(FM20) Building an Empire - Phase Three

[Motlhen]

 

Champions League 1963/64
Distillery 3 - 3 Benfica
Benfica 5 - 0 Distillery
 

Euro Cup Winners Cup 1971/72
Distillery 1 - 3 Barcelona
Barcelona 4 - 0 Distillery
 

Intertoto Cup 2005 & 2008

Europa League 2009/10

 

2019/20 ?

Bluefin Sport Premier Intermediate League
(Northern Irish 3rd Division)

 

It's not been the best decade. Time to try & restore the mighty Whites!

[Motlhen]

 Pre-pre-season'19

£150p/w to spend on wages & I'm on £75p/w.

No pressure!!!

We have one of each integral staff role:
Ass Man £50p/w
(GK) Coach £50p/w
Scout £20p/w
Physio £20p/w

Which comes to a total of £215p/w (43% over wage budget, yikes!)

 

Doesn't look like we'll be able to pay any players any time soon...

 

We're able to offer up to £150 appearance fee within our part-time contracts but personally I've set a limit to £40 app fee for any potential signing (and minimal other add-ons too). I don't imagine we'll receive any substantial gate receipts this season & prize money for a win in the league sits at £45 per match & only £1.5k for being crowned champions. The rate at which we are forecast to deteriorate financially has caused me to take some drastic action:

Former NI International & by far our most experienced player has an agreement of £300 app fee & we simply cannot afford to fork out two weeks of the overall club salary for one player for one appearance so Braniff has been released. At 36 I am not too sad to see him go but it may be a while before we see technical stats on a Distillery player like this again.

 

Our best overall player (imo, not in cruddy assman ratings) also won't agree an app fee below £75 & falls victim to the same sword.

 

We will be taking advantage of loans where we are not required to pay wages. We'll have as many loans in as Chelsea has out. Okay maybe not that many, but LOANS! Let's see who wants to play in the NI 3rd division for no money..

Edited April 2, 2020 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

Pre-season '19/20

More cuts.

 

We're in a ton of cups, but none offer prize money until the quarter final stage at least & I don't see us getting close to that stage.

 

Pre-season friendlies
Us v Them

Shots: 124 - 24
Clear Cut Chances: 8 - 3
Goals: 16 - 4
Conversion Rate: 13% - 17%

 

More drastic action has been taken.

If we use players on part-time contracts, we have to pay them each individually almost the same amount of prize money we'd receive IF we also win the game; inevitably making a loss each game. Upon signing a few loanees to soften the blow to the bank balance I realised that the standard of loanee available surpassed the quality we could attract in to the club part-time. Checking the league rules opened the floodgates when I realised we could play any number of loanees in the match day squad. That meant our final friendly consisted of a full squad of 22 loanees.

Winning on borrowed players?

 

Limavady are the team to beat and with our loanee acquisitions we're all the way up in second in the promotion odds!

Edited April 4, 2020 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

Mid-season '19/20

We've played none of our own players, all the players used so far we've got on free-wage loans. We're basically a feeder team for any player that fancies playing a game for free.

Cups

Dundela are a league above & Glentoran two leagues above us so unsurprising we crashed out of the first two cups, despite leading for 66 mins against Glentoran.

We're still in the Intermediate Cup as we squeezed past Warrenpoint's reserves then our goalkeeper scored his penalty & saved their 10th to win 9-8 on pens after an intense game against Newington.
 

 

We have performed like a different team altogether in the Steel & Sons Cup and have wound up facing non-league Brantwood in the final on Xmas day!
It's all or nothing for the £10k prize money!!!

 

League

A mix bag of results, but we're improving. Ignoring a horrible Newington result, it's a platform to build on.
In the 3rd game, a player who left us in the summer transfer window (probably upset at our erratic signing of loanees) drummed in a hattrick as Limavady show their class.

 

We've lost a few impact subs to unhappy managers recalling players due to lack of game time.

To appease the chairman we've gotta try to reach the playoff spot, but maybe a domestic cup to put in his cabinet will keep him happy?

