[FM20] Chain Wreck to Champions League | Lynx FC (Gibraltar)

[ashton321]

Great work so far mate amazing effort

[mattyjames_]

It's after 1:00 am here, but I really wouldn't have been able to go to bed with just this match standing in the way of my season.

But we will get to the Rock Cup shortly. How did the rest of the league go?

It doesn't get much better than that. In fact, if we take a look at the league table, this really was our breakout season.

We were two goals away from a perfect season, and next year will possibly be the last season we have the opportunity to do that. It's sometimes hard to tell what might happen in the league, and when the other teams will start to get good and go on a run, so we really want to make as much of this as we can, while we have a super strong team at our disposal. Our last five games were all strong performances, and they were all clean sheets, and we smashed records left, right and centre. By season's end, we had managed 30 straight wins in the league and it was over two seasons since we had experienced a defeat (in the league).

Goals: Morgan (5), Galliano (4), Del Rio (1), Hackett (1), Thompson (1)

Goal Scorers - Gibraltar National League - Season 2023/24

Kelvin Morgan - 18

Craig Galliano - 14

Oliver Cooper - 7

Julian Del Rio - 7

Tyler Burey - 3

Tjay De Barr - 3

Dylan Thompson - 3

Ethan Jolley - 2

Jake Hackett - 2

Denilson Carvalho - 1

Leon Clinton - 1

Tom Fielding - 1

 

 

Back to the Rock Cup. We have never won this competition, not in the four years of me being in charge of Lynx, and never in the club's history prior to that. So reaching the final for the third time in this campaign, and for the second consecutive season, was a momentous occasion for us. We held a team meeting, and talked ourselves up big time in the lead-up to the match. We haven't spoken too much about the matches in the lead-up to the final, so here are those results:

Comfortable wins, with a wide variety of goal scorers. Well, we certainly made the Final hard for ourselves.

I had my head in my hands at the half hour mark, after Otis Khan converted the penalty that Craig Galliano gave up. As you can see from the stats, we absolutely dominated Lincoln Red Imps, but we couldn't get the ball in the net! We had those 4 clear cut chances in regulation time, but Kelvin Morgan only just kept us alive. A great sequence of play in extra time saw Morgan head the ball down for Oliver Cooper, who smashed the right-footed volley into the top corner for the win. I wanted to get a screenshot of us celebrating with the trophy, but I wasn't thinking very quickly at the time.

Goal Scorers - Gibraltar Rock Cup - Season 2023/24

Julian Del Rio - 3

Kelvin Morgan - 3

Oliver Cooper - 2

Tom Fielding - 1

Jake Hackett - 1

 

Season wrap to come. Once I've had some sleep!

[cel1234]

19 hours ago, mattyjames_ said:

I actually have it downloaded and in my SI graphics folder! I honestly can't figure out why it's not working.

Is it because I'm running the SI database from the Steam Workshop?

File Path:

Documents > Sports Interactive > Football Manager 2020 > graphics > Gib Footballers > (this is where the photos are)

Not sure if that's something you can help me with as well?

 

Gibraltar is probably my favourite league on the game to be honest. Great season length, always new challenges, and some really fun players to work with!

No data shouldn't be an issue. Have you ticked/unticked on preferences

1. Next go into your Football Manager 2020 game, click the 'FM' icon in the top right and go to 'preferences'.
2. When the next screen loads, click the 'advanced' tab in the top left and select 'interface' from the drop down menu on the right.
3. Click the drop down menu in the bottom left and click the 'clear cache' option.
4. Go back to the 'interface' screen and tick the box that says 'Reload skin when confirming changes in Preferences'.

Hope that helps.

[DaneBramage]

Nice European run, should give you a good finance and reputation boost going forward.

[mattyjames_]

6 hours ago, cel1234 said:

No data shouldn't be an issue. Have you ticked/unticked on preferences

1. Next go into your Football Manager 2020 game, click the 'FM' icon in the top right and go to 'preferences'.
2. When the next screen loads, click the 'advanced' tab in the top left and select 'interface' from the drop down menu on the right.
3. Click the drop down menu in the bottom left and click the 'clear cache' option.
4. Go back to the 'interface' screen and tick the box that says 'Reload skin when confirming changes in Preferences'.

Hope that helps.

It's so beautiful now! I'd forgotten to clear the cache - I still had the option ticked to use the cache to decrease load times. Once I cleared that, all the faces were there! Thank you!

[mattyjames_]

End of season awards:

Fans player of the season- Kelvin Morgan (61%)

Mac's player of the season- Kelvin Morgan

Rising Star- Julian Del Rio

Goal of the season- Oliver Cooper (vs Magpies)

Signing of the season- Louie Annesley (Free Transfer)

Young player of the season- Craig Galliano

It was a much more even spread of awards this season, with a different team member taking out each of the different 'game-given' award categories. Kelvin Morgan added another Fans Player of the Season award, this time increasing his winning margin and showing how vital he is to the squad. Galliano had a great end to the season, smashing in an incredible number of goals and deserved the Young Player of the Season award. Julian Del Rio grabs the Rising Star award on the back of his consistency and goal-scoring ability in Europe. Mac's player of the season was probably the most difficult award that I've ever had to choose in this save, with so many players having such big contributions to the team. At first I thought Julian Del Rio, but he is only young and he did go missing for a couple games where we needed him. Kelvin Morgan did enough of the right things at the right time to help us this season, and deservedly takes the award. He has now moved to 100 club goals in all competitions for Lynx FC, and he is at 89 League Goals for his career. He is also the only current member of Lynx FC who is considered an Icon at the club (yes, the fans love him more than me).

 

End of season stat leaders (competitive fixtures):

Top Goalscorer- Kelvin Morgan (29)

Most Assists- Tyler Burey (16)

Most Clean Sheets- Bradley Banda (17)

Highest Average Rating- Kelvin Morgan (7.68)

Best Passing Percentage- Serine Sanneh (88%)

Most Player of the Match- Kelvin Morgan (7)

 

You know it was a good season when you "Moment to Forget" was a 1-0 win.

Looks like we might be getting a new stadium sometime soon as well!

Though the future is definitely going to be interesting... hehehe...

The board is also stepping up the upgrades to our Youth and Training Facilities, in the region of $4.5 million! Exciting times for Lynx FC and hopefully that means we are able to continue to improve our players and make more regular challenges in Europe. We picked up another (almost) $4 million from European TV money and coefficient rewards at the end of the season, and were surprised with the announcement that Julian Del Rio finished second in the Europa League Golden Boot award!

 

Unfortunately, it looks like we (and some of our players) have made a name for themselves this season. Apparently Tjay would rather play in Saudi Arabia than play for Lynx FC? Are you kidding me???

I told him I need him to show some faith in our youngsters (something I'm hoping for too); I can't afford to lose him because he's one of the very few players in my team that are trained in Gibraltar. That's more important to me than any transfer fee right now. Thankfully he agreed with us.

 

These guys are dreaming, surely??? I've never hit reject so quickly in my life. I also triggered a 1-year extension I managed to get on Galliano's contract. Again, another player trained in Gibraltar that I can't afford to lose.

And all of this stuff has happened while I've been waiting for the competition rankings to be announced. Hopefully the new rankings will help to convince Tjay to stay, because right now he doesn't want to enter contract talks.

Gibraltar is moving up in the world!

 

Season Summary

Managerial Record

Trophy Shelf

[mattyjames_]

Back in the Champions League for Season 2024/25. Well, the Qualifiers, anyway. Lynx FC have been firing on all cylinders across all competitions, and hopefully there will be some positive movement in Europe this season again to add to the bank balance as the board prepares to shell out for a new stadium.

