Spav Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 Hooray for East Stirling \o/ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoehrst Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 Congrats Faramir! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faramir Posted January 7, 2009 Author Share Posted January 7, 2009 tenthreeleader, Spav, stoehrst- Thanks very much The story itself is on the final homestretch now (as is the Harrow Hill Ages Challenge story) and I want to thank all three of you for your encouragement along the way *** 6.5.18 East Stirling (4) Celtic (2) Celtic clearly wanted to make a statement in this match, as though the match meant something. Instead our 3rd string showed grit, heart and determination as we fought back to hand the storied side a ringing 4-2 loss to close out a sensational BSP season. With the Euro Cup Final and Scottish Cup Final upcoming, I chose to rest virtually all of our first and second line players. Stuart Thomson handed Celtic the lead at 35 minutes when he was whistled for a clear trip of Emrah Ekin in the area. Neil Woods converted the penalty kick past Scott Sim and we were trailing. Despite our slightly unorganized play in the half, we managed to equalize late in the half when Stuart Ritchie sent a terrific long pass into the visitors' area and Scott McLaughlin showed impeccable timing in deflecting it past Vesa Karjalainen. MOM Mark Green went to work in the second half and quickly gave us a lead when he scored his 10th goal of the season with a fine move that rounded Karjalainen. Green then made it a quickfire brace when John McGregor threaded a pass through traffic that allowed Green to dump the ball into the open right side of the goal. Celtic showed life as they surged to the attack and Marc Duncliffe drilled a rebound into the upper left portion of the goal after Sim made a good parry of Ekin's low blast. We put the match away in second half injury time when Green was in the right spot to wisk in the rebound after Karjalainen parried McLaughlin's hard shot to complete his hat-trick and give us the final margin of our 4-2 win. BSP Table- Final 1- East Stirling 83 pts (+57) (23 wins 14 draws 1 loss) 2- Celtic 76 pts (+42) 3- Rangers 70 pts (+23) 4- Hearts 59 pts (+3) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoehrst Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 Onward and forward to the Scottish Cup and the UEFA Cup! Then the World Cup with Scotland, right? Good luck, Faramir Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faramir Posted January 9, 2009 Author Share Posted January 9, 2009 stoehrst- coming soon *** 7.5.18 Darryl Knights won his 2nd consecutive BSP Player of the Year honour and his 3rd one overall (also was 2014-15 Player of the Year). He beat out Craig Beattie and Lorenzo De Luca for the Award. 'Gers Kasper Frederiksen beat out Alan Young and John McLaren to capture Young Player of the Year honours. We had six players selected for the BSP Players Team of the Year- five of them as starters. Selected as starters were: D- John McLaren D- David Martin D- David McGregor (Anthony Hallam could have come close to making this a clean sweep on the backline- except he didn't qualify because McKenzie kept him out of the early season lineup) M- Tim Burgess S- Darryl Knights Sub- Alan Young I was selected Manager of the Year for the 2nd time in my time in BSP. 'Gers Gunnar Gislason barely edged David Martin for Scottish Football Writer's Player of the Year award, with Perparim Hetemaj in 3rd. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faramir Posted January 11, 2009 Author Share Posted January 11, 2009 9.5.18 Ajax (0) East Stirling (2) Euro Cup Final DOUBLE! DOUBLE! is what our fans were chanting after Darryl Knights scored in second half injury time to clinch the win for us as we overcame a very partisan Rotterdam crowd to defeat Ajax 2-0 and capture our 1st Euro Cup. Kenneth Stenild stood tall as a money keeper for us again as we battled hard, but overall looked very disorganized against the flowing Dutch attacks in the first half. Steady backline play helped Stenild a lot as we cleared rebounds extremely well in the match. Following the scoreless first half, I encouraged the boys to just relax and play a little- the tenseness had definitely put a crimp in our first half efforts. Danny Howard keyed the key moment of the match when he outleapt two defenders and flicked his header back to Nicolas Fischer. Fischer, who came into the play late, picked his moment well and put away his shot inside the left post past keeper Edwin Janssen to give us the lead at 65 minutes. Ajax sent men forward, seemingly everyone forward as the time dwindled and finally paid for their aggressiveness when David Baxter chipped a pass to unmarked Knights and he blistered a shot by Janssen. We closed out the last two minutes and David McGregor received MOM honours for his fine tackling and work in the air that helped Stenild ensure the clean sheet in our 2-0 win. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoehrst Posted January 11, 2009 Share Posted January 11, 2009 Three cheers for Faramir! I knew you could do it, pal Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spav Posted January 12, 2009 Share Posted January 12, 2009 Icing. Cake. You know the rest. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tenthreeleader Posted January 12, 2009 Share Posted January 12, 2009 Make mine a double, please, Mr. Faramir! Congratulations and well played! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faramir Posted January 13, 2009 Author Share Posted January 13, 2009 stoehrst, Spav, tenthreeleader- Thanks all of you for your comments As this story winds down (finally!) it has been a fun one to play- all your encouragement helped *** 12.5.18 East Stirling (3) Dundee (0) Scottish Cup Final We repeated as Scottish Cup holders with a convincing 3-0 win over Dundee and celebrated a terrific treble to cap our finest season to date. MOM John Burns returned from injury and gave us the lead late in the first half with a precision cross that Danny Howard deflected past Peter Hendriks at 41 minutes. To that point we had dominated the first half, but poor shooting had left us without any goals. The second half found Dundee with more life, but Ross Brown made his loan key save when he stopped John Jairo Mosquera from close-in. Mark Green, on for a tiring Darryl Knights, allowed us to feel more comfortable when he showed superb vision in passing to Nicolas Fischer. Fischer came in late and sliced through the open middle of Dundee's defense before slotting a shot past Hendriks inside the left upright. Gary Ross bumped Anthony Hallam in the air on a late corner and Tim Burgess added the final nail to Dundee's coffin as he converted the penalty kick to make the final margin 3-0. It was a grand effort to close a great season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark wilson27 Posted January 13, 2009 Share Posted January 13, 2009 Congrats on all the success Faramir, brilliant story and loving the read as always Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faramir Posted January 15, 2009 Author Share Posted January 15, 2009 mark- Thanks much *** 16.5.18 Sevilla defeated FC Bayern 1-0 in Extra-Time to capture the Champions Cup. *** 18.5.18 In a stunning surprise, Danny Howard was named Best Player in the Champions Cup and John Burns was Runner-up. Burns is on the outs with both myself and the club after failing to show up for practice and griping in the press about wanting to move to a bigger club. I have transfer listed him to try to accommodate his wishes and none of the players seems too unhappy with that decision. We placed 5 players on the European Champions Cup Dream Team: Starters- GK- Kenneth Stenild M- Nicolas Fischer M- John Burns F- Danny Howard Reserves- John McLaren *** 19.5.18 SCOTLAND Our World Cup pairings saw us placed in Group G- and not a Group of death for a change. Also with us in the Group are favored Argentina, Iran and Panama. *** 28.5.18 I found it ironic that John Burns is now upset with me for offering him to other clubs. It is clear that Burns' unprofessional manner- something my Assistant Brian McLair had warned me about- is very much in evidence. Despite Burns' clear top of the line talent we managed to get along with out him for large stretches of last season when he was injured, so the hunt is still on to provide him with a new home. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faramir Posted January 18, 2009 Author Share Posted January 18, 2009 SCOTLAND 31.5.18 I named our side for the World Cup and representing Scotland will be: GK- Ross Brown (East Stirling) GK- David Marshall (Everton) GK- Craig Gordon (Newcastle) DR- John McLaren (East Stirling) DR- Mark Wilson (Dundee United) DL- David Martin (East Stirling) DL- James McEveley (Blackburn) DC- David McKenzie (Arsenal) DC- David McGregor (East Stirling) DC- Zander Diamond (Celtic) MR- Darren Fletcher (Manchester United) ML- David Baxter (East Stirling) ML- Robert Snodgrass (Bristol City) ML- Kevin King (Motherwell) ML- Scott Agnew (Burnley) MC- Brian Morrison (Liverpool) MC- Tim Burgess (East Stirling) MC- John McGregor (East Stirling) SC- Craig Beattie (Rangers) SC- Danny Howard (East Stirling) SC- Andy Bagshaw (Charlton) SC- John Moffat (Everton) SC- Marc McCusker (Brentford) *** 1.6.18 World Cup Title Odds by totalbook.com Italy 6-4 Argentina 6-4 France 2-1 England 2-1 Spain 2-1 Scotland 40-1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathan Pike Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 I've caught up with this story since my return, but it looks like I've done so as things are coming to an end. It's been a fabulous effort with East Stirling and a World Cup win for Scotland would top it off. Well done, Faramir. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faramir Posted January 20, 2009 Author Share Posted January 20, 2009 Nathan- Thanks very much It is really hard to believe that I began this story almost 4 years ago now (well posting it, but I had a season or two played before I began...). *** 1.6.18 Scotland finished atop the sporting play table and will receive an extra Euro Cup place next season. *** 3.6.18 Rangers sacked John Brown today. The press had been trying to push me into declaring interest in the job, but I wouldn't do that as I am not interested in leaving East Stirling. *** 4.6.18 German Michael Skibbe was selected to take over as Manager of Rangers today. Also today the European qualifications were announced- Champions Cup- East Stirling, Celtic, Rangers Euro Cup- Dundee, Hearts, Dunfermline Euro Vase- Hibernian, Dundee United *** 6.6.18 John Burns will have a new home as of July 1, 2018 as Arsenal will pay us 10 Million (and a 20% sell-on clause) for the unhappy left winger. *** SCOTLAND 11.6.18 Scotland (3) Iran (0) World Cup Group G It was a glorious start to our World Cup as easily defeated Iran 3-0 in front of over 100,000 fans at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. Our dangerous duo of Craig Beattie and Danny Howard was too much for the Iran backline. Howard put us into the lead in the 16th minute when he was just able to slide and get his left foot on a cross from Beattie and that was enough to push it into the open left side of the goal. Howard returned the favor to Beattie as he made a wonderful touch pass that allowed Beattie to snap a shot into the right side of the goal at 36 minutes for a 2-0 lead. Howard then made another sensational move with the ball as he turned on the jets and raced past the Iran backline before unselfishly slipping a pass across for Beattie to tap home into the open goal for his brace at 44 minutes. With the 3-0 lead, we still maintained pressure in the second half, but failed to score on some decent chances. Ross Brown had an easy clean sheet, but was very active for us today. Beattie received MOM honours in the match. Argentina crushed Panama 5-1 in the other Group G match. If we can do well against Panama in our next match, we should advance from Group G. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tenthreeleader Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 Rangers sacked John Brown today. The press had been trying to push me into declaring interest in the job, but I wouldn't do that as I am not interested in leaving East Stirling. Aw, come on ... Gers need you! And a great World Cup win! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faramir Posted January 22, 2009 Author Share Posted January 22, 2009 Thanks tenthree 'Gers just not my style though *** 15.6.18 The Club European Rankings were announced today and we moved up 8 places to 25th in Europe. Sevilla remains the top rated club. *** SCOTLAND 18.6.18 Panama (0) Scotland (2) World Cup Group G All the way across America, in Orlando Florida's Citrus Bowl, we worked hard in earning a 2-0 win over Panama in front of highly partisan crowd for the Central American side. MOM Danny Howard was again the difference maker for us. Howard turned on his explosive pace and intercepted an errant Panama pass at midfield, then scooted past one defender before firing a well placed shot past Carlos Torres to give us the lead at 16 minutes. If not for Torres' fine play, we would easily have swamped Panama, but he kept his side in with many good to excellent saves. Andy Bagshaw was feeling especially frustrated, as he was stopped several times. Ross Brown had to come up with a diving parry on a Jose Martinez header to keep us in the lead early in the second half. We finally clinched the win when Craig Beattie sent Howard a fine pass and Howard rifled a precision shot past Torres for his brace in the 80th minute. Argentina defeated Iran 1-0 and now our showdown match with them is only to see who qualifies in the top spot- as both of us have clinched places in the next round. We did lose Tim Burgess in the match and he is doubtful for the remainder of the tourney. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faramir Posted January 24, 2009 Author Share Posted January 24, 2009 20.6.18 David McGregor received news that East Stirling's fans had voted him Player of the Year for the club. The Board told me that expected a European Qualification again this season, which seems a modest enough expectation for the club. *** SCOTLAND 22.6.18 Scotland (2) Argentina (1) World Cup Group G We upset heavily favored Argentina in front of another over 100,000 crowd as we returned to the Rose Bowl. We outplayed Argentina in the first half, but found Dario Ortiz difficult to solve. John Moffat, a surprise starter at forward missed two sitters in the early going- frustrating all of the club to no end. Argentina pressured us to open the second half and David Marshall had to make a save with his legs on Matias Garay to keep things scoreless. We struck for the lead when MOM David Baxter showed superior vision as he picked out Darren Fletcher coming in to the play late. Fletcher drilled his shot past Ortiz inside the far left post. We didn't have to worry about Ortiz after the 68th minute when he earned a redcard for pulling down Craig Beattie in the area as Beattie rounded him. Brian Morrison converted the penalty kick and we were ahead 2-0. Argentina didn't quit and caught our backline surging forward with a quick counter-attack that allowed Garay to score past Marshall at 70 minutes. We kept control of the match from there in winning 2-1 to finish atop Group G. We found out that our opponent will be Croatia in the next round. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faramir Posted January 24, 2009 Author Share Posted January 24, 2009 SCOTLAND 26.6.18 Scotland (4) Croatia (0) World Cup 2nd Round We are through to the Quarterfinals after another terrific effort as we defeated Croatia 4-0 at the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas. We appeared to have taken the lead at 10 minutes when Danny Howard deflected a sizzling Darren Fletcher cross past Dalibor Bozic, but the Assistant waved off the goal and ruled that Howard was offside- a contention we bitterly contested. Craig Beattie made no mistake as he caught Bozic in a moment of indecision and flicked a header past the stranded keeper on another cross from Fletcher. Ross Brown made two timely saves late in the half to keep the lead to the dressing room. The second half started poorly as Beattie was forced to leave with an injury. Howard stepped up his play and gave us a 2-0 lead when he reached a loose ball first and lofted a shot over Bozic- who was again caught in no-man's land. Howard had a brace after he whipped a shot from just inside the edge of the area past Bozic thanks to a good pass from John McLaren. Howard then completed his hat-trick later in the half when he put away a shot after David Martin's pass had found him with space on the left side. Brown kept the sheet clean as we closed out the win. Host side USA ended Argentina's disappointing tourney by brooming them with a 2-0 win. We will now face Serbia and Montenegro in the Quarter-Finals. Beattie's face is very swollen as he was hit in the jaw and he is doubtful for at least the next match. The other Quarter-final matchups are Spain-Holland (which broomed Italy), Canada- Colombia and England-USA. Portugal and France never made it out of their respective Groups and Brazil was sent home by England on penalties. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spav Posted January 24, 2009 Share Posted January 24, 2009 Is the Midas touch going to extend to Scotland too? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tenthreeleader Posted January 25, 2009 Share Posted January 25, 2009 The Tartan ARMY! Fly the Lion Rampant Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faramir Posted January 27, 2009 Author Share Posted January 27, 2009 Spav- always hope... tenthreeleader- Flag wavers are EVERYWHERE (in the U.S. where we play)! *** SCOTLAND 30.6.18 Serbia & Montenegro (2) Scotland (3) World Cup Quarterfinal A gritty effort on our part as we fought back from behind twice and scored a late match winner that left the Serbian FIA crying foul about the officiating. We move on to the Semifinals thanks to our 3-2 win at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachustetts. Serbia outplayed us by a large margin in the first half- something I attribute to missing the physical presence of Craig Beattie on the pitch. Ross Brown did well early on, but was victimized on a free kick as Dejan Lazic slipped unmarked to flick a header past him at 38 minutes. Andy Bagshaw picked