Edited April 4, 2020 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

End of Season '19/20

An excellent group of players that we won't be able to afford to pay without promotion!

 

We made no transfers in in the winter window, but more subs were recalled from their loans with us due to lack of playing time. We had brought in a total of 42 loans at the start of the season and are down to 24. We still would not play any of our own players for the remainder of the season as financially we are making a slight loss even without forking out for appearance, goal & clean sheet fees every match.

 

Cups

Not sure why the 'p' is on their side. Shoddy journalism! ^

It took a nail biting penalty shootout after a stalemate game (with us missing a pen in normal time) then their goalkeeper missed the 20th pen of the shootout for us to win 7-6 on pens.
Our first silverware way earlier than I was hoping!!! & the all important £10k prize money to help the bank balance.

 

We caused a HUGE upset by dumping 2nd in the premier league Linfield out of the main domestic cup in NI. Our loanees did us proud! We went 2-0 up before a late consolation made stoppage time nervy. We held on to face another premier league team in Warrenpoint in the next round. Albeit in the relegation zone, we should have struggled but an incredible performance saw us take the lead 4 (FOUR) times before adding a cherry on top for 5-3. These two wins got us into the Quarter Final and a lovely £1.5k for our troubles. Unfortunately our run ended in the QF with us almost scalping our 3rd prem team, but mid-table Larne were too much for us in ET after we pegged them back from 2-0 up in normal time. Gotta be proud with the cup run.

 

Our Youth Intake produced one gem from a rough bunch. So good that I may even consider paying him £20/game to play next season, if we can keep a hold of him.

 

League

We progressed superbly to reduce the gap to Banbridge from 7 points at the midway stage of the season to only ONE on the final day.

Final day fixtures:

An 85th minute Ward strike in a nervy affair won us the league on the final day!!!
Both Banbridge & Portstewart losing their nerve in tricky ties against 4th & 5th respectively.

 

The first time we sat on top of the pile was the final day.
Another £1.5k in the bank from prize money too.

 

21 Loanees will be going back to their clubs with NI 3rd Division medals

 

More Cups
There's just so bloomin' many in NI

A huge victory, to come from 2-0 down to win 4-2 in the final and complete a treble-winning season was glorious. 
£16k prize money too.

 

I can't be happier with this squad... and now they're all leaving as their loans are up. [Insert expletives here]!!!!!!!!!!

Edited April 4, 2020 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

Finances

We raked in £30k of prize money this season.
If we had paid £40 per appearance for 14 players for each game, we would have paid a total just shy of £22k. 
Considering that is without goal or clean sheet bonuses, we have to be happy with the decision to use 100% loans to make a saving that large this season.

 

We made an overall profit of £48k for the season, takiing our bank balance out of the red & into the black at £19k.

The board has been so generous as to over-double our wage budget for next season as we now have £325/week to spend. So we'll probably introduce some of our part-time players to bolster a squad expected to gain a mid-table finish in the NI 2nd division next year.

[Motlhen]

Pre-season '20/21

A successful board meeting off the back of a first successful season

 

Sadly, the senior affiliation was not followed through, our Junior Coaching is now adequate, woo!
I picked the tangerine Tandragee's as our affiliation as we were never gonna offer money for an affiliation & all 3 amateur options had both poor training & youth facilities.

 

From last season, the only players we have are those that played in the reserves. Luckily they showed they do have some quality, although it would have been a bit embarrassing to not win this with what would have been our first team squad without the loan signings.

'19/20 Reserves Table

 

We lost all of these guys at the end of last season 
Throughout pre-season, we'll be monitoring each of the key players availability to come back on loan or possibly even on part-time contracts.

 

The first player on my list was Paul McLaughlin. The GK was super solid between the sticks last season (despite his fm rating) & played every game where he wasn't called up by NI National U19's (although he wasn't played). Luckily for us, he's happy getting £35 for each game, marked up to £40 for a clean sheet. Unless we find a really good gk in the loan market, he'll probably feature heavily this season too.