Unfortunately, we have disgruntled a couple of players (who never came to speak to us about it) and they have decided they don't want to renew their contract. Denilson Carvalho is one who just let his contract expire over the off-season, which has meant we've needed to bring some new players in. Tjay De Barr isn't overly happy with us despite the rise in reputation that the Gibraltar National League has had in the last 12 months, and the strength that we have on offer here at Lynx - he is looking for some improvement in the youth ranks, so we will also be playing some younger guys as we go through this season to try and convince him to stay. We dropped $500,000 on a 17-year-old English player, mostly because he can achieve the 'trained in nation' status before he gets to 21. My entire focus with transfers right now is on picking up 17 or 18 year olds to try and get them in Gibraltar for 3 years prior to their 21st birthday, so that I can get them trained here and free up some squad places.

Along with Carvalho, club stalwarts Jamie Bosio and Alberto Valdivia also left the club on free transfers. Bosio wasn't getting enough playing time to warrant a place in the squad, and despite being only listed as an "emergency backup", Valdivia wasn't keen to take wages less than $3,200 per week. He played one game for us last season, so we let him go.

 

We were seeded in the draw for the Champions First Qualifying Round in the Champions League this season. The draw was very kind to us, pitting us against Estonian side Tallinna FC Flora. We didn't mess around. Playing away from home first up, we absolutely dominated them.

Not too much to say here, other than we achieved our minimum expectations here. Kosovan striker Ardit Selimi came into the first match off the bench and slotted a goal on debut, before scoring a brace on his full debut at home in the return leg. The 20-year-old can fill a range of roles for us if needed this season, but he certainly impressed from the start here. It was disappointing not to get a sellout at home in the first game of the season, but hopefully that will improve in the matches to come. A huge spread of goal scorers in this fixture, which fills me with hope for the season ahead.

Goals: Burey (3), Selimi (3), Morgan (2), Annesley (1), Clinton (1), De Barr (1), own goal (1)

 

The Champions Second Qualifying Round had us taking on NK Maribor for the second time in our history. Last time we faced them was in 2021/22, where we won 2-1 on aggregate. As a result, I was feeling pretty confident heading into this one.

They made it hard for us, but we managed to get the job done, Dylan Thompson the surprise goal scorer in this tie, with Selimi and Morgan both adding to their productive early season form as well. It's important to note that all four of these clean sheet matches were masterminded by Bradley Banda in between the posts, due to our number one Goalkeeper Serine Sanneh being out injured. I'm considering making improvements to our keeper for next season as well as our strike force, depending on how those players develop over the course of this season.

Goals: Morgan (1), Selimi (1), Thompson (1)

 

Looking at other clubs in Gibraltar, St Joseph's FC lost in the Europa Conference League First Qualifying Round, and College Europa lost on away goals in the Second Qualifying Round. Lincoln Red Imps got through the Second Qualifying Round after winning 6-1 on aggregate in their fixture. The Third Qualifying Round had us matched up against FC Kobenhavn, the first big-name team we would face in this campaign. I checked the rules before this one, and I'm not sure if something had changed, but the Champions League page said that the loser of this match would go directly to the Europa League Group Stage. That didn't mean that I wanted to go any easier on Kobenhavn though. I knew it would be tough, so we started with a slight defensive approach.

As the first match went on, I allowed the boys to go on the attack more and more. Despite not getting as many shots as Kobenhavn, we did have more clear cut chances, and were probably unlucky not to have won by more. An interception from Oliver Cooper saw the ball fall to Julian Del Rio, and the young Gibraltarian played Selimi through the defence and he made no mistake from the one-on-one, giving us a crucial away goal and win. Coming back to Gibraltar, hopes were high, but we knew that it would be a difficult match - but perhaps the away goal would be crucial.

In the end, it was. Kobenhavn hit us almost immediately with a goal from inside the box that Bradley Banda got a hand to before it found the back of the net. This was the first goal Banda had conceded in six games in Europe this season - an impressive feat considering the quality of our opposition! Louie Annesley got on the end of a long range set piece from Jake Hackett late in the game to score his second goal of the campaign - something I was doubly impressed with as he did not score in the entirety of last season! After the aggregate win, we found ourselves just one fixture away from a place in the Group Stage of the Champions League. In order to get there, we would have to get through Slavia Praha.

Goals: Annesley (1), Selimi (1)

 

We were not expected to win this one, and started defensively accordingly. Unfortunately, that allowed them to open the scoring in the 30th minute. We kicked things up a gear after that, and we were able to equalise shortly after. It was crushing to see us concede a penalty in the 67th minute, a second away goal for Slavia was not what we wanted to see. Looking at the stats after the game, I was even more disappointed. We really deserved to get something from this game, and we should have been in a much better position heading into the return leg. However, that doesn't mean we would be completely out of the tie!

I think what I've noticed here is that managers are more likely to shut up shop early on when they carry a lead into the return leg in European fixtures. We managed a 1-1 draw, but (again) we probably should have got more from the match. Unfortunately, we couldn't make it count when we had the opportunity, which means we are left to fight it out in the Europa League again this season. So, who would we be matching up against?

Okay. Maribor we can beat. Arsenal? Probably not. How we go against Club Brugge will determine if we can make it out of this group or not. It's going to be a tough campaign.

[mattyjames_]

Sometimes, Football Manager is the most annoying game in the entire existence of time and space.

Despite being comfortably one of the best teams, and consistently hitting 30+ shots per game, even against some opposition in the Champions League Qualifiers, there are times where we just forget how to shoot. This was the case in the Pepe Reyes Cup this season. The Cup was the first in a series of three matches in seven days, where we would face College Europa twice, and NK Maribor midweek in our first match of the Europa League Group Stage. I wanted to win, and more importantly, I wanted to win while keeping my best players in top form ahead of the midweek game, so that I wouldn't have to make any deseperation subs.

Yep. Of course that's not how it worked. They scored just before half time to really put me under stress. I made a bunch of changes in the 60th minute as we were missing shot after shot (and still struggling to get a decent number of 'shown' highlights). Thankfully, our Mr Reliable, Kelvin Morgan, came through in the 89th minute to send the match to extra time. However, College Europa scored again from the kickoff of Extra Time in order to go up by a goal and force us to fight back again. A Tjay De Barr cross in the last minute of the first half of extra time found Shields unmarked in the box, and he didn't make a mistake this time, levelling the scores.

So, to penalties. Craig Galliano stepped up first, and there must be something about us wanting to play from behind, because despite being almost perfect from the spot throughout his career, he decided to let the first penalty get saved. Thankfully, Bradley Banda stepped up with Mark Schwarzer-esque keeping to grab two amazing saves, and Tjay De Barr had his Aloisi moment, scoring the winning penalty.

Thank goodness.

[mattyjames_]

Quick update on the facilities - we have just had upgrades completed for our training and youth facilities - they are now both adequate. I managed to convince the board to further update our youth facilities (to the tune of $3 million) and our data analysis facilities, but they didn't want to update the training facilities unfortunately. I'll try again in a couple months. Interestingly, the future stadium plans are coming along nicely! The board are searching for a site to put the stadium (good luck) but it will seat almost 7000 people! Could be exciting to pack that out on the regular.

Oh yes, we had our first preview of the next youth intake as well. It's... nothing exciting. I have a Head of Youth Development, but does everyone's assistant manager give the summary of the youth coming through?

[mattyjames_]

Europa League Group B - Season 2024/25

So we found ourselves in a much tougher group this time around, drawn against the likes of Arsenal and Club Brugge, and we knew we were going to be hard pressed to get through to the knockout rounds this time around. However, everyone was already proud of us and we were just trying to get as much money/coefficient as possible. Thankfully, we started our campaign against NK Maribor, a club we had taken two wins from in the qualifiers for the Champions League earlier this season. We were confident heading into the match, and it showed on the pitch.

