be made available for the transfer pot. The Under-19's could do with some new players by the look of it, as Ghita Chitic's youngsters were well beaten at home to Jelgava's age group side. There was better news on Monday, as one of the Coaches at the club, Viktors Lacis, completed his course for a UEFA 'A' Licence. He also spoke of his desire to earn his Pro Licence in the not too distant future. He'll have another player to test his new found skills on, as Igors Kozlovs is back in training following his back strain. Training would be the focus for the next ten days or so, as the next game on the schedule was the Latvian Cup Quarter-Final match in early April. It was a good start to the International window for Latvia, as they managed at 2-1 win over Denmark at Skonto Stadium, thanks to a pair of goals from Hamburg striker Artjoms Rudnevs. Some would say it was not before time that the 28 year old found his shooting boots in the National jersey, he still only has five goals in 37 appearances. Antons Kurakins played 90 minutes, while Olegs Timofejevs and Artis Lazdins both came on as subs.

The Under-19's early season struggles continue, as they lose again on the final Saturday in March, a 1-0 defeat away to Gulvene Under-19's. For the First Team squad, as one returns from injury, another is sent home. Garry Kenneth is back on the training ground after recovering from his injured stomach muscle. But on the same day Vladislavs Gutkovskis goes down with flu, and is sent home, likely to miss the next two or three matches. Also struggling, is our Brazilian coach, Moreira Ricardo Lundsedt, who is going to need more time to gain his UEFA Continental Pro Licence.

April 2016.

Another month, and another load mouth manager who believes that Skonto are no longer a force in domestic football in Latvia. This time it's the manager of FK Auda Riga, our opponents in the Quarter Finals of the Latvian Cup. The First League outfit are managed by Vitalijs Morozs, 31 years old, and two and a half months into his second job in football. `We might not have much expectation on us tomorrow, but trust me, Skonto are nowhere as good a side as Hoskins would have you believe. We're more than capable of giving them a fright, and maybe even turning them over.' My fellow inexperienced manager had made my team talk for Saturday's match a very easy one. In the meantime I didn't give the press too much of a response in my press conference, simply saying that I would make sure my players guarded against complacency on Saturday afternoon.

Saturday 2nd April 2016 - Latvian Cup, Quarter-Finals

Alberta Saibela Stadium, Riga

FK Auda Riga v FC Skonto Riga

(4-2-3-1) :- Germans Malins; Olegs Timofejevs, Ofosu Appiah (capt), Ivan Mena, Antons Kurakins; Artis Lazdins, Viktors Morozs; Christian Holst, Jeremias, James McFadden; Maksims Danilovs.

Substitutes :- Levan Makharadze, Andrejs Pavlovs, Renars Rode, Andrejs Prohorenkovs, Igors Semjonovs, Ivans Lukjanovs, Arturs Karasausks.

'No team talk or motivational speech as such today lads. Just this short video.' I played a clip of Vitalijs Morozs' press conference instead. It said everything I needed to say, but so much better. 'Maybe you should show these people what a top domestic side looks like?' I challenged the players as they made their way into the tunnel before the match. Ivan Mena plays for the first time this campaign, the Colombian centre back replacing the rested Renars Rode, who is on the bench instead. Artis Lazdins is back in the lineup in the middle of the park, while Jeremias gets a start in the shadow striker role as Igors Semjonovs is also given a rest. With Vladislavs Gutkovskis out, there is a start for Maksims Danilovs up front as well.

In the teeming rain, we were in control quickly, and fired a warning shot in the 7th minute. Germans Malins long clearance down the park was headed down by Maksims Danilovs to Artis Lazdins. The midfielder lifted a diagonal ball to the left, and it just cleared the defenders head and was controlled by James McFadden. From an almost impossible angle and on the edge of the penalty box, the Scot sent an effort on goal, and it cannoned back off the angle of post and cross bar. Twenty second later, and the ball was in the net. Olegs Timofejevs chased down the clearance, and the ball was worked right to Christian Holst. He sent a curling cross towards the far post area, and McFadden met it again, this time on the corner of the six yard box, and keeping his volley low and powerful, easily finding the net. Our control over the match continued, and was cemented as half time approached. Danilovs was once again underneath another Malins clearance, and Jeremias eventually got the ball in the centre of the park, thirty yards out. He shaped to shoot, bringing a cluster of defenders towards him, before sliding the ball left into the path of McFadden. For the second time in the half, he shot first time, and for the second time in the half, he was clinical with his finish. From the left corner of the penalty box, he struck a shot that curled away from the reach of Deniss Kurakins, and found the top corner of the net.

Half Time :- FK Auda Riga 0 FC Skonto Riga 2

'Make sure there's no fight left in them, I want them put in their place.' That was all I said at the break, nothing more than that seemed necessary. That looked like that had been done with just 75 seconds of the second half on the clock. McFadden swung over a free kick from the right with his left foot, Ivan Mena flicked it on, and Ofosu Appiah swept it into the net, but he was a yard offside from his defensive partner's flick on. With the hour just ticked past, I took off Timofejevs and Jeremias, and gave a run out to Ukrainian defender Levan Makharadze, and also brought on Ivans Lukjanovs. A few minutes later, the visiting Skonto fans behind the goal we were attacking had cause to celebrate once again. Holst's cross towards Danilovs was headed away, but only to Artis Lazdins. He played a one-two with Lukjanovs, who slightly over hit his return pass towards the byline. Lazdins managed to get there though, and cut it back across the face of the goal towards the far post. Right on cue, McFadden arrived, and fired with his weaker right foot, Deniss Kurakins getting a piece of it, but unable to keep the ball out. The Scot was really starting to make his mark in Riga.

Just two minutes later, and the exclamation mark was put onto what had been a fine performance. Lazdins and Lukjanovs played some nice one touch football in the middle of the park, before the latter sent the ball wide to Holst. Our Faroese forward strode into the danger area, and played a quick one-two with Lukjanovs, before feeding the ball into the box, and picking our Danilovs. The lanky striker passed the ball confidently into the bottom corner of the net to open his account for the club, and celebrated with Holst who had gained his second assist of the afternoon. Danilovs left the park around five minutes later, as Arturs Karasausks got his first chance to show what he could this campaign. The foot came off the pedal just a touch in the final twenty minutes, but the job was very much done.

FK Auda Riga (0) 0 FC Skonto Riga (2) 4

Scorers : James McFadden (8,45,65), Maksims Danilovs (67)

Germans Malins; Olegs Timofejevs (Levan Makharadze 61), Ofosu Appiah (capt), Ivan Mena, Antons Kurakins; Artis Lazdins, Viktors Morozs; Christian Holst, Jeremias (Ivans Lukjanovs 61), James McFadden; Maksims Danilovs (Arturs Karasausks 71).

Attendance :- 436. Man of the Match :- James McFadden (Skonto Riga).

[neilhoskins77]

We had some very happy fans after that display, as the likes of James McFadden, Christian Holst and Maksims Danilovs in particular were lauded on fan forums. I was urging the players to keep their composure, as we had games coming thick and fast now. But there was no denying there's a feel good factor around the club, especially when we got back across town to hear our Under-19's had won for the first time this season, leaving it late though, and 89th minute strike from Erik Silings earning them a victory over FK Spartaks Jurmala, who will be our next opponents in the League on Wednesday evening.

James McFadden was named player of the day during a day of Cup action that failed to produce anything in the way of shocks. Spartaks needed extra time to squeeze past Gulbene, and Jelgava will also play in the Semi-Finals after a comfortable 3-0 win over Metta/LU. Completing the last four will be our rivals from Ventspils, who dispatched League Champions from last season, Liepaja, 2-0. Vitalijs Morozs post match press conference was made for comedy tv channels. He blurted out that we were not that good a side, and he thought that his side gave us a good game, and that they would fancy their chances if they played us again. I literally have no idea what the guy was watching. When it was my turn to answer the questions, I focussed on my players, and told the press that James McFadden was really enjoying himself in Latvia so far, and that was certainly good news for us, and bad news for the opposition when we went onto the park. We'd need to keep him in good form, as on Sunday, the draw is made for the Semi-Finals of the Cup, and we are paired with FK Ventspils. Apart from the fact that they are our biggest rivals, it means a start to hostilities with the League's other manager from the UK. 46 year old Paul Ashworth is an Englishman, and a former Skonto manager actually. The Buxton born man was employed by both Cambridge United and Peterborough United in their backroom staff, before being handed his first managers role by his current club. That was followed by spells with the now defunct FK Riga, Rostov across the border in Russia, and then the manager's role here at Skonto. While building up a collection of runner's-up medals, Ashworth failed to lead any of those clubs to a trophy. He had a spell in Nigeria, before getting the call to return to Ventspils, and in 2015, finally secured a trophy, leading the club to the Latvian Super Cup. The Semi-Final of the Latvian Cup will be played over two legs, and we also have a League match coming up against Ashworth's side, which means we'll face each other three times in just eleven days. We'll see if familiarity breeds contempt.

FK Spartaks Jurmala's win in the Cup on the weekend was their first win of the campaign, and combined with a Wednesday night kick off, they are expecting a miserable turnout at the Slokas Stadium for the upcoming League match. The 5,000 capacity ground is likely to be almost empty for the match, and the semi professional club are likely to only open certain sections of the stadium.