 

We also re-signed top scorer Darragh Ward & playmaker Phillip Donnelly who stood out last campaign, again on season-long loans.

 

We were robbed of our best player, our gem from the first youth intake, the heartbeat of this seasons attacking promise.
For absolutely free O'Connor has moved to Crusaders.

 

We will be playing our first non-loanee in the first game of the season in GK McLaughlin, but we have signed 14 loanees, you know just in case.
Let's see how the finances go.

 

 

Oh yeah & we played some friendlies..

Edited April 6, 2020 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

Mid-season '20/21

League

We started with a bore draw against permanently amateur Queen's University & I worried that we'd reeeeeally miss our young starlet O'Connor up front (using "miss" in the loosest of forms as he never actually got to play for us prior to departing ). That feeling continued to half time in the second game, but 7 goals between the teams in the 2nd half including at 93rd min winner for our 10-men to go 4-3 up meant our season was up & running.

Against Loughgall, we got another straight red very early on, our second in two games, but goals even earlier in the first & second minute of the game meant even with 10-men we could shut up shop to secure a victory despite a nervy ending after a late-ish consolation.

We had a couple of routine wins after that before playing joint-on-points-with-us-at-the-top-of-the-league Warrenpoint. Safe to say this will be match of the season as we went 1-0 & 2-1 down early on before making it a staggering 6-2 at HT & the goals didn't stop there! A hattrick of hattricks as both strikers & our left winger ran riot in a game where everyone forgot how to defend.

 

Obviously after that epic result, we got a bore 1-1 draw with a side loitering in the relegation zone. We got back to winning ways versus Knockbreda to go unbeaten in 9 which was followed by two straight losses meaning we lose top spot at the halfway stage of the season.

 

Cups

Last season we knocked Warrenpoint's Reserves out of the Intermediate Cup on the way to winning it & Warrenpoint themselves out of the Bet McLean Cup, but they got their revenge this season. 
Crusaders are just a way better team with us & it showed.

Edited April 6, 2020 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

Late Season '20/21

Ooooooo..

 

 

With our progress so far, I've convinced the board to increase our wages to £398/week in return for upping the expectations for the season to finishing in the top half (rather than battling relegation).

Cups

We have been unceremoniously dumped out of all cup comps at our round of entry.
An early red card is our excuse for going out to Bangor who are in the division below us.

 

League

After 22 games the league splits in two for a further 10 games, so we still have them to go. The second half of the season we've played terribly, although we'ev successfully avoided relegation by finishing in the top half and are not all that far away from the playoffs. All to play for even after a host of poor results recently.

 

As well as GK McLoughlin, we are also actually paying one other to play quite regularly (aside from everyone else in the squad who are on loan). He's not played fantastically, but he's doing somewhat better than the others.

 

We've made a few more loan signings at full/wing back & these guys will be going straight into the first team.

Edited April 7, 2020 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

End of Season '20/21

Youth intake day unearthed a few possible squad players.
We'll see how they develop.

 

League

Our terrible run of form only got worse playing against the top teams in the league.
We salvaged a 5th place finish on the last day.

 

Again we say goodbye to a bunch of loanees that practically made up our whole team.

 

Project rebuild again in the summer.

[Motlhen]

Pre- & Mid-season '21/22

Friendlies

Things need to change off the back of dreadful form last season so I'm testing out a new formation.
Coventry was our only real test meaning I'm still a bit unsure where we're at with the tactic.
I've kept the tactic that got us our promotion in the 1st season & was used majority of last season too as a backup.

 

"Last seasons" tactics

 

What we're trying this season

 

Transfers

Finances weren't great last season and so I've decided to try to make the most of loans for a 3rd season running. I'll look to play a few youngsters from the last intake too, 'coz ya know we may need our own players if we manage to get a flukey promotion or want to progress from practically being a feeder team to the league above.

 

We will be massively benefited if this goes through, though I am pessimistic.

 

Cups

Again, a poor running in the early-season cups.
Being beaten by top division sides isn't surprising when your squad consists of players their divisions sides didn't want for the season though.. 