Despite having just one clear cut chance, it was a convincing win for us to open the Group Stage, and send us top of the group. If only we could have ended the group stage then!! Kelvin Morgan and Ardit Selimi continued to stoke their fledgling partnership, and we continued to smash home a high number of headed goals from our attacks down the wings. My number one priority this season is to do enough to show Tjay De Barr that he should stay with us into the future, so I am doing all I can to get game time for people and I'm also hoping to naturalise a lot of young talent too - it's great to see Paul Shields getting on the scoreboard after coming off the bench. Of course, if we can't keep De Barr, it would be just as good to get players that are better/as good as him to take his place.

We followed this match up with our first trip to England to face the might of Arsenal at the Emirates. Needless to say, it was as bad as it sounds.

We just couldn't contain the gunners, and we couldn't string together enough of an offence to get a decent attempt on goal. A complete whitewash away from home, and I was worried about what that would mean for our match against Club Brugge. We have to do some serious work on the squad if we are to realistically compete for the Champions League title in the next 10-20 years, that's for sure! However, if youth intakes like the one above continue to roll in, I'm not sure how much luck we are going to have. Thank goodness a bigger stadium (more money) and better youth facilities are on their way! Club Brugge was up next, and despite a lot of encouragement from me, we fell to our second consecutive defeat in the Group Stage.

Kelvin Morgan made the scoreline look respectable with his 56th minute strike, but that was probably the point that we started to gain confidence. Up until that point, we hadn't really made much of our opportunities, and although we kicked on late, we couldn't find another goal. Looking at the stats, we were probably lucky to have conceded just two. But I suppose you win some and you frustrate some opposition/get frustrated yourself, don't you?

At the halfway point of the group stage, things were looking bleak for us. Arsenal had been perfect, Club Brugge almost as good, and NK Maribor had been... well... not great. Conceding 12 goals in three games is never fun, but hey, they were still in the competition! We would have to work a little harder in the second half of the Group  Stage if we were to remain in the tournament.

 

Goals: Morgan (3), Selimi (1), Shields (1)

 

Goal Scorers - Europa League - Season 2024/25

Kelvin Morgan - 3

Ardit Selimi - 1

Paul Shields - 1

Edited August 24, 2020 by mattyjames_

[mattyjames_]

Sitting in third place in the Europa League group stage gives you a small amount of solace, knowing that a place in the knockout rounds of the Europa Conference League is on the cards if you can't get the job done, providing you don't drop the bundle in the second half of the Group Stage and end up finishing fourth. So, our goal was simple. Either get enough points to move on in the Europa League, or make sure we had enough points to stop NK Maribor overtaking us. Club Brugge away was our first challenge, and we failed.

Thankfully, we didn't fail as badly as I *think* I saw NK Maribor fail against Arsenal (9-2), but at least they were scoring goals, I suppose. We were not. We faced Maribor next, after three consecutive wins against them, knowing that three points here would be enough to secure third place in the group (qualification at this point was all but beyond us, as Club Brugge had a six point lead with just two games to play). While a loss wouldn't be pleasant, if we could limit the damage, we would probably be okay and still go through as Maribor's goal difference was through the floor.

*sigh* A bit like the travelling fans (11), we just didn't show up for this one. My orders got more and more aggressive as the match went on, and we just couldn't seem to find a way to score. We had the chances, but we couldn't put them away. All in all, a very very disappointing season for us in the Europa League. With just a game against Arsenal to play, we had at least done enough to lock in third place and a spot in the Europa Conference League knockout rounds. However, at this point, we were playing for nothing but pride. Arsenal were on the opposite end of the spectrum. They had clinched top spot with another win over Club Brugge, and had nothing left to play for. I think that might have played a part in this.

Kelvin Morgan, the hero again. Bringing a December miracle to Gibraltar, and leading us to just our second ever televised win. We were absolutely played off the park by Arsenal, and definitely didn't deserve one point, let alone three, but you've gotta take what you can get, right? I was on the edge of my seat for the entire duration of the match once I got back to it after leaping out of it when Morgan scored. Tjay De Barr played him through with a lobbed pass from almost the centre of the ground, and Morgan hit it left-footed on the volley and it went straight into the bottom corner for the win. Despite the result, we would still finish in third place in our group, and our continental hopes (and coefficient) for the season would rest on our performance in the Europa Conference League.

Goals: Morgan (1)

 

Goal Scorers - Europa League - Season 2024/25

Kelvin Morgan - 4

Ardit Selimi - 1

Paul Shields - 1

 

All in all, a disappointing performance for our second season in the Europa League. Our opponent in the Europa Conference League? 

Let's go.

Looking at the teams left in this one, I'd say we have a pretty good chance of being competitive, based on the teams that are left and our previous results against them.

Here's hoping!

[mattyjames_]

Gibraltar National League - First Stage - Season 2024/25

Meanwhile, in the league, the wins (and the goals) keep rolling in!

We have continued to keep winning, smashing records left and right as we score goal after goal, and get just enough (in some cases) to take all three points from every game. Amazingly, we have now won 41 games in a row, and are 54 games without a loss. Lincoln Red Imps have only lost to us this season, with College Europa dropping points to us, Lincoln Red Imps and Europa Point (draw) this season. It is very clearly a three-horse race for the National League title, and this season (especially early) has been a good opportunity for me to not only rotate the squad for league matches, but also blood some fresh/young talent in the first team. I'm not going to bore you too much with the details, but here is the list of our results through the first half of the season.

Highlights of the campaign so far is definitely the big wins over our rivals College Europa (4-0) and Lincoln Red Imps (3-1), as well as the eight clean sheets we have kept along the way. Very proud of the lads!

The College '75 game was the first game that I brought in a group of young talent into the squad to try and help their development. The feel good story (and probably a lock in for the Rising Star Award) this season has been Dougie Taylor. I noticed he was playing fairly well in our U23 side, and when I checked his profile, I noticed that he was Resolute. I chucked him into the first team and the results have been exponential. He's gone from 0.5 stars CA to 3 stars CA in the space of a couple months, thanks to some regular first team football.

Very proud of this lad, considering he has come out of the Youth Academy. Other Academy players to get decent first team time in this part of the competition are Kevin Love (not a basketball player, apparently), Peter Stannard, Jack Madeira, Dragos Ciucur (not academy, but signed as an 18 year old to the club) and Paul Shields (signed as a 17-year-old, Scottish international). Although we have conceded more goals in this period than the entirety of last season, it's been good to field significantly weaker teams and still get the results. January brought with it another month off and some friendlies against the U23s, as well as a fresh transfer window to try and pick up some new talent.

We spent a bit of money here, but almost spent a whole lot more. We had a bid of $2 million accepted for Luca Wollacott, and he accepted our contract, but ended up signing with Leeds U19 instead. Now that we have him on loan, we are planning on beginning the process of converting him to the Gibraltarian nationality, and making him fall in love with the club and want to stay. Why? look at these stats.

I'm expecting him to do big things for us over the second half of the season. Alongside Wollacott, we have brought in a couple of 16-year-olds with decent skills to help us out in the short term, and boost our "Trained in Country" numbers for continental competitions and the Gibraltar National Leagues. We are trying to stack up the defence where we can, as we have some coverage but it's not great at this point in time. Phillips needs a lot more in terms of speed, but his other stats are better than any keeper we currently have - I'm hoping he can come on in bounds to reach his potential. Haines is at a similar level to Ethan Jolley at this point in time, but he is 11 years younger. I'm hopeful that he can develop accordingly and go on to become something like what Louie Annesley is for us right now, and even better, he is Gibraltarian! It certainly makes the 'Key Employees' Section of our profile look interesting at this point in time.