a huge moment to finally break his duck as he rifled a shot past Milan Obradovic in first half injury time to send us to halftime even at 1-1. We fell behind again in the early moments of the second half as we botched our coverage on another free kick and Dalibor Marinkovic powered a header past Brown. Brown lay crumpled because of the collision with Marinkovic and David Marshall was forced to come in in goal. Marshall made two key saves as we had trouble keeping Marinkovic under wraps and he went in free both times. Marshall was right there to save both and that became critical when John McGregor also broke his duck and blistered a 25 yard free kick past Obradovic to equalize at 68 minutes. It appeared the match was going to be decided in Extra-time when the Referee whistled Dusan Basta for pushing Danny Howard in the area. Brian Morrison calmly drilled the penalty kick past Obradovic for the dramatic match winner at 87 minutes and earned himself MOM honours. Brown suffered a badly gashed head and will miss the rest of the tourney. In the other Quarterfinal matches- Canada knocked out Colombia on penalties after a scorless match, Spain broomed Holland on penalties after a 1-1 result in regulation and England also used penalties to knock out host USA after a 1-1 regulation. We will face fellow upstart Canada in the Semifinals. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spav Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 Scotland v England in a World Cup Final - could it be? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faramir Posted January 28, 2009 Author Share Posted January 28, 2009 Spav- Seeing is Believing *** SCOTLAND 3.7.18 Canada (2) Scotland (3) World Cup Semifinal The heart, the pride and the determination of Scotland were in full bloom for over 100,000 fans at the Rose Bowl to see as we fought back after trailing 2-0 to score a dramatic late match winner that sends us into the World Cup Final. Canada keeper Asmir Begovic, who rightfully earned MOM honours, made our life miserable in the first half. We kept creating excellent scoring chances and he kept coming up with the big saves. Against the flow of play Canada took the lead when we had David McKenzie off being treated beyond the endline. Nick Guzman spotted David Dodds streaking into space and Dodds was barely onside, but enough to allow him to chip his shot past David Marshall. Our entire club was very down when it quickly became 2-0 at 29 minutes. Marshall made an excellent save on a dangerous free kick by Peter Korthuis, but we failed to clear and Jonathan de Guzman ripped the rebound shot past Marshall before he could react. The boys were down, but they weren't ready to quit and we got a huge boost when David Baxter tapped a loose ball pass back and John McLaren snapped it into the open right side of the goal to break his duck before Begovic could react at 35 minutes. They still held the lead at halftime, but the determination was something you could feel in our dressing room. We stormed out and applied heavy pressure from the opening whistle. David McGregor broke his duck with a great header on a corner from Darren Fletcher and we had fought back to 2-2 at 51 minutes. As has been the case so many times, Danny Howard stepped up again. John McLaren started the play with a great tackle to ruin what looked like a good scoring chance for Dodds. McLaren quickly sent the ball out to Darren Fletcher on the right. Fletcher made a highlight reel pass that found Howard in full stride with a step on two defenders. Howard slipped a well placed shot past Begovic inside the left post for his 40th International goal and a dramatic 88th minute winner. We will be without David McKenzie in the Finals as he received a yellow card and is banned for the match. *** SCOTLAND 4.7.18 It will be a momentous World Cup Final at the Rose Bowl after England fought back from behind to defeat Spain 2-1 and create a historic showdown match of the like not often seen- even in the World Cup Finals. *** 7.7.18 Spain blitzed Canada 3-0 in the World Cup 3rd place match. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tenthreeleader Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 Good luck against the Auld Enemy! Great stuff! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spav Posted January 29, 2009 Share Posted January 29, 2009 C'mon McFaramir and his Scottish Army. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faramir Posted January 29, 2009 Author Share Posted January 29, 2009 SCOTLAND 8.7.18 Scotland (2) England (3) World Cup Final A storybook run came to a bitter end as we played hard- though not always well- and lost a taut 3-2 Final to England in the Rose Bowl. We got off to a flying start when Glen Johnson's poor clearance allowed John McGregor to slip a pass in and David Baxter fired it past Chris Morgan for a goal in the 2nd minute. England evened the match at 30 minutes as Jamie Morris outleapt Zander Diamond and deflected a Stewart Downing corner past David Marshall. I should have pulled Diamond right then and my decision not to will haunt me. In the opening moments of the second half Diamond lost the ball when Craig Fuller took it away. That started a 3 on 1 break with only David McGregor back and Fuller slipped a pass across that George Burgess dumped into the open side of the goal for a 2-1 England lead. We hit back immediately when Craig Beattie- healthy enough to play- deflected a cross from David Martin past Morgan. We could not contain Burgess and he slipped past McGregor and James McEveley, who had come on for Diamond after his error, and made it a brace with a well placed shot past Marshall at 56 minutes. We had some terrific opportunities to get back even- but Morgan really played much better after they took the lead and made a couple unbelievable saves. The final whistle found the wrong side celebrating winning the World Cup- and I was left wondering what the match would have been like had David McKenzie not been banned. ********************************************************** THE END Spav, tenthree- I wish the story didn't have a bittersweet ending, but unfortunately that is the way things turned out : ( After almost four years of posting (May 05 began) East Stirling has finally reached the end of the line. It was a great run and a fun one- finally beating out the Old Firm clubs to capture our first BSP Crown was a great moment- but it is time to put this one to bed Thanks to everyone who contributed comments along the way, you really helped add to the story After a break, I will likely start a new East Stirling story (this time with FM 09), but that is a ways off just now. Thanks again to all the forum readers and hoped you at least got a moment or two of enjoyment from it- it was a good one to tell -MD Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoehrst Posted January 29, 2009 Share Posted January 29, 2009 I feel as though a chapter in my life has ended...heartbreaking stuff to lose the final, but well done with all your success here Faramir. I'm looking forward to the next one! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark wilson27 Posted January 29, 2009 Share Posted January 29, 2009 Faramir, its been an absolute pleasure reading this story, it was one of the stories that inspired me to write. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spav Posted January 29, 2009 Share Posted January 29, 2009 Bravo, Faramir. Farewell to a masterful story, simple in design, but one that obviously drew many loyal readers. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tenthreeleader Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 Congratulations on great achievements in the game but on better ones in the forum. Truly well done and I'll be looking forward to the next! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EvilDave Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 I can't really add much to what 10/3 said, but I'll try. Your stories always manage to draw in the readers despite their simplicity, and are with no exception a joy to read. You get an excellent feel for the longer-serving players and the difficulties your manager goes through, and the fact that you do it time and time again is of great credit to you. It's a shame you couldn't go out with a win, but I'm sure there'll be plenty of success in the future for your many sides. I for one, am more than looking forward to reading about it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
coldkohmew Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 Its still a good end... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
obiwan Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 Loved the story Faramir! Kept me on the edge of my seat for months, never knowing what was going to happen next. Already looking forward to reading your next story. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murrayzoster Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 Well Done (Y), Going To Miss This Story :'( Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathan Pike Posted February 14, 2009 Share Posted February 14, 2009 I'm going to miss it too. A wonderful effort, Faramir. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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