 

League

 

Just in case you missed that..

 

We've been smashing it in the league!!!
I am not getting ahead of myself after last seasons capitulation, but we've only conceded in 2 games so far :O

 

Newry City have kept in touching distance & we play them very soon. Hopefully we can keep up this form until the league split at least.

[Motlhen]

13 minutes ago, Motlhen said:

Just in case you missed that..

We conceded less than one minute after this boast post. Of course..

[Motlhen]

Late Season '21/22

Potentially another few gems coming through

 

Financially, we're still just above water, floating on the promotion & cup winnings from the end of the first season.

 
 

If we were paying any players to play, no doubt we'd be a lot worse off!
The majority of the wage budget is spent on staff.

 

& a personal milestone

 

League

After 8 on the spin without conceding, we've not can't keep them out!

If we continue like this I'll be surprised if we make the playoffs.

 

Cups

We smashed past lower opposition, squeezed past 3rd in the prem Dungannon & have another tough ask against Glentoran. 
We made it this far in the Tennent's Cup in the first season, can we go one better?

 

Tactics & Players

We've brought in last season top scorer (again) on loan as well as Chapman at DL (WBL) to cover for a few recalls.

[Motlhen]

It seems news of our over-achievements have reached some of the Irish (not NI) league players.
We've secured a couple (more) loans that should help get us back on track!

 

& some solidarity at the back from NI Prem team Larne.

Edited April 9, 2020 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

End of Season '21/22

Youth Intake
We've got some great prospects this year!

 

& already they're making an impact

 

 

 

Cups

We got knocked out after taking Glentoran to the wire. 
Their winning goals both came in stoppage time as we pushed for a winner ourselves.

 

 

League

We capitulated.

 

But somehow, somehow, we have still been crowned champions!
After losing a 4th in a row to Newry I feared we'd drop into the playoffs, but we smashed Institute to beat the odds.

 

 

On the day we were crowned champions, we got some other amazing news too!

 

I got a new contract for £500p/w (up from £75!) for the next 2 years. 

Our initial budgets for next season actually give us a chance to get our own players too! 
It's going to be a busy summer.

 

Unfortunately, we are still under a transfer embargo due to the impending fans takeover.

Edited April 10, 2020 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

We've offered pro contracts to the following youth prospects from our academy.
We cannot change the semi-pro pre-contracts anyone under-17 has agreed to sign already, so will be making sure to secure new, new deals for any starlets on their 17th birthday's.

 

Squad
Quite a few gaps to fill

 

This will help!

 

 

It will be interesting to understand how our finances are impacted with the larger committed spend.
Doing okay now for now though..

[pheelf]

Wow...what an incredible start to your career in N. Ireland.

Congrats

Given your newly acquired professional status I think you should continue with your strategy of loaning players which has been unbelievably successful so far. I think you'll be able to attract some good quality from across the Irish Sea without paying much wages which should make life a lot easier in the top flight. Good luck 🤞 although given your progress so far I doubt you will need it.

Best Regards

[Motlhen]

3 hours ago, pheelf said:

Wow...what an incredible start to your career in N. Ireland.

Congrats

Given your newly acquired professional status I think you should continue with your strategy of loaning players which has been unbelievably successful so far. I think you'll be able to attract some good quality from across the Irish Sea without paying much wages which should make life a lot easier in the top flight. Good luck 🤞 although given your progress so far I doubt you will need it.

Best Regards

Thanks pal!

I think this season I'm going to start mixing things up. I'll still have a majority of loans, but will look to get some high potential youngsters some game time too to be able to start moving to becoming a force in the top division like your Knockbreda side (doubt I'll ever come close to your feat with Glentoran though!) We've got to ensure we don't get relegated this season first, though

[Motlhen]

Pre-season '22/23

So we're back in the big time, can we make it stick?
We're still no where near being considered being a top NI team & even have three 3rd Div teams more reputable than ourselves

 

The last time we won the league was 60 years ago (1963), but I'm happy the rise has been quicker than the decline.