Goal Scorers - Gibraltar National League - Season 2024/25

Kelvin Morgan - 10

Paul Shields - 4

Dougie Taylor - 4

Oliver Cooper - 3

Julian Del Rio - 3

Craig Galliano - 3

Louie Annesley - 2

Leon Clinton - 2

Tyler Burey - 1

Jake Hackett - 1

Ethan Jolley - 1

Kevin Love - 1

Edited August 24, 2020 by mattyjames_

[mattyjames_]

Europa Conference League - First Knockout Round - Season 2024/25

Okay, so we face Astana first up. They travelled over 6,000 km to Gibraltar to play us in the first leg, which, according to Google, is something like a 22-hour flight. I can't say that sounds like a whole lot of fun, I'll be honest! We lined up with one of the strongest sides that we could muster, and went on the attack despite the media thinking that we were up against it from the start.

The aggressive approach served us well, with Ardit Selimi getting back to his continental best, slotting two goals for us! Wollacott is showing off his great corner kick attributes, setting up an assist for Kelvin Morgan, while Selimi grabbed his goals running on to through balls that came forward from the defence. The stats don't lie - we deserved this result. Wollacott has completed 20 key passes and grabbed 3 assists in 6 competitive games since joining us on loan, and the fans love him already! In terms of the second leg...

We didn't really have a lot to do, and on this occasion, we didn't do it. However, what we did do was enough. A clean sheet has preserved our 3-0 aggregate lead, and we are through to the next round.

Goals: Selimi (2), Morgan (1)

In some league news: After conceding a ridiculous goal to Lincoln Red Imps from a throw (and really hating the way my team automatically set up for throws considering I have someone with 16 long throws in the team), I changed the routine for throws from the left side. In this game, for the second match in a row, we set up a long throw that met one of our players inside the six yard box for a goal. Incredibly good to have something like that pay off as a manager! 

Back to the Europa Conference League. What I didn't realise earlier when I posted (and I should have picked up on this), the teams in the First Knockout Round were the second place finishers in the Group Stage, alongside all the third place finishers from the Europa League Group Stage. What that means is that we really didn't realise who else was left in the competition; who else we could come up against. So, who will we be facing in the true Round of 16?

Oh man...

My favourite club. Of course I'd end up playing against them! Well. We are taking on Premier League opposition again, a little sooner than I expected to be. Maybe we can pull something magical out of the hat here! I mean, they are favourites, but they aren't overwhelming favourites. And plus, Digne is out injured, so that's gotta help us, right? Do we even stand a chance?

 

Goal Scorers - Europa Conference League - Season 2024/25

Ardit Selimi - 2

Kelvin Morgan - 1

[mattyjames_]

Well. We invite the Toffees to Victoria Park, hoping they don't come along and wreck the whole place. Knowing that whatever happens here, we will have a much harder match against them at Goodison Park for the return leg.

Well that seems silly.

Really, really silly.

Okay. We are a man up inside 10 minutes. We need to make this count.

Oh boy.

OH BOY INDEED.

I don't know if this puts us in a good position or not heading in to the return leg. It probably means that Everton are going to come after us a lot harder than what they did here.

[mattyjames_]

So, the return leg. Goodison Park was packed for this Europa Conference League 2nd Knockout Round Second Leg. Despite having a one-goal lead from the first leg, we had our work cut out for us, as Everton would be desperate to stay in the competition. They outclassed us with 10 men - I hate to think what they could do to us with 11 men for 90 minutes.

Yeah. Just as I thought. Not good.

Okay, so that's 1-1 on aggregate, no big deal. Not great to concede so early, bu-

Are you SERIOUS? Guys. We talked about this. Come on! Time to go from defensive to attacking. We've got nothing to lose.

Wait, what? WHAT? Selimi you superstar! 2-2 and we go through on away goals! I don't know what to shout, say, or do!

KELVIN MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORGAN! 2-3 on aggregate at half time! LET'S GO!

SELIMI SMASHES HOME A BREAKAWAY GOAL AND EVERTON NEED FIVE TO BEAT US.

Oh no, Everton only need two to beat us... Everything to defence, right now.

 

 

And.... breathe. How the heck did we manage that??? We are through to the Quarter Finals!

Burey and Cooper suspended, which isn't great news, but we should be able to scrounge something together so that we have a lineup. I don't have Portugal loaded, so I don't know what that's going to mean for our performances against this team. Hopefully we can keep the run going, though I'm not confident.

Goals: Morgan (2), Selimi (2)

 

Goalscorers - Europa Conference League - Season 2024/25

Ardit Selimi - 4

Kelvin Morgan - 3

[cel1234]

Good luck v Sporting ya gona need it doing a great job.

[mattyjames_]

8 hours ago, cel1234 said:

Good luck v Sporting ya gona need it doing a great job.

I sure am gonna need it! Thanks for the encouragement though.

[mattyjames_]

Gibraltar National League - Group 1 - Season 2024/25

While our European successes this season have been at the forefront of everyone's minds, we have still been working hard behind the scenes in order to keep on top of our rivals in the Gibraltar National League. Last time you saw us, we had just defeated Lincoln Red Imps to be the only undefeated team at the halfway point in the season, where the top six and bottom six go their separate ways and play the final 10 games in small "groups". We bought in some new players and had started rotating the squad fairly heavily for league games, and that was something that we needed to continue to do throughout this part of the season as we devoted the stronger members of our squad to midweek cup games. Thankfully, the youngsters coming through the squad have been enough that, paired with some veterans, we haven't had too much to worry about. Tjay De Barr doesn't seem to agree, but if we can keep Luca Wollacott at the club, I don't mind too much.

Goals: Cooper (2), De Barr (2), Del Rio (2), Galliano (2), Hackett (2), Morgan (2), Shields (2), Annesley (1), Circur (1), Haines (1) Selimi (1), Wollacott (1) own goals (1)

Even better news, we continue to sell out Victoria Stadium for our home games, and we are helping to bring the fans in for other matches as well. The board are still searching for a site to put the new stadium.

I'm not sure about you guys, but I think we might have to build ourselves an (almost) 7000 seater floating stadium. So, maybe something like this?

(Yes, this is actually a thing - if you haven't seen it yet, check out the true story of Panyee FC  below)

 

Anyway, back to business. We have had a really strong run of form in the league, and our streak is currently at 59 matches without a loss, and 46 matches won in a row. It's the first time in a long time that we don't have multiple players leading the league statistics, but that just goes to show the players that we have rotated through the side in order to keep everyone fresh while we go about what has been a very busy part of the season (especially by Gibraltarian standards).

Thankfully though, it's looking like it would take a complete disaster to lose the league title from here.

We defeated Lincoln Red Imps in the two meetings that we've had with them this year, so we would need to drop points in at least three of our remaining five games in order to miss out from here. College Europa have really fallen off the pace this season, and St Joseph's really have not been around the mark at all lately. We are going to need these other teams to pull their finger out at some point and get their act together so we can build the reputation of the league and earn better qualification places (and prize money), but I'm still feeling quite comfortable and enjoying my time at the top of the pile. Long may it last. The biggest highlight out of the last five league matches was this result:

Five different goal scorers in a 5-0 win against Lincoln Red Imps, which equals their biggest ever defeat. It was also Luca Wollacott's first goal for the club. here's hoping there will be many more!