Wednesday 6th April 2016 - Latvian Higher League

Slokas Stadium, Jurmala

FK Spartaks Jurmala v FC Skonto Riga

(4-2-3-1) :- Germans Malins; Olegs Timofejevs, Ofosu Appiah (capt), Renars Rode, Antons Kurakins; Artis Lazdins, Viktors Morozs; Christian Holst, Igors Semjonovs, James McFadden; Maksims Danilovs.

Substitutes :- Levan Makharadze, Andrejs Pavlovs, Ivan Mena, Andrejs Prohorenkovs, Jeremias, Ivans Lukjanovs, Arturs Karasausks.

There are two changes from the side that performed well at the weekend in the Latvian Cup. There is a return to the back four for Renars Rode, with Ivan Mena dropping to the bench. Further up the park, Jeremias also sits with the replacements, and Igors Semjonovs plays behind the striker, which is still Maksims Danilovs with Vladislavs Gutkovskis remaining unavailable. To be fair, there's no doubt that Danilovs deserves some more game time. I like to give plenty of detail in my match reports, but even I was struggling in the first half. It was one apiece in bookings, with Ofosu Appiah picking up ours. There really was nothing else to tell from the opening forty five minutes.

Half Time :- FK Spartaks Jurmala 0 FC Skonto Riga 0

The teams were greeted by the same low cloud and drizzle that the first half had been played under. I had told the team I wanted to see a bit more from them, and the possession we were enjoying needed to yield a reward. The players wouldn't disappoint me, and just over ten minutes into the second half, we launched a quick and incisive counter attack. Antons Kurakins headed a deep cross out of his own penalty box, and found James McFadden, who had dropped deep. The Scot turned, and played a pass upfield to Igors Semjonovs in the centre circle. He picked a short pass to Viktors Morozs, who backed up the quickly retreating Spartaks defence, before giving it back to Semjonovs. A quick pass to the right picked out Christian Holst, and the Faroese forward surprised his marker by dropping his shoulder and stepping inside him. He then fizzed a low curling centre right across the penalty box, the ball passing just behind Maksims Danilovs, but right into the path of quickly arriving McFadden, and he smashed the ball high under the cross bar, giving Aleksandrs Kolinko no chance.

In the 70th minute, as legs started to tire, I made a triple change, as Artis Lazdins, McFadden and Danilovs all exited the match, and were replaced by Andrejs Prohorenkovs, Ivans Lukjanovs and Arturs Karasausks, the latter going into the strikers role. As we reorganised, Spartaks so nearly caught us out, Alberts Barbalis threaded a pass through to Elvis Stuglis at the second attempt, and he in turn sent it square and into the space for Ghanaian striker Ferdinand Takyi, who drove a shot at goal and forced Germans Malins into a good stop to turn it over the bar.

We reasserted our control over the game, and nearly found a second after some good play in midfield between Morozs and Prohorenkovs. The latter played it to Semjonovs, and he played it through the defence for Lukjanovs to run onto, and he lifted his shot over the keeper from a tight angle, but saw it only find the side netting, just going the wrong side of the near upright. The pair repeated the trick in the 89th minute, with more success, this time Semjonovs played a clever reverse pass that caught the home defence flat footed, and Lukjanovs had plenty of time, and on this occassion, he picked his spot nicely, finding the net from ten yards out and finally putting us out of Spartaks reach. It wasn't a performance that was going to win us any prizes, but it did keep our unbeaten start to the campaign going.

FK Spartaks Jurmala (0) 0 FC Skonto Riga (0) 2

Scorers : James McFadden (57), Ivans Lukjanovs (89)

Germans Malins; Olegs Timofejevs, Ofosu Appiah (capt), Renars Rode, Antons Kurakins; Artis Lazdins (Andrejs Prohorenkovs 70), Viktors Morozs; Christian Holst, Igors Semjonovs, James McFadden (Ivans Lukjanovs 70); Maksims Danilovs (Arturs Karasausks 70).

Attendance :- 135. Man of the Match :- Renars Rode (Skonto Riga).

That goal from James McFadden is his fifth competitive strike for us since his arrival, and he is settling in really well. There was a deserved Man of the Match accolade for our 27 year old centre back, Renars Rode. He broke up several attempts at counter attacks with crucial interceptions, and was very precise with his passing for a defender who isn't known for his ability with the ball at his feet. Ventspils are beaten in the League for this first time this season, losing away to Jelgava, which leaves Liepaja as our closest challengers after their 2-0 home win over Metta/LU.

[neilhoskins77]

I told the press I was satisfied with the win, and rejected their speculation that there was frustration at how long it took us to break down the Spartaks defence. 'Teams are going to make themselves difficult to play against when they're up against us, it's part of the challenge of being one of the top teams. It's the job of myself and my players to continually find new ways to solve these puzzles. It doesn't matter if it takes 89 seconds, or 89 minutes, as long as we manage to do it, there won't be a problem for us.' I'm learning that everything I say here has ramifications, and quickly my words are pounced upon to suggest I'd declared us as unbeatable. It's not a word I'd used, and it's not something that is very likely at all. But I certainly expect us to be one of the better clubs in this League as an absolute minimum.

There was little in the way of time to dwell upon the match against Spartaks, as we were immediately thrown into our next match, a home fixture with the League's newcomers, FK Rezekne/BJSS. They had wrestled top tier status from BFC Daugavpils in December, and were looking only to stay at the top table come the end of the season. They have one win from their three games to date, an away win in their second fixture, which came against Metta/LU, and leaves them currently 6th, in front of the same club and Spartaks.

Saturday 9th April 2016 - Latvian Higher League

Skonto Stadium, Riga

FC Skonto Riga v FK Rezekne/BJSS

(4-2-3-1) :- Germans Malins; Olegs Timofejevs, Ofosu Appiah (capt), Renars Rode, Antons Kurakins; Artis Lazdins, Andrejs Prohorenkovs; Christian Holst, Igors Semjonovs, James McFadden; Vladislavs Gutkovskis.

Substitutes :- Levan Makharadze, Andrejs Pavlovs, Ivan Mena, Viktors Morozs, Jeremias, Ivans Lukjanovs, Maksims Danilovs.

Two changes from Wednesday nights lineup, with Viktors Morozs resting his veteran legs, replaced by another man of similar age in the form of Andrejs Prohorenkovs. Up front, young striker Vladislavs Gutkovskis is fit again, and returns to the lineup in place of Maksims Danilovs, who in turn takes a place on the bench as Arturs Karasausks drops out of the matchday squad.

The striker was clearly keen to make up for lost time after missing a couple of games, and wasted no time in reminding the home supporters who the go to striker was. An ambitious ball over the top was easily cut out by Antons Kurakins, who sent it down the line to James McFadden. He used Igors Semjonovs to get the ball into the middle of the park, and he produced a sublime ball over the top of the visiting left back, the type of ball Christian Holst thrives on. As the defender turned, he lost Holst, and our wide man sprinted onto the ball, and continued to the byline. Once there, he cut the ball back across the goal, and picked out Gutkovskis, who wasn't likely to miss from eight yards out, firing low and hard to give is the lead after just 43 seconds.

That was his third goal of the season, and he would soon have his fourth. Olegs Timofejevs found Holst with a thrown in, and the ball was hooked towards goal. It was headed clear, and went right back to Holst, who had a second attempt, and this time picked out Gutkovskis once again at the near post, this time the striker ghosted into the space between two defenders, and volleyed past Aigars Seleckis from close range, to make it two nil with just ten minutes on the clock. Not content with providing two assists in the early stages, Holst put his name on the scoresheet in the 13th minute, Artis Lazdins picking out a pass between the static defence and into the right channel of the box. Holst was too quick for his marker, and let the ball do the work, as Seleckis committed himself to going to ground, and Holst rounded him before sliding the ball into the unguarded net from the angle. We could have added another in the 20th minute, Maris Seminovs attempting a clearance that ricocheted off Semjonovs, and broke into the box for Gutkovskis, the striker missing a chance of a hatrick as he tried to beat Seleckis at the near post when there really wasn't the room to do so. Holst had the final chance of the half, from almost the same position as he had scored from, this time going for power and his shot was right at the keeper.

Half Time :- FC Skonto Riga 3 FK Rezekne/BJSS 0

Convinced that we had the game won, I made two changes at half time, replacing Artis Lazdins and James McFadden with Ivans Lukjanovs and Jeremias. For a split second a few minutes after the restart, it looked like a poor decision. Following a corner, Marks Deruzinskis chipped the ball towards the penalty spot, Devids Dobrecovs flicked it on, and Maris Savinos bundled the ball into the net, but turned to see an offside flag that curtailed his celebrations.

We settled straight back down after that, and went back to having the better of the match, without ever really looking like adding to the scoreline despite long periods of possession. Andrejs Prohorenkovs came off in the 62nd minute, replaced by Viktors Morozs. In the 80th minute, Dimitrijs Suvorovs had to head the ball off the line, as Jeremias inswinging corner threatened to fly directly into the net. A minute later he should have scored, played into space on the left side of the box, but not getting enough power behind his effort, Seleckis comfortably holding the ball. The game drew to a close, and the sun peeked out to cast early evening shadows across the park, as we cruised to a victory. There will undoubtedly be bigger challenges to come.