 

I've put together a squad almost from scratch. This message scared me as I have made a habit of hoarding players switching players in/out when things need improving.

..but we're all good as U20's don't need to be registered.
And we only have 14 players over 20 in the Squad & Reserves.

 

We're as ready as we can be, but predicted to struggle still.

 

If we drop back down a league, there's a good chance our finances will take a huge hit, so although we're able to offer waaay more in wages I have chosen to be conservative and limit to £180p/w.

This will be our starting line up for our first Prem fixture, boasting 5 players from our academy. Average age? 19y 66d

 

The academy grads:

 

Rodney Brown we're retraining as a BPD. His decisions aren't amazing, but apart from that I think he can do a better job there than on the LWB position.

 

Our scout & coach reports suggest this guy is our best rated player, but I'm not buying it.

 

Let's go!

Edited April 10, 2020 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

August 2022

 

Finances

One month in & the financial situation is already precarious.
It will decrease to 0% when we reach £2 Million!? What!?

 

 

Transfers

After our first game & mid-contract offer from ourselves, Ray Thompson gathered a bunch of interest from the top NI clubs and we sadly lost him for free. He got 4 goals in 6 including last season & will be missed

His move to Linfield meant that our top scorer from last season (loaned from Linfield) became unsettled. We offered him a contract, but so did Glenavon and he moved their on deadline day, but there was still enough time for us to organise getting him on loan from his new club to replace Thompson. A transfer merry-go-round!

 

 

Fixtures

Late goals have been our crux.

93rd against Glentoran
94th against Ballymena Utd
& 88th against Portadown, although it didn't matter in the end as we held our nerve on pens to get through!

Edited April 10, 2020 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

September 2022

 

Finances

 

Fixtures

94th minute winner in the 4-3 against Portadown to keep them below us in the league.
A spirited draw against a Larne side that spent £150k on transfers in the summer.

[Motlhen]

October 2022

 

Fixtures

Some great results, but could've been better as we were 2-0 up against Dungannon who we helped knock off top of the league  but couldn't hold out for the win.
We're into the semi-final of the Charity Shield and got £2k for participating in the McLean Cup Quarters, the furthest we've made it in that competition so far.

 

Finances

A bit better this month, but still £21k in the red

Edited April 18, 2020 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

November 2022

The Qatar WC has started!

 

Fixtures

A really poor month.
Ahead until the 70th min in the Coleraine game & another very late goal (94th min) cost us the win & revenge at Cliftonville.

 

Finances

 

Another marginally profitable month. Slowly getting closer to zero..

 

Edited April 11, 2020 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

December 2022

GOLD!

 

Fixtures

A great set of results in a super condensed month.
Only slight disappointment was the Ballinamallard Utd result as we were 2-0 up & coasting.
We've knocked Dungannon off top spot for a 2nd time already this season!

 

Finances

 

In Other News

Some interesting transfers are starting to pop up

 

[Motlhen]

January 2023

 

Er, no thanks guys.

 

Fixtures

A string of disappointing results this month.
Dollingstown in the cup was the worst loss.
A spirited loss in a game we were always chasing against top of the league Glenavon was a classic for the neutrals!

 

Finances

[Motlhen]

February 2023

 

Fixtures

A very poor month
We remain in 8th, but the points difference between us & relegation has shrunk.
8 games to go!

 

Finances

Edited April 14, 2020 by Motlhen

[Dazbo]

Really enjoying this read. Good luck

[Motlhen]

March 2023

 

Fixtures

A hard month to top off another end of season collapse.
We're on a run with only 1 win in 13.
And now only 6 points off relegation, with 5 games to play.

 

Finances

 

Youth Intake

 

I KNOW RIGHT?!
We've gotta take a look at his profile..

 

Oh, you didn't want to see the guy from East Timor?
But surely he's the player most likely to make it to International level..
Ugh, fine. I'll show you the 5* guy too

 

We've been blessed, but we're now up against the test of time for how long we can hold on to him for.