 

Goal Scorers - Gibraltar National League - Season 2024/25

Kelvin Morgan - 12

Paul Shields - 6

Oliver Cooper - 5

Julian Del Rio - 5

Craig Galliano - 5

Dougie Taylor - 4

Louie Annesley - 3

Jake Hackett - 3

Leon Clinton - 2

Tjay De Barr - 2

Tyler Burey - 1

Dragos Circur - 1

Chad Haines - 1

Ethan Jolley - 1

Kevin Love - 1

Ardit Selimi - 1

Luca Wollacott - 1

Own goals - 1

[mattyjames_]

In every Football Manager save, there is always that frustrating mooment where your squad just completely forgets how to play. Multiple lobbed balls forwards straight to the opposition defence when they had time to look up and play a good pass, uncontested headers back to the opposition when it would be easier to control the ball, strange and unfortunate penalties given by VAR... All of these things came to a head in our first game against Sporting CP.

Everyone in the team forgot how to play, except Serine Sanneh. The goalkeeper put in an astoundingly good performance, earning a 9.0 rating and keeping us well and truly in the contest. Seven clear cut chances to zero gives us no right to be happy with the result though. The only solace is that Sporting would have to come to Victoria Stadium for the return leg.

If anything, this one was worse. Worse to watch, for sure. Another questionable VAR penalty given to Sporting, as well as us having a player sent off in the 49th minute. We had two clear cut chances in the first 40 minutes that, if we had of converted, would have put us back on terms. Without the red card, I think we stay in this match, and then grab ourselves the winner in the 87th minute. Unfortnately, this time, it just wasn't to be. We miss out on the Europa Conference League for 2024/25, but take solace in the fact that we got to the Quarter Finals. It's something we can hopefully continue to achieve as we move forwards with the save.

We missed both of the above chances. Unfortunately. The first went wide, the second was saved.

Time to turn our attention back to the league.

Oh, wait, we've taken care of that too, with three matches to spare. Back to the Champions League for 2025/26 then!

 

Goal Scorers - Europa Conference League - Season 2024/25

Ardit Selimi - 4

Kelvin Morgan - 3

Julian Del Rio - 1

[Sheriff7]

Great work mate keep going.

[mattyjames_]

Heartbreak for Lynx FC at season's end

No, no, the league results are fine, and our undefeated streak is still alive. The winning streak (in the league) is over 50 games now, and as I previously mentioned, we clinched the title with three games to play. However, we didn't make it easy for ourselves in the run home! Having said that, we were rotating the squad a fair bit - partly due to the squad selection rules (min 5 players trained in Gibraltar) and partly due to other matches happening in different competitions. 70 goals scored in a season is a new record, though I'm not the most pleased about coughing up 10 goals. However, you look at that over the course of a season, and that's less than half a goal per game. Great defence, right? Our squad rotation led to some weird things happening in the league statistics, with our players not really featuring near the top of anything that they have generally been very competitive for. However, I think that is in part due to the rotation policy we've had in place as well. Not only that, but this has caused this year to be our biggest year when it comes to goal scorers as well, with 17 players putting the ball in the back of the net in the league.

Goal Scorers - Gibraltar National League - Season 2024/25

Kelvin Morgan - 15

Julian Del Rio - 9

Craig Galliano - 7

Paul Shields - 6

Oliver Cooper - 5

Dougie Taylor - 5

Tjay De Barr - 4

Louie Annesley - 3

Jake Hackett - 3

Leon Clinton - 3

Dragos Circur - 2

Ardit Selimi - 2

Tyler Burey - 1

Chad Haines - 1

Ethan Jolley - 1

Kevin Love - 1

Luca Wollacott - 1

Own goals - 1

 

League Table

Stats Summary

 

End of season in Gibraltar is prime time for the Rock Cup, a competition that we claimed our first victory in last season, and that the board expected us to win this year. Unfortunately, this is where the heartbreak comes in.

The quarter final saw us paired with Lincoln Red Imps, and that was a heart-stopper and a half. Cranking an early lead only to be pegged back immediately, and then to have the equaliser scored with less than 10 minutes to go was a real blow. However, we managed to keep our cool and move into extra time. We scored first in extra time (the second half of extra time, no less), but Lincoln kept fighting and pulled one back before the Icon Kelvin Morgan slotted the winner with a minute to play.

So far, so good, right?

The Semi Final was even more of a cake-walk, with Del Rio and Ciucur getting us two goals up inside the first 10 mintues, and Shields adding a third shortly after. We just sort of cruised through the match after that, not that I was complaining, but it would have been nice to see some big numbers!

And then, there was this.

We just didn't show up. I held a team meeting before the game to get the boys fired up, I talked us up in the press, I was so confident. Because it was College Europa. Because we'd got through Lincoln Red Imps. Because we were on a 51-game winning streak in the league. But none of that was enough. We got cut open early on, then a piece of brilliance early in the second half from Spong put us two down. We made changes and went very attacking with 15 minutes to go, and we got back on terms, only for Tyreece Briscoe to head home a corner that Serine Sanneh fumbled past the man standing on the back post with literally the last touch of the ball to deny us a chance of taking it to extra time.

This is the third consecutive Rock Cup Final we have played in. We've only won one. This is clearly our bogey competition!

Goal Scorers - Rock Cup - Season 2024/25

Julian Del Rio - 3

Kelvin Morgan - 2

Paul Shields - 2

Dragos Circur - 1

Craig Galliano - 1

[mattyjames_]

End of season awards:

Fans player of the season- Kelvin Morgan (78%)

Mac's player of the season- Kelvin Morgan

Rising Star- Dougie Taylor

Goal of the season- Paul Shields (vs Magpies)

Signing of the season- Dragos Circur (Free Transfer from Arsenal)

Young player of the season- Julian Del Rio

The fans doubled down on their love for Kelvin Morgan this season, and I can sort of understand why. He just tended to show up at the right time, exactly when we needed him. Be it Europe, Gibraltar, or anywhere. If you look just below here to the stats from the season, I think that will justify his selection for my player of the season as well. He has been immense. Julian Del Rio had another great season up front, but the real breakout success of this year has been Dougie Taylor. I'm not sure how consistent he is going to be just yet, but he has come on in leaps and bounds since I decided to chance him in the first team. Unfortunately he's a player that lacks consistency, but I hope that he can pick that up as he ages. 13 league appearances, 5 goals, 6 assists, 7.65 average rating. Not something to be sneezed at, that's for sure! Being resolute, I hope that he can keep developing over the next couple of seasons, and go on to be a strong player on the left of midfield or in central attacking midfield for us.

End of season stat leaders (competitive fixtures):

Top Goalscorer- Kelvin Morgan (29)

Most Assists- Tyler Burey (13)

Most Clean Sheets- Bradley Banda (14)

Highest Average Rating- Kelvin Morgan (7.55)

Best Passing Percentage- Tjay De Barr (87%)

Most Player of the Match- Kelvin Morgan (9)

 

Season Summary

Managerial Record

Trophy Shelf

 

Rankings update to come when it comes around.

I think Tjay De Barr is going to try and force a move away from the club during the off-season. I'm not really pleased with that, but I don't think there's a whole lot I can do, unfortunately. He will be out of contract.

[mattyjames_]

Well this is exciting!

This, however, not so much.

EDIT: The most frustrating part of this was that the board cancelled the upgrade to the training facilities (that was already in progress and half finished) and the next day we got another $4 million from TV revenue and our position in the coefficient table. However the board request feature doesn't let me ask for upgraded training facilities.

 

Also, I'm not sure how I feel about this one. I guess kinda relieved? It's good to know we were beaten by the eventual winners. That makes us the runner-up by default, right??

Edited August 28, 2020 by mattyjames_

[mattyjames_]

This is HUGE.

[mattyjames_]

In other news, we continue to move up in the world.

I would hope that this is a tie we should be winning fairly comfortably. The perks of being seeded in the draw!