FC Skonto Riga (3) 3 FK Rezekne/BJSS (0) 0

Scorers : Vladislavs Gutkovskis (1,10), Christian Holst (13)

Germans Malins; Olegs Timofejevs, Ofosu Appiah (capt), Renars Rode, Antons Kurakins; Artis Lazdins (Ivans Lukjanovs 45), Andrejs Prohorenkovs (Viktors Morozs 62); Christian Holst, Igors Semjonovs, James McFadden (Jeremias 45); Vladislavs Gutkovskis.

Attendance :- 871. Man of the Match :- Christian Holst (Skonto Riga).

Two goals and six assists in six competitive matches. While McFadden is taking the plaudits for his goalscoring, Christian Holst is becoming just as much of a fan favourite at the Skonto Stadium, the right wing becoming a favourite outlet to pass the ball for our midfielders, knowing full well the damage Holst is capable of causing if he finds a yard of room against his opposite number.

My assistant manager, Jurijs Sevlakovs, has great news on the Sunday, as he announces that he has now earned his UEFA Pro Licence, the highest qualification available. Later on Sunday, in the midst of a huge hailstorm, our Under-19's play at home to Ventspils age group side, losing 2-1, with an injury time goal from teenage forward Jegors Morozs. Hopefully, this won't be a bad omen for the upcoming triple header of games against our fiercest rivals.

[neilhoskins77]

It'll never be Celtic v Rangers, or AC v Inter. Hell, it might not even be Fleetwood v Blackpool, but the fact remains that in this small corner of the world, Ventspils v Skonto will always be the big game, and you should try telling the fans that it's not a big game. I had been pre warned that the press conference would be a day earlier, allowing the press to get their copy and build up a game that needed no building up at all. Skonto Riga legend, and owner of a whopping 167 Latvian International caps, Vitalijs Astafjevs, gave me some words of wisdom leading up to the match as well. He insisted we need to keep the shackles on 22 year old Ventspils striker, Kaspars Svarups. It was a genius bit of knowledge to give us on the man who is in direct competition with Vladislavs Gutkovskis for a place in the National Squad, the 6'3 forward scoring in his only cap to date, and has four in six games for a Ventspils side that is underperforming. Suffice to say, I wouldn't be inviting Astafjevs to join us as a Scout anytime soon.

The bookies have Ventspils as 6/4 favourites, but there is very little between the clubs in the betting markets, as we are priced at 13/8. Paul Ashworth was in the hotseat to answer the questions first. He was asked if he had made any special preparations for Skonto's free scoring forwards. He hadn't. 'We'll go about our business in our usual way, and if we do it to the best of our abilities, we're certainly very capable of beating this Skonto side' came his reply. Later in the day, it was my turn, and I took to turning the heat on Ashworth first of all, insisting that he was kidding himself if he thought that the same old routine was what this match required, and that he was clearly feeling the pressure of the fixture and his sides poor start. Then I ratcheted up the noise a bit more, by singling out 19 year old centre back Antonijs Cernomordijs as the weak link of the Ventspils side, and telling the press that I had no doubt we would exploit his area of the park. Ashworth lost his cool, and told the press on Friday that heaping pressure on a 19 year old was out of order, and that his already low opinion of me was sinking by the day. I had the final say, stating calmly that Ashworth was putting his teenage centre back in a position to be put under by pressure by continually selecting him, even though he obviously has no faith in Cernomordijs' ability to handle the situation.

Saturday 16th April 2016 - Latvian Higher League

Olimpiskais Centrs, Ventspils

FK Ventspils v FC Skonto Riga

(4-2-3-1) :- Germans Malins; Olegs Timofejevs, Ofosu Appiah (capt), Renars Rode, Antons Kurakins; Artis Lazdins, Viktors Morozs; Christian Holst, Igors Semjonovs, James McFadden; Vladislavs Gutkovskis.

Substitutes :- Levan Makharadze, Andrejs Pavlovs, Ivan Mena, Andrejs Prohorenkovs, Jeremias, Ivans Lukjanovs, Maksims Danilovs.

There was just one change for us for today's match, as Viktors Morozs is restored to the lineup, replacing Andrejs Prohorenkovs, who takes his place on the bench. I might be a rookie manager, but it was my understanding that the boss of the home side went to the dugout to greet the visiting manager after the teams came out. In the full glare of the TV camera's beaming the pictures across the nation, Ashworth strode straight by me without extending his hand. I could barely stop a smile crossing my face, my opposite number was rattled, and the game hadn't even started.

He wasn't the only one who was rattled, his team didn't look particularly comfortable either. They wasted possession on a regular basis, and looked shaky when we did get the ball into the box. A combination of the two occurred midway through the first half. A sloppy pass gave an opportunity for Christian Holst to nip in and take a run at his marker. He beat him on the outside and got to the byline, before slinging a cross towards the edge of the six yard box. Antonijs Cernomordijs was in a good position, and got his head to the ball to stop it reaching James McFadden, but his attempted clearance wasn't a very good one. His header didn't even reach the edge of the box, and when it did, Zimbabwean midfielder Bradley Pritchard was no help in bailing out the young centre back. He was muscled out by Igors Semjonovs, so Olegs Laizans tried to help out, and succeeded only in bundling our attacking midfielder to the floor, Andris Treimanis pointing to the spot. The Ventspils players argued that Semjonovs had dived, but that achieved only delaying the taking of the spot kick. One man not affected by everything going on around him was McFadden, and in front of a stand of baying home fans, he waited on Maksims Uvarenko making his move, and then rolled the ball into the opposite corner. Ritus Krjauklis earned himself a booking for continuing the protests as our players celebrated the opening goal.

Half Time :- FK Ventspils 0 FC Skonto Riga 1

'You're frustrating them, and I want you to keep doing that. Pass the ball around, make them chase, they're not used to playing without the ball'. Just over two minutes after the restart, and we had frustrated them even more. An early second half corner for the home side was easily headed away, and a long ball down the left channel was held up by Vladislavs Gutkovskis. That gave us the platform to set up camp in their half, and continue passing the ball around. Left back Antons Jemelins lost his patience, and shape, and chased out too far to close down Olegs Timofejevs. The right back sent the ball past him, and picked out Christian Holst, who got to the byline again. This time his cross was low, and through the six yard box, too far away from Uvarenko to entice him from doing anything with it, but in tight enough to ensure that when McFadden arrived at the far post, he had a tap in, albeit from a pretty narrow angle. That didn't bother the Scot, and in front of the handful of away fans who had travelled, we had our second goal.

It took until the 69th minute for Ventspils to create anything of any real quality in attack, and they should have scored. Ritvars Rugins went past Antons Kurakins far too easily, and played the ball infield to Kaspars Svarups. The striker played a first time pass between our defenders and picked out substitute Aleksandar Millic, who had timed his run perfectly. He attempted to place his shot low and hard inside the near post, but Germans Malins threw out a hand and turned it around the post. From the resulting corner, Jurijs Zigajevs sent a high cross to the far post, Svarups winning it in the air, but his effort went high into the stand housing the most vocal of the home support. That brief spell of Ventspils dominance prompted a triple change, including Jeremias coming on to play on the right, and Holst moving into the centre of the park, and the sting went out of the game, as Ventspils' players succumbed to the inevitable, and we held on for a famous win against the enemy. I once again was left hanging from Ashworth, who shot off straight down the tunnel, his backroom staff far more dignified in defeat than their boss.

FK Ventspils (0) 0 FC Skonto Riga (1) 2

Scorers : James McFadden (24 pen, 48)

Germans Malins; Olegs Timofejevs, Ofosu Appiah (capt), Renars Rode, Antons Kurakins; Artis Lazdins (Jeremias 72), Viktors Morozs; Christian Holst, Igors Semjonovs, James McFadden (Ivans Lukjanovs 72); Vladislavs Gutkovskis (Maksims Danilovs 72).

Attendance :- 1,096. Man of the Match :- James McFadden (Skonto Riga).

Even a 3-1 defeat for our age group side away to Rezekne/BJSS couldn't dampen the spirits of the club on this weekend, as we moved eleven points clear of our fierce rivals with just five matches played of the new season. The press conferences were lively, with me first up this time. Of course the first question was about Ashworth refusing to shake hands twice. 'I'm over it already, I won't lose any sleep regarding that. I suspected I had got into his head before we reached match day, and to be honest, I would have thought a manager who has been around as long as he has wouldn't have let it get to him. Clearly, it did get to him, and that didn't help his players at all, who were sluggish apart from a brief spell in the second half. Maybe he should spend more time on the training ground, and less time mouthing off to the press?' The next question was about McFadden, and what I saw as an attempt to cause mischief by the press. 'It's been said that James McFadden is angry about being substituted when he was on a hatrick, is this true?' I couldn't help but laugh. 'Not even a hint of truth in that story, sorry to disappoint. James was told that he was taken off as the game was in the bag, and we have a busy schedule coming up, during which he will play a big role. He is absolutely fine with that, and he'll be doing media right after this if you care to ask him the question yourself.'