 

But thanks to the content in recent threads by some of the main guy's in this forum, I have begun to realise just how far wrong these reports/ratings can be. We'll be taking everyone from this youth intake on board & assessing their fit within the squad once we're in the off season.

 

Craig will feature in our final few games attempting to avoid relegation as we shift the focus from loanees to some of the academy players we've had come through in recent years.

[Motlhen]

April 2023

 

Fixtures

We ended our losing run, with Johnny Craig getting a debut winner!
He built on that and showed a really encouraging all round game, starting each of our final 5 fixtures.

We confirmed survival with the win against Portadown & kept pace to place 8th in our first season back in the big time

 

Our youth team did unbelievably to win the U18's league.

 

Finances

Helps us up to a positive bank balance!

& we've got some money to help improve the squad for next season too.
(We're currently at just over £3kp/w committed wage spend)

 

 

Affiliates

Banbridge are in the NI 3rd Division, where we started our journey with Distillery.
We'll be sending our top prospects on loan here next season to give them a chance to shine where it really matters.

Edited April 14, 2020 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

May 2023

For the second time in two years we've "returned to the fans"

 

The new board have increased our transfer revenue percentage from 0% to 30%, but it seems that none of our fans know how maths works.
Once we've sold £2M worth of players, the percentage will DROP to 10%. Harsh. 

 

We've waved goodbye to another set of loanees. Waddell at AMR will be sorely missed.

 

These guys, plus the rest of the squad helped me to win my first MotY accolade.

 

Finances

[Motlhen]

June 2023
 

Transfers In

This beast plays for our new feeder team, but currently isn't interested in talks as he has higher ambitions.
We're keeping an eye on him as he would be a perfect prospect at centre mid!

 

Matt Shevlin has done well for us the past two seasons & has joined permanently.
He was second string to the brilliant Waddell last campaign, but should feature as a starter again.

 

Our top earner last season was on £170p/w.
We've upped that to £300p/w for a much needed RWB.

 

& with Daly coming in who can cover either position, our right side is very strong!

 

2m tall Thompson will be between the sticks this season.
Let's just hope he never has to kick the ball.

 

Neil Marks joins as cover at cenre-mid after being solid on loan in our rise through the divisions.

 

Foy & Wallace join as prospects in defence too.

 

 

We're still looking to improve the squad & have released a few players in anticipation:

 

 

Finances

[Motlhen]

July 2023

 

Transfers OUT

Up until now, we've not had any substantial offers for players (nothing more than £2-3k).

Today is a sad day. We've sold one of our main youth prospects.
Considering our finances, we had to accept & may benefit from any future sale.

 

Transfers In
 

The shock, BIG signing is GK Ciaran Quinn who improves our squad massively.
His wages are much higher than I anticipated spending, but I want to keep improving & improvements come at a cost.
We'll look to loan out our other new GK signing 2-metre Thompson from last month so he can continue developing.

 

We managed to land McGuffog (brilliant name!) our main transfer target from our feeder team Banbridge.

 

As a thank you, I sent a bunch of players on season-long loans to them.

 

League Prediction

Not bottom!!!

 

& we have been playing well in our friendlies so far.

 

Finances

[Motlhen]

August 2023

Expectations are low.

 

We've settled on a squad.
Only ONE loanee in the 1st XI & 3 in the XVIII.
A long way from two season ago where we were lucky to have one non-loanee in the squad.

 

Fixtures

Things haven't gone to plan.
We've lost all league games from a winning position.
We played the full string team in the cup for a confidence boost & demolished H&W.

 

 

Very excited about the progress being made by our CB summer signing Wallace.

 

But we're competing with teams that can splash £300k on a player :O

 

Finances

[Motlhen]

September 2023

 

Fixtures

We've started to improve & still in both cups!
There's a big early gap separating the top & bottom halves of the table.

 

Finances

[Motlhen]

October 2023

 

Fixtures

A great month, aside from the first 10 mins against Ballymena where we went 3-0 down & couldn't recover

 

Transfers (Future)

Another youngster with plenty of potential is joining us at the end of the season.
First signing from abroad as he joins us from the Welsh league system after being selected alongside our DM Bishop in the Eng U20 squad.