[mattyjames_]

So I had a my pre-Champions League friendlies cancelled for the Intermediate League Cup games that were held in June.

Decided to make a bunch of first team players available for the U23 team in order to play in that match. Sorry Glacis United U23. Four players scored hat-tricks.

heheh

 

Hopefully that brings some good form coming into the Champions League Qualification Matches!

[mattyjames_]

UEFA Champions League - Season 2025/26

So there were some big developments in the off-season in regards to the club, with improved Youth Facilities on the way, and a new stadium being built! In addition to that, we made some big plays off the park in the transfer window. Importantly, we managed to keep hold of all of our big-name Gibraltarian players, (especially Tjay De Barr), and are working on training some young blood to get their "Trained In Gibraltar" certification in the next season or two. On the transfer front, we managed to secure the loan of Luca Wollacott for another season, alongside picking up Serine Sanneh on a free transfer after his old club let his contract run out. Mario Beste came across to us from RB Leipzig on a transfer that we arranged two years ago, we just had to wait for him to turn 17.

The only "out" for pre-season was Dragos Circur going on loan to Mons Calpe. We let a whole heap of other players go that were just never good enough to play for us, and no-one else wanted to pick them up, so we just released them.

As previously mentioned, our usual pre-season games against the U23 side were cancelled due to the Intermediate League Cup. This means that our first game of the new season would be the UEFA Champions League Champions First Qualifying Round match against Stromsgodset from Norway.

We demolished them in the first leg, playing away from home, with Julian Del Rio setting the travelling fans alight with his two early goals (they got me out of my chair as well). Things were a little nervy when they pulled one back, but Kelvin Morgan scored just before half time to restore our two-goal advantage. Tjay De Barr, adapting to his new Shadow Striker position, sealed the deal for us and smashed home our fourth with just minutes to play. This meant Stromsgodset needed to score four at our place to go through. We knew that wasn't happening, and with Tjay keeping his good form flowing into the return leg, we made sure of the victory, taking it 6-2 on aggregate.

Goals: De Barr (2), Del Rio (2), Morgan (1), Wollacott (1)

 

Next up we faced Lechia Gdansk, a Polish side who we have not come up against before in the continental competitions. 

This was a much tougher tie for us, and although we led 4-1 in clear cut chances across the two legs, we needed away goals to get past this stage of the qualifiers. I'll admit, I was worried, but Julian Del Rio showed his consistency by slotting home the goal we needed in the second leg to give us enough of an advantage to go through. The 23-year-old is starting to find his stride now, and although his profile says he isn't a fan of big matches, he's done nothing but step up for us throughout this campaign so far.

Goals: Del Rio (1), Galliano (1)

 

Despite losing the second leg, the away goals rule put us through to the Third Qualifying Round. We were paired against Hadjuk Split from Croatia. We had seen their names in previous fixtures for continental compeition, but had never faced off against them directly. The closest we had come to them was their matches at Victoria Stadium against College Europa in 2023/24 (they won 4-0 on aggregate), and Boca Juniors in 2022/23 (7-1 aggregate). It's safe to say they probably thought they would have an easy time of things against us. 

It was again a case of us not being able to capitalise on our chances; in this tie, we led the clear cut chances 6-1, but split the "points" with one win and one loss; both teams keeping a clean sheet at home. Thankfully, we had a five minute burst of inspiration during our last season at Victoria Stadium where we scored twice, the first being a piece of class from Craig Galliano, the second being sheer desperation in a goalmouth scramble from Louie Annesley, but hey, however they go in, as long as they go in, right?

Goals: Annesley (1), Galliano (1)

 

With that result, we were through to the Champions Playoff game. We reached this point last year and fell to Slavia Praha, who were drawn against us for the fixture again in what was a poetic moment. However, standing in their way was FC Kobenhavn, looking for revenge on us for last year as well. Slavia Praha couldn't get the job done against Kobenhavn, and we were drawn against the 19-time Danish champions in the final preliminary game. Last season when we met them in the Third Qualifying Round, we edged the two matches with Selimi and Annesley scoring late goals to get the job done.

This time, we weren't sure that it would be so easy.

However, it seems that we have made exceptional progress on the pitch in the last twelve months, and it wasn't just luck that got us to where we are as the 57th ranked team in Europe. We scored 7 against Kobenhavn in what was our easiest tie of the qualification phase, making us grateful to have reached that point! Julian Del Rio played the entire match for us in the first leg, but came to life as the game entered the final 30 minutes, hitting three goals from three glorious chances and setting us up to travel to Denmark with a 4-goal cushion. We hadn't been playing well away from home throughout this campaign, but Kelvin Morgan scored within 50 seconds to put my heart at ease. With that away goal, they would need to score 6 against us to get the win, and Selimi sealed the deal with two goals late in the first half to give us the win (Del Rio unfortunately picked up an injury in the league which meant he would be unavailable for the return leg).

Goals: Del Rio (3), Morgan (2), Selimi (2)

 

Goal Scorers - UEFA Champions League - Season 2025/26

Julian Del Rio - 6

Kelvin Morgan - 3

Tjay De Barr - 2

Craig Galliano - 2

Ardit Selimi - 2

Louie Annesley - 1

Luca Wollacott - 1

 

But do you know what that means?

 

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE GROUP STAGE

Let's go!

[mattyjames_]

Oh my word. There is big money up here! Unfortunately, looking at our group, this might be the only positive to come from this season in Europe...

 

Milan defeated Manchester United in the Europa League Final in the 2023/24 Season. Last season, they lost in the Champions League Quarter Final to Chelsea while still managing to finish 3rd in Serie A.

Bayern lost to Chelsea in the Semi Final of the Champions League in 2022/23, before being knocked out of the previous two editions of the competition by Barcelona. They have won the Bundesliga for the last 3 years.

Porto finished runner-up in Liga NOS the last two seasons, after winning it the two years before that. They were beaten twice in the Group Stage of the Champions League last season by Chelsea.

Lynx FC have never lost to Chelsea.

[mattyjames_]

I don't manage this team, and none of my players scored the goals, but this is a sign of the fantastic progress that Gibraltar is making as a nation.

There were five Lynx FC players on the pitch and three on the bench, and Gibraltar were able to win against Northern Ireland.

I mean, they aren't going to qualify for the 2026 World Cup, but it's a start, right?

[mattyjames_]

Galliano is one of mine, though! So proud of the lad! What a performance!

[mattyjames_]

I thought this was worth reading hahaha

[noth4u]

Good job, how much money approximately you've earned in Cl and EC campaign? As i played in Northern Ireland, Gibraltar, Andorra, San marino can say as faster you qualify to CL group then more easily will be going game, you've earn bunch of money qualifying to CL group. 

[noth4u]

With this money you can rule the world.🙃🙃🙃

[cel1234]

On 30/08/2020 at 02:12, mattyjames_ said:

Galliano is one of mine, though! So proud of the lad! What a performance!

He's a cracking darts player too

[mattyjames_]

UEFA Champions League - Season 2025/26

Well, it's been a big few months for the folks at Lynx FC. Our first ever trips to the San Siro and the Stadion Munchen have come and gone, and, at the end of the day, we didn't disgrace ourselves.

We haven't moved on in the Continental Competitions at all, which is why I'm going to summarise the whole campaign in one post.

We didn't start well at all, with a series of disappointing performances through the first half of the campaign, redeemed by our 0-0 draw at home to Milan in the third game. The nicest thing about the draw was the cool million dollar profit from UEFA. $$

These poor results left us bottom of the group after three games, with just one point to our name. We would need a big finish if we were to go any further in the competition, and unfortunately we didn't get it.