I didn't see Ashworth's press conference until we got back to Riga, though it was certainly worth the wait, as the press gave the beleagured Ventspils manager a rough ride. When asked about the non-handshake, he replied that he simply hadn't seen me. 'Really? Twice?' enquired one of the press moguls as Ashworth's face burned red. The media moved onto the penalty decision, and he hadn't seen that either. I give you Paul Ashworth ladies and gentleman, appearing at an opticians near you soon. One thing he would most certainly see, was us, as we were headed right back to Venstpils next Saturday for the First Leg of the Latvian Cup Semi-Final tie.

[EvilDave]

Great win over the rivals Neil, and enjoying the James McFadden show over in Riga. Your writing is so detailed but reads really smoothly, which is no mean feat. Keep it up!

[neilhoskins77]

Good to have you along Evil Dave. Thanks for the kind words, I hope you continue to enjoy the story.

Before travelling to Ventspils again, we would have another midweek League match to negotiate. While much of the continent was gearing up for UEFA's 2016 edition of the European Championships, domestic football was coming thick and fast in Latvia, though there would be a break in the proceedings once the action got underway in France. Our six wins in a row between 12th March and 16th April is a new club record. We'd be facing the current League Champions next, as FK Liepaja would visit Skonto Stadium for a match we were made favourites for. The press were keen to focus on our unbeaten start to the season, but I kept my toes very much on grounded line, and told them that the players were very aware of the work required to keep the start going and not lose concentration. That would certainly be true when we faced Latvia's record goal scorer in International Football, 36 year old Maris Verpakovskis, who has 29 goals in 104 caps, has played all over Europe, and netted 15 times last season to steer Liepaja to their maiden domestic League Title. How is he still getting a regular game at the veteran stage of his career? Well, he is the Chairman of the club afterall.

Wednesday 20th April 2016 - Latvian Higher League

Skonto Stadium, Riga

FC Skonto Riga v FK Liepaja

(4-2-3-1) :- Germans Malins; Olegs Timofejevs, Ofosu Appiah (capt), Renars Rode, Antons Kurakins; Artis Lazdins, Viktors Morozs; Christian Holst, Igors Semjonovs, James McFadden; Vladislavs Gutkovskis.

Substitutes :- Levan Makharadze, Andrejs Pavlovs, Ivan Mena, Andrejs Prohorenkovs, Jeremias, Ivans Lukjanovs, Maksims Danilovs.

It says a lot for the condition we've got the players in that even during a heavy spell in the fixture list, we can name an unchanged side. And that unchanged team started at a blistering pace, opening the scoring inside two minutes. There didn't seem to be much of a threat to the Liepaja defence when Artis Lazdins found the feet of Vladislavs Gutkovskis. There were three defenders around our big striker, and that soon became four, yet he still managed to thread a pass into the danger area, where Igors Semjonovs was unmarked and side footed the ball into the top corner, his first goal of the season. Ten minutes later, and the same trio struck again. A punt upfield from near his own corner flag by Cristian Torres was easily intercepted on halfway by Olegs Timofejevs, and he headed the ball to Lazdins. The midfielder played the same short pass into the feet of Gutkovskis, who this time played his pass through a defenders legs and into Semjonovs run. He ran off a defenders shoulder, and coolly slotted the ball low and beyond Igors Labuts' reach to make it 2-0.

The roles were reversed midway through the half, when Gutkovskis collected a long clearance down the park from Germans Malins, and then played yet another short pass in for Semjonovs. This time, he gave it right back to the striker, who took the ball on just a yard too far, allowing Leonel Strumia to slide in and make a block. James McFadden floated in the corner, which was met by a header from Renars Rode, which Torres had to head off the line at the far post. More goals looked inevitable, and the third duly arrived in the 41st minute. Lazdins finally got an assist to his name, as he picked out Christian Holst on the right corner of the opposition penalty area. The Faroese forward took one touch to bring the ball under control, and then arrowed a left footed strike into the far top corner, his third in the League this season, and Labuts had no chance of keeping it out.

Half Time :- FC Skonto Riga 3 FK Liepaja 0

Artis Lazdins came off at the break, replaced by Jeremias, which meant a repeat of the tactical switch from the last match, with Christian Holst moving into the centre of the park, and the Brazilian youngster playing out on the right. In a slight break with protocol, I told the players they were doing a great job at the break. I got a very quick reminder as to why that isn't always a good idea, and just minutes into the second half, Sergiy Silyuk delivered a corner into our six yard box, Vladimirs Kamess couldn't quite get enough of a touch on it at the near post, but the ball continued through to the far post, where it was swept into the net by visiting skipper, Vistaps Grebis.

After that minor hiccup, normal service was resumed somewhat, and our players set about restoring their three goal advantage. We managed to craft a really good chance to do that in the 63rd minute. After James McFadden's free kick into the box was partially cleared only, the ball was worked back into the box by Semjonovs and Jeremias. The latter picked out Ofosu Appiah, still up top from the set piece. With his back to goal, he held off two defenders, before rolling the ball into the path of Semjonovs, who struck a sweetly hit low right footed effort, but Igors Labuts turned it around the post. Ten minutes later, McFadden joined Viktors Morozs in leaving the park, with Ivans Lukjanovs coming on to play on the left, and Andrejs Prohorenkovs joining Holst in the middle of the park. With nine minutes left on the clock, Liepaja's dangerman and the National Team's record scorer reacquainted himself with the Skonto fans he played in front of years ago. After some neat passing, and probably the visitors best spell of possession of the match, the ball found it's way to Maris Verpakovskis about 25 yards from goal. He played a quick one-two with Grebis that got him beyond Renars Rode, and then blasted a shot post the dive of Malins and into the roof of the net. Suddenly, it was 3-2, and we weren't looking as comfortable as we had been, having shipped twice as many goals as we had to this point of the season.

We prepared ourselves for Liepaja to throw the kitchen sink at us, but maybe they had forgotten they were still a goal down, as the anticipated onslaught failed to materialise. Deep into injury time, Olegs Timofejevs took a throw in from an attacking position. Jeremias threw himself at it to try and flick it on, but appeared to be nudged out of the way. Vladislavs Gutkovskis managed to make the ball stick, but had his back to goal and was being forced towards the corner flag. The striker belied his size, and produced a trick and turn that bought him enough room to send a low cross back towards the six yard box, that took a deflection off a defender sending it out of Holst's reach, and towards the penalty spot. Semjonovs had to adjust quickly to put the snap shot on target, and it headed low, and just inside the far post. Labuts should have stopped it, despite being caught heading across his goal. He got back across to the ball, but merely shovelled it just inside the post, and Semjonovs had notched a treble, while we had our sixth successive League victory.

FC Skonto Riga (3) 4 FK Liepaja (0) 2

Scorers : Igors Semjonovs (2,12,90+3), Christian Holst (41)

Germans Malins; Olegs Timofejevs, Ofosu Appiah (capt), Renars Rode, Antons Kurakins; Artis Lazdins (Jeremia 45), Viktors Morozs (Andrejs Prohorenkovs 73); Christian Holst, Igors Semjonovs, James McFadden (Ivans Lukjanovs 73); Vladislavs Gutkovskis.

Attendance :- 882. Man of the Match :- Igors Semjonovs (Skonto Riga).

The media had plenty to write about after this round of League games. They were keen to heap praise on Vladislavs Gutkovskis, who they believe is maturing as a player, citing his three assists as proof of this. There were plaudits of course for Igors Semjonovs too, who took his opening two goals beautifully, and deserved the slice of luck he got to claim his hatrick. They weren't the only players to notch treble's on Wednesday evening though. Kaspars Svarups got a hatrick of close range finishes as Ventspils finally pulled themselves together and thrashed bottom of the table Metta/LU away from home, 5-1. Have our sleeping giant rivals woken up just in time for our Latvian Cup Semi-Final double header?

[u][i]Latvian Higher League. Up to & Including Wednesday 20th April 2016.[/i][/u]

[b]| Pos | Inf | Team         | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | GD    | Pts   |[/b]

[b][color="#FF0000"]| 1st |     | Skonto       | 6     | 6     | 0     | 0     | 15    | 3     | 12    | 18    |[/color] [/b]
[b]--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/b]
| 2nd |     | Liepaja      | 6     | 3     | 2     | 1     | 10    | 8     | 2     | 11    | 
| 3rd |     | Gulbene      | 6     | 3     | 2     | 1     | 6     | 4     | 2     | 11    |  
| 4th |     | Jelgava      | 6     | 3     | 1     | 2     | 7     | 5     | 2     | 10    |  
| 5th |     | Ventspils    | 6     | 2     | 1     | 3     | 8     | 8     | 0     | 7     |  
| 6th |     | Spartaks     | 6     | 1     | 3     | 2     | 4     | 6     | -2    | 6     | 
[b]-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [/b]
| 7th |     | Rezekne/BJSS | 6     | 1     | 0     | 5     | 5     | 11    | -6    | 3     | 
[b]-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [/b]
| 8th |     | Metta/LU     | 6     | 0     | 1     | 5     | 4     | 14    | -10   | 1     |

[neilhoskins77]

It was the time of the year where some nations were taking stock of their Qualifying campaigns, and looking at where they wanted to go from there. Obviously, this was primarily the nations who hadn't achieved what they had hoped to, which in Europe was Poland and the Czech Republic. Being aware that I didn't stand a realistic chance of getting either job didn't stop me from applying. The Latvian sports pages ran a headline story suggesting I was a front runner for the Poland job, which was quickly rubbished by the Polish FA. There were also openings across the pond, as both Honduras and Costa Rica were searching for new managers. Neither of those were interested in my services either. There was more interest from the age group sides, where plenty were preparing for the Olympic Tournament in late summer in Rio. Those looking for someone to guide them through that particular adventure were Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa and Iraq. Only the South Africans discounted my application, with Iraq being the most keen, but stressing they intended taking their time before making an appointment.