 

Finances

Edited April 17, 2020 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

November 2023

 

Fixtures

A poor month in the league.
We can't stop conceding!!

 

Finances

 

[Motlhen]

December 2023

GOLD! (again)

 

Fixtures

A huge month of fixtures, which we only got better in.
Sadly, we got knocked out at SF stage.

 

 

Transfers

Veteran CB that will provide cover when needed.

 

Finances

[Motlhen]

January 2024
 

I'm good thanks guys.. again...

 

Fixtures

Another monster month of fixtures.
We've done incredibly well to power through to make it unbeaten in 10 before losing to league-leaders Larne.

 

 

Transfers

We've managed to land NI International Mullen on a free after he was released from Crusaders. 
At £82k value, he's an incredible freebie & now the most valuable player at the club.

 

Finances

[Motlhen]

February 2024

 

I've accepted a new contract at £200p/w more than my current deal.
Would've liked more than a year-long, but it would seem impossible?

 

Future Transfers OUT

Super unhappy at not being able to get two huge prospects to sign new contracts & they are nipped by bigger opposition on a free 

&
I'm probably more unhappy about Sergeant as we'll see how good he becomes whenever we face Larne.

 

Future Transfers In

GK prospect

 

Fixtures

A shaky start to the month finished off with an emphatic win.

An emphatic win which guaranteed we avoided relegation this season, woop!

 

Finances

Markedly worse this year.
We may have to look to sell in the summer if this doesn't improve.

[Motlhen]

March 2024

Youth intake day was slightly disappointing, but maybe only after last year's fireworks.

 

 

 

Fixtures

A perfect month!

Our first team got less for going through in the Qtr Final of the Tennent's Cup than our Reserves got for losing in their Qtr Final match against our affiliates Banbridge in the Intermediate cup. Very odd, but we need all the money we can get at the moment!

 

Finances

Edited April 18, 2020 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

April 2024

Our U18's incredibly retained the U18 League title.

 

Our affiliates Banbridge won the NI 3rd division.

 

I also got to a personal milestone.

 

Fixtures

We got into our first final with thanks to a magical Mullen free-kick against the team that let him go for free!
Beverland at CB will also be happy to get one over on his fromer employers

 

£20k for getting through to the final.

Plus another £58k at least & £71k if we go on to win it!

 

 

 

Beyond my wildest imagination at the start of the season, we have TWO routes to the Euro Cup II for next season.

1. If we win the Cup Final

OR

2. If we win the league's european place playoffs consisting of 2 straight knockouts.
Portadown, then if we win that, we'll face the winner of Glentoran v Cliftonville.

 

Finances

 

 

NEXT MONTH IS HUUUGE

Edited April 18, 2020 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

I just plugged my laptop into a dock to get the Final up on my bigger screen & the DREAD fully engaged.

 

 

The universe we were in ended, but fortunately, we escaped to an alternate reality two weeks in the past.
Unfortunately, we're gonna have to do it all again D:

[Motlhen]

April 2024 II

 

Fixtures

We made it into the final again, although in this new universe we made it harder for ourselves, needing extra time to progress.
& we even finished in the same position, despite poorer results.

 

Not much has changed, but we go into the final more tentatively on a poor run of form...

[Motlhen]

May 2024

The scoreline doesn't tell the story here.
We were by far superior and didn't relent, peppering shots on goal after a dismal first 20 mins saw us 2-0 down.
We missed sitters, crossed when we should have shot, their keeper pulled off a couple of world class saves and as we threw more forward after an 83rd minute goal, they capitalised and added another in added time.

 

 

We comfortably won the semi.
 

In our 2nd final in 3 games we went 2-0 down early on, but this time we did well to keep it at only 2.
An 88th min goal gave us a glimmer of hope, but we've blown our chance of European football next term.