A horrendous performance against Milan saw us eliminated from the competition. Far too many fouls conceded in this one, and nowhere near enough chances created. We need to do some serious work (and spend some serious money) in order to get our players to reach their potential. Unfortunately, upgrades are slow, and the board is reluctant - especially with our training facilities. We had just two games to play in the group stage, and after being eliminated, our focus turned to trying to secure third place in the group so that we could progress into the Europa League Knockout Rounds. We talked to the players ahead of the Porto match saying we would go with a Positive mentality, and they weren't super keen on that. However, they managed to pull out a win for the ages at Victoria Stadium to see us go level with them on points.

The stats make it look like we got lucky in this one, but it was unfortunate that we didn't win by one more. While we drew level with Porto on points, with a game to play, we trailed them by 1 goal difference. This would mean that we would need to lose to Bayern by less than the amount Porto lost to Milan in order to squeak into third place.

Divock Origi stepped up to break our hearts once again, this time in a match that we weren't even involved with! Porto move through to the Europa League Knockout stages with a fixture scheduled against FK Partizan; a team that we have previously defeated on aggregate. Unfortunately, it wouldn't to be for us. Julian Del Rio really came into his own during this campaign, slotting 8 goals at the highest level of football available for him to play. To say that I'm impressed is an understatement! This campaign alone has earned us more money than everything we earned in all the seasons prior to this, but gives us a great platform going forwards - especially with us moving into our own stadium at the end of this season!

We have two games to play in the league before the split, so I will give you an update on that shortly as well. Just gotta get through a rather barren January and hold all my talent through the transfer window!

 

Goal Scorers - UEFA Champions League - Season 2025/26

Julian Del Rio - 8

Kelvin Morgan - 3

Louie Annesley - 2

Tjay De Barr - 2

Craig Galliano - 2

Ardit Selimi - 2

Luca Wollacott - 1

[mattyjames_]

Oh, also, our upcoming youth intake sucks. Again.

[mattyjames_]

Gibraltar National League - Season 2025/26

So, it's the start of February, and we find ourselves at the top of the table at the halfway stage of the season. We have been far and away the best team in the competition so far, winning matches comfortably with our "reserve" team while competing in Europe, and opening yp a handy gap over the chasing pack. College Europa, Lincoln Red Imps and St Joseph's have all taken points from each other, and find themselves a long way back from me with just 10 games to play. We have moved past 60 consecutive wins in the league, and are undefeated in 75 matches, which just shows the extent of the dominance we've had. It's easy to see the four clear groups in Gibraltarian Football right now:

1. Us

2. Continental Contenders (College Europa, Lincoln Red Imps, St Joseph's)

3. Best of the Rest (Manchester 62, Boca Juniors, Mons Calpe, Europa Point, Magpies)

4. No-hopers (Gibraltar Lions, College '75, Glacis United)

 

Highlights of the run so far in the league are:

Dougie Taylor has been an absolute beast when it comes to set piece goals, and Julian Del Rio and Ardit Selimi have picked up the slack when Kelvin Morgan has gone on a scoring slump. Having said that, we have shared the goals around a lot this season as well.

We sold out Victoria Stadium for 9 of our 11 matches this season, though only five of them were our home games. However, that provides an even stronger case for the new stadium that we are building and almost ready to move in to!

 

Goal Scorers - Gibraltar National League - Season 2025/26

Ardit Selimi - 9

Julian Del Rio - 6

Kelvin Morgan - 6

Dougie Taylor - 5

Tjay De Barr - 3

Craig Galliano - 3

Paul Shields - 3

Tyler Burey - 2

Leon Clinton - 2

Oliver Cooper - 2

Luca Wollacott - 2

Jake Hackett - 1

[mattyjames_]

Looks like I missed my chance to grab the Gibraltar manager position.

To be honest, I didn't even realise it had come up!

This chump has replaced Julio Ribas in 2025...

 

How hard it is to manage a club and a country at the same time?

[mattyjames_]

Jeepers, poor kid! Unfortunately leaves me in a bit of a hole with the defence now, too. Both my preferred left backs are out injured for at least a few weeks...

[mattyjames_]

Well, the Youth Intake for 2026 is here.

It's not great, but there is some potential here! Interestingly, there's one Australian lad in the bunch!

 

The player with the highest current ability is David Bond:

 

Hopefully these guys can come through with some good stuff.

I think it's time to upgrade my Head of Youth Development again...

[cel1234]

3 hours ago, mattyjames_ said:

Looks like I missed my chance to grab the Gibraltar manager position.

To be honest, I didn't even realise it had come up!

This chump has replaced Julio Ribas in 2025...

 

How hard it is to manage a club and a country at the same time?

Badge looks great on game.

[mattyjames_]

8 hours ago, cel1234 said:

Badge looks great on game.

Yeah, it fits in really well! Even fits nicely on the player page too.

[mattyjames_]

Gibraltar National League Group 1 - Season 2025/26

We are through the first half of the second half of the season (?), and our run has continued. We conceded just once in the last five matches (albeit I think the goal was offside and not picked up by the linesman), and have dominated every other team in the top half of the competition. Here's how the league table looks with five games to play.

In fact, with our next league game coming against Lincoln Red Imps, a win there would see us seal a fourth consecutive National League title with four games to spare; the biggest lead that we've ever had in this competition. It appears that things will continue in this way for a few seasons yet while we wait for the reputation of the rest of the league to catch up to our performances and for some big money interest to come to other clubs in Gibraltar. The future looks bright for us as well, with our U23 team dominating the Intermediate League yet again, as they seek their third title in four seasons (and their first since the departure of favoured person Albi to larger pastures.

After another year of disappointment in our youth intake (that saw our youth candidates defeat our U19s 3-0), we agreed to a mutual contract termination with our head of Youth Development, eyeing some big names in the staff search with impressive stats. The problem is, the board refused to allow any more thank $3.3k per week to be spent on the Head of Youth Development, and all the candidates I wanted were asking between $5k and $10k. Eventually we settled on a Frenchman who will set us back less than $2k per week for his impressive services. Hopefully he can bring some success to the club. Additionally, the board has agreed to upgrade our training facilities again (to the tune of just over $3.5 million), and we are getting close to moving in to our brand new stadium. I can't wait to see what it looks like in game!

As you can tell, I've been more excited by the stuff happening off the pitch than the stuff happening on it. That's not to say that exciting things haven't been happening on the pitch though!

With our European campaign over, we could move back to playing a full strength side in the league, albeit with some young Gibraltarian guys filling in the ranks and getting first team experience. With great support around him, Kelvin Morgan has got back to his goal scoring ways (despite having a penalty saved in the final game of this block against Boca Juniors), slotting 9 goals in 5 games, cracking 100 goals for Lynx FC in the process. Not only that, but we managed to pack Victoria Stadium with five more sellouts to take our tally to 14 (in the league) this season.

I want to show you the development of some of the young players at the club that I'm very excited about.

First up is Paul Shields, who has won the CAM position off the back of a lot of hard work in training and great in-game performances. He's come on in leaps and bounds recently and is now one of the first names on the team sheet. He had 4 finishing and 9 dribbling when he first came to us in 2024 (as a 17 year old), and just look at him now! Hopefully he picks up the 'trained in nation' perk in the next few years as he will be spearheading our midfield for the years to come!

Dougie Taylor is next, and he has been an interesting one. He competes directly for position with Craig Galliano, one of my favourite players in this save. However, Dougie has true underdog capabilities, and his story is one for the ages. I believe my Head of Youth Development advised me not to sign him after the Youth Candidates match. I'm so glad I didn't listen. His free kick taking has been amazing for us this campaign - he is a threat over the ball every time he is on the pitch, and has scored some absolute bangers again this season. Unfortunately, his lack of consistency leaves us a little wanting, and has somewhat hindered his development. But, we live in hope.