Perhaps it's best to concentrate on things that would actually happen, starting with our second trip to Ventspils in a week, as the Cup Semi-Final First Leg approaches. Of course, the build up in the press is mostly centred around the ongoing drama between myself and Mr Ashworth. I attempt the high road, saying that it won't be last week all over again, I'm not going to get dragged into a war of words, and that my focus is entirely on making sure my team are ready for Saturday afternoon. Of course, he took that as an open invite, retorting that he wasn't surprised that I didn't want to get involved in another slanging match, as I knew full well that Skonto were lucky to come away with a win last week, and we were unlikely to be able to repeat the trick for a second Saturday in a row. I should have left it at that, and said no more. No, I couldn't help myself. 'We'll see if the smug b*****d is still smiling on Saturday night'. Turns out the Latvian press are very good at translating English swear words, and not at all worried about putting them in large print in Saturday morning's sports previews. Ooops.

Saturday 23rd April 2016 - Latvian Cup Semi-Final, First Leg

Olimpiskais Centrs, Ventspils

FK Ventspils v FC Skonto Riga

(4-2-3-1) :- Germans Malins; Olegs Timofejevs, Ofosu Appiah (capt), Ivan Mena, Antons Kurakins; Artis Lazdins, Viktors Morozs; Christian Holst, Igors Semjonovs, James McFadden; Vladislavs Gutkovskis.

Substitutes :- Levan Makharadze, Andrejs Pavlovs, Renars Rode, Andrejs Prohorenkovs, Jeremias, Ivans Lukjanovs, Maksims Danilovs.

I should have been squad rotating, but I knew that Ashworth wouldn't in front of the biggest crowd of the season in Latvia, and I couldn't bring myself to do so either. So, just the one change, with Ivan Mena stepping into the back four in place of Renars Rode, who would sit on the bench despite needing a rest. We were so nearly undone early on, as Ventspils picked us apart in the 12th minute. Aleksandar Milic couldn't find a way beyond Artis Lazdins himself, but backheeled a clever pass to the touchline, where Jurjis Zigajevs was waiting for the ball. Ventspils playmaker took a run at Ofosu Appiah, forcing the defender to commit to a tackle, and then slid the ball beyond him, into the path of Daniils Turkovs, who had run off the shoulder of Ivan Mena, and slotted the ball low beyond Germans Malins, his celebration curtailed only by the assistant's offside flag. It was a tight call, and was all that either team managed to create of note in the opening half.

Half Time :- FK Ventspils 0 FC Skonto Riga 0

Ashworth made two changes at the break, bringing on fresh legs in midfield and up front. I made none. The signs were there that we could get at our hosts though, Artis Lazdins dropping a ball over the heads of the Ventspils back line, and Vladislavs Gutkovskis ran onto it, but his shot was a bit wild, and didn't trouble the target. In the 57th minute, Zigajevs curled a great forward pass into the left channel of our box for Milic. Both Appiah and Olegs Timofejevs went to him, and Milic sent it across the box, finding Ritvars Rugins. Our left back, Antons Kurakins, went straight to him to close him down, leaving substitute striker, Kaspars Svarups unmarked. Rugins found him, Malins produced a superb save from the strikers shot on the turn. I'd seen enough to make a change of my own, James McFadden, who had been largely anonymous, was replaced on the left by Ivan Lukjanovs, who was considerably more defensively responsible.

That didn't stop Ventspils making chances, Zigajevs picking a through ball past our defensive line, Svarups going in on goal, but shooting wide. We couldn't keep holding out, and in the 61st minute, our hosts found their way through, largely down to former Crystal Palace player, and Barbados International midfielder, Tom Soares. He won a fifty fifty challenge with Appiah, and then twisted away from Viktors Morozs, before passing to Zigajevs. He curled a left footed cross towards the far post, Mena hadn't tracked Svarups run, and the striker guided his volley past Malins and into the top corner. We would then start to create chances of our own. Igors Semjonovs was too keen to try and slide a pass through for Gutkovskis, when a shot was a much better option. The same player did select the right option a few minutes later, as he put a ball over the top for Lukjanovs to run onto, and he outpaced the defence as well, but shot straight at Maksims Uvarenko.

I made a change to the formation in the 69th minute, losing one of the midfield duo in Lazdins, to allow a second striker, as Maksims Danilovs would join Gutkovskis up front. Out wide, Christian Holst was also taken off, and Jeremias came on in his place. That would turn out not to be the best move. As we went more direct, trying to bypass the midfield and move the ball straight up the park to the strikers or wide players, Ventspils enjoyed a spike in ball possession. In the 86th minute, Rugins released Svarups into the right channel, and he pinged the across the face of the goal. There was no one able to reach it in time to prod it home, but the ball was retrieved by Vladislavs Fjodorovs. He teased Timofejevs, before playing a short pass to Zigajevs, and their star man did the rest, curling a low shot beyond Malins reach, and into the net via the inside of the far post. It was a hammer blow to our chances of reaching the Final. We had a golden chance to half our second leg work in injury time, Gutkovskis poking the ball into the box and finding Lukjanovs, but for the second time, he opted for power and Uvarenko kept out the shot drilled right at him.

FK Ventspils (0) 2 FC Skonto Riga (0) 0

Scorers : None

Germans Malins; Olegs Timofejevs, Ofosu Appiah (capt), Ivan Mena, Antons Kurakins; Artis Lazdins (Maksims Danilovs 69), Viktors Morozs; Christian Holst (Jeremias 69), Igors Semjonovs, James McFadden (Ivans Lukjanovs 59); Vladislavs Gutkovskis.

Attendance :- 2,986. Man of the Match :- Jurjis Zigajevs (Ventspils).

It goes without saying that result was a huge disappointment. The blame was very much placed at my door, and I didn't have a reason to move it to anyone else's either. I should have rotated the squad, allowing fresh players to have a go at the equally tired legs of the Ventspils players. The press knew it, and were keen to push home their point that I'd endangered Skonto's place in the Final for my own personal battle with Ashworth. While that may not be 100% accurate, it wasn't a much lower percentage than that. And now I had the problem of what to do in the Second Leg, which was just four days away, and required us to win either 2-0 to force extra time, or by three clear goals to get through. I'd caused myself a massive problem now, and had very limited options to get myself out of this hole.

[neilhoskins77]

'Do you believe that your feud with Paul Ashworth prevented you from making the best decisions for your team?' I sighed heavily before replying to the question in the post match press conference. 'No, I don't think that's the case at all.' Clearly, I was lying through my teeth. 'I picked a side that I believed could get us a result. Had we been playing a weaker club, I may have made a different decision, but Paul Ashworth doesn't pick the Skonto Riga side, I do!' That was the end of that particular press conference, as I got up and left, boarded the bus, and we headed back to Riga, tail between our legs, for now at least.

There was no time for myself or the team to dwell on the defeat, as Ventspils would be at Skonto Stadium in a matter of days for the Second Leg, and we needed to be ready for them. By the time the weekend was over, the build up was starting all over again. While we didn't wish to dwell on Saturday afternoon's events, the press were busting a gut to bring it all right back up again, and I began to wish I'd stayed at the press conference and got it all over with on Saturday. The questions included my thoughts on exacting a swift revenge on our rivals, my ongoing grudge against Ashworth, and the notion that I may have lost the war of mind games with Ventspils manager. When we did eventually get around to talking about the match, the press wanted to know if I'd make any tactical changes, and what they would be. I answered the questions quickly, and with as little details as possible, especially when it came to discussing tactical changes. As if I didn't have enough on my plate, veteran full back Deniss Kacanovs came to my office to demand First Team football. It's entirely possible that the 36 year old thought his timing was perfect, as he was expecting the Second Leg match to see some squad rotation. He and I would have to agree to disagree there.

Wednesday 27th April 2016 - Latvian Cup, Semi-Final Second Leg

Skonto Stadium, Riga

FC Skonto Riga (0) v FK Ventspils (2)

(4-2-3-1) :- Germans Malins; Olegs Timofejevs, Ofosu Appiah (capt), Renars Rode, Antons Kurakins; Artis Lazdins, Viktors Morozs; Christian Holst, Igors Semjonovs, James McFadden; Vladislavs Gutkovskis.

Substitutes :- Levan Makharadze, Andrejs Pavlovs, Ivan Mena, Andrejs Prohorenkovs, Ivans Lukjanovs, Jeremias, Maksims Danilovs.

So, no surprises in the team selected to play, as there is just one change, with Renars Rode back in the lineup in place of Ivan Mena. A pretty major change in tactic though, as the two wide forward players are both brought infield to play as inside forwards either side of the shadow striker. The team are asked to play more narrow, with the width to be provided by the full backs, who are encouraged to get forward at every opportunity. The game would get off to a promising start from us, as right from the kick off, we looked keen to get forward, and James McFadden and Christian Holst would get a lot of the ball. Antons Kurakins and Olegs Timofejevs would both support well.