 

The Very Attacking formation we resorted to in the Final half an hour in the playoff final screams of the desperation I was feeling.

 

Fixtures

 

Finances

 

End of Season Awards

 

Second MotY in a row

 

Plus a few records

 

 

The departing loanees list from this season is tiny in comparison to previous years. 
Highlights how far the club has come!

 

 

Yet even with all the awards & records I still feel somewhat disappointed.
Without the promise of European football, and the reputation & financial boosts that come with it, we may have to sell some of our key players to maintain a positive cash flow and keep a happy dressing room.

[Motlhen]

June 2024

 

Transfers Out

We wave goodbye to some solid young players

 

 

A decent fee for a youngster I don't think will go too far.
If in fact he does, hopefully the 50% of next fee will come in good for us.

 

 

Transfers In

 

 

 

Finances

[Motlhen]

July 2024

 

Transfers Out

 

 

Transfers In

Our new, expensive LWB.

 

We've signed Taaffe from our affiliates Banbridge & sent him back on a season-long loan.
He'll join 3 other youth players who should feature as Banbridge look to secure a place in the NI 2nd division after promotion last season.

 

Owen Black has also been loaned back to where we bought him from, keeping an eye on progress as one for the future.

 

We've signed a couple more youngsters from lower division sides.
(These guys aren't on loan currently, but we may look to our affiliates before the transfer window closes.)

 

Friendlies

 

Expectations have sky rocketed after last season.

 

Finances

Healthy!

Edited April 18, 2020 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

August 2024

 

SQUAD

I thought I'd outline the squad as we make fewer changes season-to-season.
These guys made the cut for the first games XVIII:

Goalies

 

Defenders

 

Midfielders

 

Attackers

 

Subs

 

 

And we start our 6th season with Distillery.

Fixtures

We've only dropped points to Linfield, where a 94th min equaliser earned us a point!

 

We got to postpone a match due to International call ups which made us feel very fancy indeed.

 

But then our board did something drastic with a few hours of deadline day remaining 

 

 

Finances

[pheelf]

It's a shame that you didn't manage to qualify for Europe last season but you're still making excellent progress and I'm sure it's coming soon.

Finances are looking stable while you have a good young core of players which with development should propel you up the table.

Mullen and Craig look a formidable partnership upfront and if you can hold onto them I can see you challenging for the title.

Best Regards

[Motlhen]

23 minutes ago, pheelf said:

It's a shame that you didn't manage to qualify for Europe last season but you're still making excellent progress and I'm sure it's coming soon.

Finances are looking stable while you have a good young core of players which with development should propel you up the table.

Mullen and Craig look a formidable partnership upfront and if you can hold onto them I can see you challenging for the title.

Best Regards

Those two are playing well. It's the defence that worries me!

Fingers crossed we can manage to get into Europe this season so we can bolster the defence & keep the rest of the players interested in staying with us.

 

 

September 2024

 

Fixtures

A fantastic run ended by a strong Crusaders team.
Crusaders, Linfield & Us have already got a gap below us from the chasing pack.
Hopefully we can keep pace to stay in the automatic Euro places!

 

Some great early signs from our youngsters.

 

Sitting in third is made much worse when you consider that both teams above us are being led by Distillery HG talent.

 

 

Finances

[Motlhen]

October 2024
 

This is the first time I've seen this in my inbox. I think it may be being served to me as a warning...

The only 2 players from the 6 above that still play in the NI league system are our two strikers.
HG Craig & Mullen pinched from Crusaders.

 

 

Fixtures

1 of 3 rounds of games complete (prior to league split) & we are in a title race!

A penalty converted by our HG player O'Connor sends us out of the Charity Shield 
& we miss out on going joint-top to a 95th minute equaliser against Glentoran whilst Linfield v Crusaders play out a stalemate.

 
 

 

Transfer Info

Our board have negotiated an £87k buyout for Dundalk's Daly.
He would need to be sold for more than £257k for us to rake in a bigger amount than what's on offer through this clause.

Looking at his stats & current value, we've sold the clause!

 

Finances