The final player I will talk about now is Chad Haines. He started his career at Plymouth Argyle, despite his Gibraltarian nationality, and we decided to bring him home to see if we could get him trained in Gibraltar prior to his 21st birthday. He has lined up in the centre of defence with Louie Annesley, and quickly ousted Dylan Thompson from that position earlier this season. He has been incredibly reliable for us all year, and is showing excellent leadership potential despite being just 17 years old. Hopefully he can pick up some teamwork skills over the next couple of seasons as he matures, and he may be an excellent captain for Lynx in the not too distant future.

My awards are going to be tough at the end of the season!

 

Goal Scorers - Gibraltar National League - Season 2025/26

Kelvin Morgan - 15

Ardit Selimi - 11

Julian Del Rio - 8

Paul Shields - 6

Dougie Taylor - 5

Luca Wollacott - 4

Tjay De Barr - 3

Craig Galliano - 3

Tyler Burey - 2

Leon Clinton - 2

Oliver Cooper - 2

Jake Hackett - 1

 

[mattyjames_]

A hard fought, but well deserved 1-0 win over Lincoln Red Imps pulls us through for another league title, this time with 4 matches to spare.

Disappointing for Dougie though.

[mattyjames_]

The Gibraltar U19s are coming along okay!

Unfortunately knocked out after just one loss in the second qualifying round, but great performances to get over Switzerland and Romania!

There's only a couple from our squad that play in the U19s, but it's good to see Gibraltar making progress on the international scene as well! The Senior team is up to 160th in the world.

[mattyjames_]

Gibraltar National League Group 1 - Season 2025/26

Our excellent run of form continued through the second half of the back end of the season, and we smashed plenty more goals home without conceding any to cruise to victory in the Gibraltarian National League, our sixth league win in seven seasons in charge. Lincoln Red Imps imploded towards the end of the season, and College Europa finished strong to be the best of the rest. Despite their disgusting performance in the second half of the season, which saw them take just six points in the final ten games, St Joseph's FC got a win on the final day of the season to sneak into the final place for the Europa Conference League. The bottom half of the league was perhaps the most interesting through to the final day, with five of the six teams there separated by just six points (and then College '75 toiling at the bottom of the table).

Thanks to our strong results in the league, our undefeated and winning streaks in the league have continued now. It's been four years since we last lost in the league, and that streak shows no signs of ending any time soon.

Another five consecutive sell outs in the league, and we are also building a good clean sheet streak as well. Unfortunately that's going to come to an end sooner rather than later as we move back into the Champions League Qualification matches at the start of next season. Some highlights of the last five league matches are below.

Paul Shields scored after 18 seconds in this dominant win against St Joseph's - the fastest ever in both the National League and for Lynx FC.

Ardit Selimi grabbed all five goals as we slaughtered Manchester 62 FC, stealing the record for the most goals scored in a league game for both the National League and for Lynx FC. Not only that, he flew back past Kelvin Morgan in the race for the Golden Boot for the Gibraltar National League for the 2025/26 Season.

Not to be outdone, Kelvin Morgan grabbed four of his own in the final match of the season against Boca Juniors. It's fantastic to have our strikers in such good form.

 

Goal Scorers - Gibraltar National League - Season 2025/26

Kelvin Morgan - 20

Ardit Selimi - 19

Julian Del Rio - 9

Paul Shields - 8

Craig Galliano - 6

Dougie Taylor - 5

Luca Wollacott - 4

Tjay De Barr - 3

Tyler Burey - 2

Leon Clinton - 2

Oliver Cooper - 2

Jake Hackett - 2

 

I really have too many players to give the game time I want to all of them, but I'm too attached to them, and too wary of any injury crises that may pop up to move them on. I continually ask the board if we can get an affiliate club, but the chairman always comes back with "we have more than enough affiliates already". We have zero affiliates. *sigh*

[mattyjames_]

Gibraltar Rock Cup - Season 2025/26

This season's Rock Cup was perhaps the toughest one we have experienced in our history. We were drawn against Lincoln Red Imps in the Quarter Finals.

Selimi put them to the sword, grabbing three goals, while Tjay De Barr grabbed the other for an absolutely dominant performance. Riding high on this result and our results in the league, we went in to the Semi Final against College Europa full of confidence.

We just got away with it, scraping through on penalties. Bradley Banda got two crucial saves and we moved on to the final. Having taken out two of the strongest teams in the nation, we weren't too stressed going in to the final. We ended up being drawn against Mons Calpe, and it was a great way to send off some players who have been fantastic servants of the club.

Luca Wollacott played his 50th game for the club, and seems to think he is too good for us. Leeds are reluctant to allow him out on loan, as they wish to trial him in the Premier League. They did accept a $1.7 million tranfer fee from us for him, but Luca didn't want to enter into negotiations. He has been an absolute dream for us this season, and supported us really well. I suppose now is the time to see if we can find someone around his skill level to bring in full time prior to the end of our season and our budget being cut back from the $23 million that it currently is.

He's clearly too good for this division, but it would be nice to have someone of his level. Especially in the Champions League.

 

Goal Scorers - Rock Cup - Season 2025/26

Ardit Selimi - 3

Paul Shields - 2

Louie Annesley - 1

Tjay De Barr - 1

Craig Galliano - 1

[mattyjames_]

End of season awards:

Fans player of the season- Kelvin Morgan (70%)

Mac's player of the season- Luca Wollacott

Rising Star- Paul Shields

Goal of the season- Paul Shields (vs St Joseph's FC)

Signing of the season- Serine Sanneh (Free Transfer from West Ham)

Young player of the season- Luca Wollacott

Kelvin Morgan wasn't the most productive for us on a consistent basis throughout the season. He didn't score heaps in Europe, he didn't score much through the first half of the season, and he didn't score at all in the Rock Cup. However, despite this, he pulled 70% of the fan vote in the Player of the Season. Wollacott got 12% and Selimi picked up 10%. Luca Wollacott was an absolute champion for us this campaign, and has been justly rewarded with my Player of the Season award. He has set up so many assists from both set pieces and open play, and really provided a lot of the goals for us. His stats page says he contributed 20 assists and 6 goals in his 30 full appearances and 2 substitute appearances. I can't look past those kind of team numbers and if he decides not to come to the club next season, then I will always remember the 1.5 seasons that I've spent with him. Until someone much more amazing comes along! Paul Shields earns the Rising Star award off the back of some supreme performances in the Attacking Midfield position, owning his place in the starting line up and essentially demanding that I play him. That's not something I want to argue with!

 

End of season stat leaders (competitive fixtures):

Top Goalscorer- Ardit Selimi (24)

Most Assists- Luca Wollacott (18)

Most Clean Sheets- Bradley Banda (10)

Highest Average Rating- Luca Wollacott (7.79)

Best Passing Percentage- Julian Del Rio (86%)

Most Player of the Match- Ardit Selimi (7)

 

Season Summary

Managerial Record

Trophy Shelf

 

Rankings update to come when it comes around.

[mattyjames_]

48th in the rankings now! That puts us on almost the same level as the English League One. I'm scanning the transfer list and the released players looking for more high profile people to bring to the club. Hopefully people that don't want in excess of $10k per week though!

 

Only a small move for us on the club front this season - moving to 53rd in Europe. When we took over the club, we were ranked 590th, so we have made some good improvements!

[mattyjames_]

We've moved in to our new stadium! A great view of the Rock from the coaches box, and all in all, a beautiful looking arena!

 

Further to this YouTube video from the Gibraltar FA in 2018, Victoria Stadium has also been updated to reflect a more modern look ahead of the 2026/27 season!