It was a spiky opening spell too, clearly there was still some needle left over from the First Leg, and Tom Soares got his name in the book inside three minutes. Viktors Morozs and Artis Lazdins were pulling the strings in the middle of the park, and the amount of forwards in the middle of the park caused issues for the Ventspils defence, who were struggling to work out who was supposed to be marking who. Vladislavs Gutkovskis took advantage of the confusion to find a yard or two of space on the edge of the box, and receive a pass to feet from Lazdins on the half turn. He thumped a right footed effort past Maksims Uvarenko, only to see it rattle the cross bar.

The cross bar wasn't the only thing that was rattling, as the challenges continued to force the ref to take action. Kurakins was the first Skonto player in the book in the 17th minute, and Antons Jemelins of the visitors followed him ten minutes later. Ten minutes after that, the momentum swung in our favour. Gutkovskis held the ball up inside the Ventspils half, and tried to turn away from Soares, who gave him a kick around the ankle. Our striker certainly made the most of it, but the ref was already on the way over with his hand in his pocket, producing a second yellow, and then a red for Soares, and the Barbadian midfielder was on his way to the changing rooms. Our best chance of the half quickly followed, as Lazdins sent a long raking ball over the Ventspils defence, picking out Gutkovskis. His lack of speed allowed the defence to get back towards him, and a little jink to get back on his right foot was enough time for a defender to make a block when he did eventually get his shot off.

Half Time :- FC Skonto Riga 0 FK Ventspils 0

A club record attendance crowd roared the team back on to the pitch, which was particularly well timed, as I'd just spent ten minutes drumming into the players that we had 45 minutes to give our supporters a big thanks for their loyalty in showing up in such big numbers on a midweek evening and with a two goal handicap. But it was the yellow cards that came more freely than the chances at goal, as Ventspils defended in numbers. They were running the risk of seeing another player sent off though, as both Bradley Pritchard and Olegs Laizans had their names taken. On the hour, Kurakins sent a corner into the near post, and Gutkovskis sent a downward header towards goal. It wasn't the best connection ever, but it was creeping inside the post, until a defender kicked it off the goal line.

Another ten minutes went by without us creating anything clear cut, while dominating possession of the ball, and Morozs adding his name to the list of players in the ref's notebook. I made changes, Igors Semjonovs was replaced by Jeremias, and Kurakins was sacrificed from the back four to bring on another striker, as Maksims Danilovs joined Gutkovskis up top. The ball was permanently pinned in their half, but we just couldn't break down the door. McFadden made way for Ivans Lukjanovs, and we finally found a way through in the 89th minute, surprisingly it came on a counter attack from a rare Ventspils foray forward. Ofosu Appiah headed away a cross, and Renars Rode thumped the ball upfield. He found Jeremias with it, and he sent a ball down the left flank, where Gutkovskis chased it down. He cut into the box himself, and drove a low shot that Uvarenko saved with his feet. Lukjanovs arrived, and slotted home the loose ball from close range. I threw everyone up the park apart from the three defenders, who were left back to send the ball forward, and, well, defend. With just two minutes extra put on the board though, we ran out of time, and needed that goal to come a good ten or twenty minutes earlier.

FC Skonto Riga (0) 1 FK Ventspils (0) 0 - FK Ventspils win 2-1 on aggregate.

Scorers : Ivans Lukjanovs (89)

Germans Malins; Olegs Timofejevs, Ofosu Appiah (capt), Renars Rode, Antons Kurakins (Maksims Danilovs 69); Artis Lazdins, Viktors Morozs; Christian Holst, Igors Semjonovs (Jeremias 69), James McFadden (Ivans Lukjanovs 79); Vladislavs Gutkovskis.

Attendance :- 3,808. Man of the Match :- Artis Lazdins (Skonto Riga).

If that had been a League match, I'd have been over the moon with it, but the damage was done in the First Leg, and now we were out of the Cup at the Semi-Final stage. Another press conference was spent answering questions that I didn't want to answer. I told the press that there wasn't necessarily any questions to be asked about my players and their futures, after all, we had won the game, if not the tie. I confirmed that I was disappointed we were out of the Cup, of course, and that Vladislavs Gutkovskis bad day in front of goal shouldn't be held against him, after all, he is a young striker who has played well to this point. On a more positive note, Artis Lazdins showed he has the capabilities to play as a lynchpin of the midfield, rather than a ball winning or defensive role. Ventspils would go on to face Jelgava in the Final, and we would have to settle for trying to make the most of the early season cushion we had made for ourselves in the League match. My backroom team informed me that we'd have to do so in the next match without Antons Kurakins, who had picked up his fourth booking of the campaign, and would now be suspended for one match.

[EvilDave]

Ouch, tough break there - sounds like you had the beating of them but couldn't get the goal. I'm sure the league will make up for it though - keep up the good work!

[neilhoskins77]

Ouch, tough break there - sounds like you had the beating of them but couldn't get the goal. I'm sure the league will make up for it though - keep up the good work!

Bit disappointing Dave, but we gave ourselves a lot to do after the First Leg. I was hoping we'd win the Cup, but we're in a good position in the League so far, and we have the UEFA Europa League in a few months too.

[neilhoskins77]

The match that Antons Kurakins would miss due to his suspension was probably a good one to miss out on, as it would be the visit of rock bottom Metta/LU, who had so far managed just one point from their half dozen League games to date. Despite the poor record of last seasons sixth placed club, an increase in ticket sales were projected for the weekend match, which we were massive 1/6 favourites for. After our opponents were thrashed last week at home to Ventspils, the media believed that this was an ideal time to play them. I told them that underestimating them would be foolish, and the players would be fully prepared for Saturday afternoon, with the aim of earning three more points for our healthy looking League total. It was speculated that I would field a 'weakened side' for this match. I replied that I didn't consider any of my players 'weak', or I wouldn't have them at the club.

The days leading up to the match were dominated by the ongoing saga of Deniss Kacanovs. The right back was now complaining to the press about my man management skills, in a blatant attempt to either get match time or a transfer. It backfired fairly spectacularly as his team mates turned on him, and told him that his petulant behaviour would not be allowed to spoil the harmony in the dressing room. On the eve of the match, I was asked what I planned to do about the player. I told them that if I were him, I'd be looking around for another club, as his days were numbered here as far as I was concerned. Kacanovs took that as a promise that he would be transferred sooner rather than later. He could spend his Saturdays afternoons on the golf course for all I cared.

Saturday 30th April 2016 - Latvian Higher League

Skonto Stadium, Riga

FC Skonto Riga v FS Metta/Latvijas Universitate Riga

(4-1-3-1-1) :- Germans Malins; Olegs Timofejevs, Ivan Mena, Renars Rode, Ingus Slampe; Andrejs Prohorenkovs; Christian Holst (capt), Igors Semjonovs, Ivans Lukjanovs; Jeremias; Maksims Danilovs.

Substitutes :- Levan Makharadze, Andrejs Pavlovs, Garry Kenneth, Viktors Morozs, Aleksejs Visnakovs, James McFadden, Vladislavs Gutkovskis.

If our opponents from across the city thought they knew what they would be facing in this match, they were in for a surprise. Not only did I make six changes to the starting lineup, I sprung another tactical surprise as well, as we took the opportunity to try out another formation that we'd been working on in training. The back four saw Ivan Mena link up with Renars Rode in the centre, while amateur left back Ingus Slampe would deputise for the suspended Antons Kurakins. At right back, Olegs Timofejevs would continue, mainly due to the issue with Deniss Kacanovs. For the first time since I arrived here, we'd use a defensive midfielder, as we tried to shut down the gap between our midfield and defence, Andrejs Prohorenkovs would play there today. He would have one centre midfielder ahead of him, Igors Semjonovs dropping back from the shadow strikers role. He would be flanked by Ivans Lukjanovs on the left, and Captain for the day, Christian Holst on the right. Further upfield, there would be rare starts for Jeremias in the shadow striker role, and Maksims Danilovs up front. Scottish centre back Garry Kenneth would sit on the bench, as would Aleksejs Visnakovs for the first time this season.

The match was only 90 seconds old when Igors Semjonovs strode through the middle of the park with confidence towards to the visitors penalty box. Too much confidence as it turned out. Edgars Vardanjans stripped him of the ball, and set up some inter play on their right between Gatis Kalnins and Ruslans Agafonovs. The latter swept a curling cross from the touchline into the centre of the box, where Bolivian forward Alexis Carrasco escaped the attention of Ivan Mena, and buried the ball into the net from eight yards out. The University side had hit the front with less than two minutes on the clock, but they would be unable to keep that lead for long. In the 7th minute, Andrejs Prohorenkovs would play a pass from the centre circle to Christian Holst, and he would in turn put the ball back into the centre of the park for Jeremias. The young Brazilian picked out Maksims Danilovs in the box, and the dependable striker used his left foot to curl the ball beyond the reach of Oskars Dargis, and glance off the post on it's way in, and we had levelled the match within five minutes. In a game that was tighter than I would like, we created a chance to take the lead ten minutes before the break. Ingus Slampe and Ivans Lukjanovs worked the ball around down the left, before sending it across the park to Prohorenkovs. The veteran midfielder took a touch to settle the ball, and then hit a curling drive that came back off the cross bar. That led to a series of corners, and Renars Rode heading the ball wide.

Half Time :- FC Skonto Riga 1 FS Metta/Latvijas Universitate Riga 1

I used the break to urge my players forward and not let slip the opportunity to put away a side that were considered weaker than us in every department. As the midway point of the second half arrived, Slampe sent the ball down the left touchline and found Lukjanovs. He cut back inside his defender, and sent the ball across goal. Danilovs was clearly being held by his marker, but the referee didn't need to make a decision, as the ball ran to Jeremias, and he thumped the ball high into the roof of the net, scoring his first goal for the club. Less than ten minutes later, and Jeremias was involved again. This time he took the ball from Holst with his back to goal on the edge of the box, rolled a defender, and then squared it to a totally unmarked Danilovs. The striker can really put some power behind his shots, too much for Dargis, who got a hand to it, but couldn't keep it out.

Fifteen minutes left, and with a two goal advantage, I made all my changes. Holst, Semjonovs and Lukjanovs, the three in the middle of the park, all came off right after that goal, replaced by Aleksejs Visnakovs, Viktors Morozs and James McFadden. That move would backfire somewhat though in the 83rd minute, as Prohorenkovs left the park with a knee injury. That meant Jeremias dropping back, and Danilovs left upfront alone. He started to struggle to hold onto the ball with support slower to arrive around him, and when he lost possession, the ball quickly came down our end of the park. Kalnins picked out Carrasco, who had the freedom of the field. He jinked into the box, and sent a cross shot across the goal face. Vardanjans retrieved it, and put it back into the centre. Kalnins got to the ball first, and hooked it towards goal, failing to get much power on it, but catching Malins going back across his goal line, and squeezing the ball between our keeper and the upright to bring the visitors back within a goal. Now we were in survival mode, and Danilovs dropped a little deeper, giving him a better chance to hold up the ball, even though it would be a little further from goal. That small change helped us stabilise and see out the final few moments.

FC Skonto Riga (1) 3 FS Metta/Latvijas Universitate Riga (1) 2

Scorers : Maksims Danilovs (7,75), Jeremias (67)

Germans Malins; Olegs Timofejevs, Ivan Mena, Renars Rode, Ingus Slampe; Andrejs Prohorenkovs (inj 83); Christian Holst (capt - Aleksejs Visnakovs 75), Igors Semjonovs (Viktors Morozs 75), Ivans Lukjanovs (James McFadden 75); Jeremias; Maksims Danilovs.

Attendance :- 1,127. Man of the Match :- Jeremias (Skonto Riga).

It was a day that had a mixture of relief, and a tinge of disappointment. In front of our best home League crowd of the season, we'd bagged three more points, but had failed to impress particularly in doing so, a point I was quick to make to the players after the match. There was no doubt about it, there would be sterner challenges to come, and we'd have to be better than we had been on this day. 39 year old midfielder Andrejs Prohorenkovs suffered damaged knee ligaments in the challenge in the 83rd minute, and the physio's estimate he will miss around two months of action. A goal and two assists from Jeremias means the teenager has now put forward his claims for a bigger role in the First Team picture going forward. He has waited for his opportunity, and took it when it arrived. Unfortunately however, there were other members of the squad who were about to show much less in the way of patience, and over the coming days, anarchy threatened to break out amongst some fringe members of our First Team playing staff......

[neilhoskins77]

May 2016.

After our latest League game, I had a few days off, and I made a brief trip back to Wales to celebrate a family member's landmark birthday. I got back to Latvia on the Tuesday evening, and was immediately contacted by my assistant manager, Jurjis Sevlakovs. He reported that there was unrest amongst a group of players, and he believed the root cause was Deniss Kacanovs. When I arrived at the training ground on Wednesday, I'd been sat in my office for all of ten minutes when there was a knock on the door. In stepped Arturs Karasausks, and he wasn't happy. When I arrived, I was told the forward was possibly a gem, and he had put the disappointment of not earning a transfer to Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk or Rubin Kazan behind him. That may have been the case, but James McFadden's arrival has had a big impact on both Karasausks playing time, and the lad himself. I told him I could not promise him his opportunities in the First Team would increase anytime soon, and that I understood his need to play, so told him I would try and get him a move.

The outpouring of unhappiness continued, as Ukrainian defender Levan Makharadze came to my office that very same afternoon. Much like Karasausks, he wanted more First Team football. Unlike his team mate, he had been around the match day squad regularly, and I was a bit more keen to keep him at the club. I told him as much too, telling him I'd make more of an effort to try and give him more playing time off the bench to start with. He wasn't happy with that, and told me I hadn't dealt with the problem at all well. I thought that would be the end of the matter. How wrong was I! Just hours later I was asked to attend a meeting, that was actually labeled as a 'team meeting'. That wasn't strictly true though. When I arrived at the meeting room, there were just four other people there. The unhappy trio of Kacanovs, Karasausks and Makharadze were all present, and joined by the skipper, Ofosu Appiah. Our Ghanaian centre back seemed to have little clue as to why he had been asked to attend, where the presence of the other three meant I knew exactly what was going on. I was to quickly find out that Kacanovs and Karasausks had convinced Makharadze that he is good enough to be playing regular First Team football, and that was why he had asked for the meeting. They had also requested Appiah to attend, for what they called a 'team issue'. In the meeting, Karasausks seemed to be the ringleader, and put forward the Ukrainian's case. I kept my firm line, stating that if I played Makharadze, who did they suppose I should drop? They didn't answer, or rather, they didn't get a chance to. The Captain had sat and listened quietly, and broke his silence. He told the three players across the table that he had heard enough, and that he had already spoken to the majority of the players when the issue had come to light with Kacanovs, and was authorised to speak on their behalf. He told them that he believed they had an agenda to try and belittle a rookie manager for their own selfish purposes. The team rejected their attempts to disrupt the harmony of the dressing room, and invited the players to either join him and the remainder of the squad on their quest to bring the Title back to Skonto, or leave. He then did just that himself, walking out of the office. I told the players that I thought that brought the meeting to an end, and that I wanted an apology within a day, or they would all go on the transfer list with an aim to them leaving the club when the Transfer Window opened next month.

I was hoping that would be the end of the matter. Obviously, it wouldn't be that straight forward, as the press got hold of the story and used the press conference to try and get their scoop for the sports pages. I was asked for opinion on Makharadze's behaviour, replying simply that I would not be pandering to the needs of an individual, and that Makharadze was free to seek First Team football elsewhere. He took this as a promise to sell him, and that suited me just fine. And that wouldn't even be an end to saga of unhappy players for one week, as young midfielder Nikita Ivanovs also asked for more game time. I told him to be patient, it's a long season. He stormed out of the office in a mood. He would join the list of players who now found themselves on the transfer list. The only good news this week came in the form of an article in one of the National newspapers, which showed that Skonto are the leading developers of players for the National squad, with 13 of the current squad having their development at this club. That was more than double than any other club in the country. It was nice to read something that didn't mention players wanting to leave!

Saturday 7th May 2016 - Latvian Higher League

Skonto Stadium, Riga

FC Skonto Riga v FK Jelgava

(4-3-2-1) :- Germans Malins; Olegs Timofejevs, Ofosu Appiah (capt), Renars Rode, Antons Kurakins; Artis Lazdins, Viktors Morozs, Igors Semjonovs; Christian Holst, James McFadden; Vladislavs Gutkovskis.

Substitutes :- Ingus Slampe, Andrejs Pavlovs, Garry Kenneth, Nikita Ivanovs, Jeremias, Ivans Lukjanovs, Maksims Danilovs.

Our visitors today are a Jelgava side who would like to think they can keep pace near the top, and then see if they can put themselves in a good position in the run in. More likely, is that they get land locked into the midfield, too far from the front runners, and out of reach of the relegation battle. While time will tell how that works out, we do know that they'll come to us with a fairly basic 4-4-2. For us, that means another tweak to the formation, as we go back to our wide game, while looking to win the midfield battle as well, my answer being a variation of a Christmas Tree, but with the 'two', pushed wide. It's actually very close to our normal tactic, but with the shadow striker making a trio in the centre of the park. Our strongest lineup is back on the park, with Igors Semjonovs joining Artis Lazdins in flanking the playmaker, Viktors Morozs. His midweek shenanigans had cost Levan Makharadze his place on the bench, with Ingus Slampe taking over substitute duties. There was a place for Nikita Ivanovs though. It had very little to do with his request for more football, and everything to do with the absence of Andrejs Prohorenkovs after his injury last weekend.

I'd love to be able to tell you that this match was as drama filled as the week leading up to it, but sadly, on yet another day of rain, that wasn't the case. The highlight of a poor first half was Dariusz Latka and Viktors Morozs going into the book for a bit of pushing and shoving after their midfielder was unimpressed with our playmaker's attempted challenge in the 17th minute. When we did look like creating something as half time approached, Raivis Hscanovics flung out a hand just outside the box to block Christian Holst's attempted cross, and quickly became the third player in the book. The fans must have been pretty bored watching this drab forty five minutes.

Half Time :- FC Skonto Riga 0 FK Jelgava 0

Neither side made any changes at the break, though our visitors needed to make one just five minutes after the restart, as Arevsats Hacatrjans suffered a groin injury, and was replaced by Andrejs Kirilins. The theme of more bookings than chances on goal continued, as Viktors Litvinskis became the third Jelgava player to receive a yellow card. I tried to shake things up with twenty minutes to go, changing up both my wide men, as Holst and James McFadden were replaced by Jeremias and Ivans Lukjanovs. It made no difference at all, and within moments, Antons Kurakins, fresh back from a suspension, got himself halfway to another one, picking up his fifth yellow card of the campaign. I used my final change with ten minutes left, as Morozs was getting dangerously close to picking up a second yellow card, and he was replaced by young midfielder Nikita Ivanovs, who got his first League action just days after his visit to the manager's office to ask for just that. A minute into injury time, and Olegs Timofejevs levelled the score on yellow cards by tugging the shirt of an opponent who had beaten him for pace. As for the scoreboard however, that just stayed at zero.

FC Skonto Riga (0) 0 FK Jelgava (0) 0

Scorers : None

Germans Malins; Olegs Timofejevs, Ofosu Appiah (capt), Renars Rode, Antons Kurakins; Artis Lazdins, Viktors Morozs (Nikita Ivanovs 79), Igors Semjonovs; Christian Holst (Jeremias 71), James McFadden (Ivans Lukjanovs 71); Vladislavs Gutkovskis.

Attendance :- 823. Man of the Match :- [/i]Ofosu Appiah (Skonto Riga).[/i]

While that absolute snore fest was going on in Riga, the two clubs respective Under-19 sides were playing each other in Jelgava. Our age group sides poor run of results continued with a 1-0 defeat, they have won just two of their nine League games this season, and desperately need some more players for Ghita Chitic to use. Elsewhere in the Higher League, the current Champions of Liepaja suffer a surprise 3-1 defeat away to Spartaks, while Ventspils continue to get themselves back on track, though they were not hugely impressive in their 1-0 home win over Rezekne/BJSS. It does push them up to third place though, and just a single point behind Liepaja now.

[neilhoskins77]

Another week, and another pair of unhappy players. This time it's left winger Martin Milasevics, and injury prone attacking midfielder Igors Kozlovs. I didn't even give Milasevics the time of day. He is contracted as a backup player, and I gave him that contract against the judgement of my backroom staff. He's here for cover only. Kozlovs is contracted as a rotation player, but his injuries have meant he has fallen behind Igors Semjonovs, Ivans Lukjanovs and Jeremias in the queue, and it would be no issue at all if he were to leave in the Transfer Window. In an interview with local radio, I tell them that I won't be rattled by attempts at player power, and it's very much a minority who are causing problems right now. I told the sports show presenter that Viktors Lacis, one of the First Team Coaches, is starting the course that will hopefully see him earn UEFA Pro Licence, which would be another feather in the cap of the club, and show our eagerness to improve. He didn't care, and queued up a Bon Jovi track.

Saturday would be a big day in the Higher League, for us as we attempted to get back on the winning track away to a Gulbene side that were performing better than expected in the League this season. And also for the chasing pack, as Liepaja and Ventspils clashed in the game of the day.

Saturday 14th May 2016 - Latvian Higher League

Gulbenes SC, Gulbene

FB Gulbene v FC Skonto Riga

(4-3-2-1) :- Germans Malins; Olegs Timofejevs, Ofosu Appiah (capt), Renars Rode, Antons Kurakins; Artis Lazdins, Viktors Morozs, Igors Semjonovs; Christian Holst, James McFadden; Vladislavs Gutkovskis.

Substitutes :- Ingus Slampe, Andrejs Pavlovs, Ivan Mena, Aleksejs Visnakovs, Jeremias, Ivans Lukjanovs, Maksims Danilovs.

While the result at home to Jelgava last week had not been ideal, the change in the formation worked quite well, and would stay in place. That meant that the starting lineup would also remain as it is, though there was a change on the bench, as Nikita Ivanovs dropped out of the matchday squad and was replaced by winger Aleksejs Visnakovs.

Unlike last weeks match, we got off to a flyer in this one, and had the ball in the net after just 55 seconds. Christian Holst swung in a free kick from the left wing, and Ofosu Appiah timed his run perfectly, escaping his marker easily, and planting his header beyond the reach of Alberts Nikolskis, his first goal of the season. A minute later, and we were breaking from halfway towards goal again, Viktors Morozs produced a great pass to switch play to the right, and Holst skipped away from a tackle, before sweeping a cross towards the far post. Vladislavs Gutkovskis brought the ball down, and then fired with a left footed shot from the angle, and he was unfortunate to see it bounce back off the near upright. A minute later and our smooth passing in the last third of the park played Holst into the right channel. He cut the ball back to Artis Lazdins, who was all on his own on the edge of the box. His powerful low shot was straight into the crowd of bodies, but fell to Gutkovskis, who couldn't quite guide his shot on the turn far enough away from Nikolskis, who clutched it gratefully. Three minutes in, we could have been three up.

We carried on breaking forward at every opportunity, and after quarter of an hour, James McFadden lofted a ball into the left wing for Gutkovskis to chase. He cut into the box, but was selfish, and fired across the face of goal and wide when Holst was unmarked and would have had an easy finish. As half time approached, Morozs produced an outrageous back heeled pass outside the box to find Igors Semjonovs, who showed great strength to hold off a defender, but poor composure to blaze his shot way over the cross bar.

Half Time :- FB Gulbene 0 FC Skonto Riga 1

There was a look of confidence about my players as the second half began, and we were forcing the home players to chase the ball around, which they didn't like one little bit. In the 57th minute, Sergejs Misins showed his frustration with a poor challenge on Holst. The yellow card was issued swiftly, as was our own more appropriate punishment, as McFadden sent an inswinging free kick towards the penalty spot, and Holst caught it on the half volley and sent it low into the bottom corner. Gulbene responded by bringing on a winger, as centre back Sergejs Tjurikovs was taken off, and winger Pavels Javoiss was brought on, so clearly the home side were going to have a go. The new arrival to the game lasted just eight minutes on the park, and he didn't even do anything wrong. Sergejs Misins launched himself into a ridiculous two footed challenge on Semjonovs, and earned himself a straight red card. That saw Javoiss come back off for a centre midfielder, and they took off their striker for an attacking midfielder.

They were clearly in damage limitation mode, and I was happy with what we had, so I took off my wide men and Semjonovs, and brought on Ivans Lukjanovs and Aleksejs Visnakovs to play wide, and Jeremias came on and moved forward into the shadow striker role. If anything, we were a little too casual against the ten men, apart from Antons Kurakins, who managed to get himself booked yet again, which would trigger another suspension for the left back. It was injury time by the time they gave us a bit of a scare, Edgars Jermolajevs sending a cross right under the cross bar that Germans Malins got all wrong, but Renars Rode headed clear. It had been about as comfortable an afternoon away from home as we could have wished for.

FB Gulbene (0) 0 FC Skonto Riga (1) 2

Scorers : Ofosu Appiah (1), Christian Holst (58)

Germans Malins; Olegs Timofejevs, Ofosu Appiah (capt), Renars Rode, Antons Kurakins; Artis Lazdins, Viktors Morozs, Igors Semjonovs (Jeremias 70); Christian Holst (Aleksejs Visnakovs 70), James McFadden (Ivans Lukjanovs 70); Vladislavs Gutkovskis.

Attendance :- 806. Man of the Match :- Christian Holst (Skonto Riga).

That game marks James McFadden's ninth League appearance of the season for us, and he has a clause in his contract that if he plays ten League matches, he automatically gets an extra season, which is totally fine by me, and I'm sure the Board and fans at Skonto will feel the same way. With Christian Holst playing a starring role in Saturday's win, our two major signings from abroad in pre season were both settling in very well indeed. And the day was rounded off nicely for us when the Under-19's took a long overdue victory away against Spartaks.

Elsewhere in the Division, there was another win for Jelgava, as they attempted to keep up their ambitions of mixing it near the top end of the table, they beat Spartaks 2-0. In the big match of the afternoon, which was also selected for live TV coverage alongside ours, Ventspils went to Liepaja, and came back with a 1-0 win. A close range 34th minute header from Kaspars Svarups sent Ventspils up to second place, and their striker to five goals, putting him joint top of the goalscoring charts with Maris Verpakovskis of their defeated opponents. We now hold a nine point lead at the top of the table. The Transfer Window opens in around a month, and we have players we need to move on, and we'll be looking to strengthen, and that process will start in earnest this week.

[neilhoskins77]

This save ran into problems on Friday. I recorded the issue, and sent it in for Neil Brock who has confirmed the issue has been caused by a file from Claessen. It's beyond repair, and can not be saved regrettably. As a result, an International save intended for the Boards has also been shelved.

Over the weekend, I've removed all Claessen's files from my Editor Data, and began the process of replacing them with new ones from the Steam Workshop. One of the pitfalls of using expansion data is not knowing how reliable they'll be until you run them, and as those of you who read my stories will know, I use them heavily, and have lost a fair amount of saves over time. I've always believed the issues were due to me running too many Leagues.

I'd like to thank everyone who commented or read this story, and I'm sorry it can't continue. I was hoping my 1,000th post would be a win over Ventspils. Myself and the staff at Skonto will make no comment on the rumours that Paul Ashworth sabotaged this game. I'll have a new story start on the Boards within the next day or two.

Thanks