oneteaminglasgow

Thrown in among all that, I had my first games with Nigeria in attempting to qualify for the AFCON. I only have 7 real players, but they were incredibly comfortable. We face Niger next.

Not really that arsed about the overall result, I just want Alex Cole-Hamilton to lose his seat and end up living in a bin for the rest of his life. Is that really too much to ask for?

Match 36 - 2054

Match 35 - 2054

Match 34 - 2054

Match 33 - 2054

Match 32 - 2054

Match 31 - 2054

Match 30 - 2054

September 2054 As expected, we were put out the Europa Conference, but we gave a pretty decent account of ourselves against Burnley. Rest of the month was, obviously, delightful. We're into our third consecutive cup final as well, and Saburtalo have been knocked out so we'll be playing a second tier side in the final. I'd like to think that I should be ending the season with some silverware again. Seven games to go, still just the one point behind. Up next, Saburtalo away.

Going to have a crack at the African Cup of Nations under 23's, and then look for something else. I got rejected for the full Nigeria job just before getting this, but we'll see what comes up.

August 2054 f**k me, we got through against Young Boys! That first leg was fantastic, and we did enough in the second leg. Admittedly, we're definitely going out against Burnley with us 3-0 down from our home game, but still, not a bad effort. League form has been brilliant too. Very, very pleased with how this month has gone. Still a point behind, but once again we're very secure in second place. Ten games and one more game against Saburtalo to go, so we've got a chance at the title. Very pleased that we got through having the european games without it impacting our league form negatively as well.

It’s a relatively affluent area, or at least lots of it is, which tends to be where the unionists are best supported I think. For reasons which I’m not certain of, the Lib Dem’s are the party round here which the unionists have rallied round. A huge proportion of the Lib Dem vote here would vote for either Labour or the Tories if they lived somewhere else. FWIW, 2x SNP/Green from my Edinburgh West abode.

July 2054 Transfer window this month, and the big two outgoings were Omerovic and Ivanovic. Both had their minimum release clauses met, so I had no choice, but it necessitated bringing in replacements. Stevan Milosavljevic is a centre back, good defensively, can pass and cover at right back if needed. He's not outstanding, but certainly good enough for me. Amel Dizdarevic is an attacking midfielder and Champions League winner, although he's very firmly on the downslide of his career. He's still a great player technically, but his physical stats are shite now. He's here to provide depth. Good month - we're through in Europe and positive results in every league game. A couple of last minute goals to claim a draw against Saburtalo and a win against Samtredia were glorious, especially the latter where we had ten men and had been holding on for most of the second half. A couple of poor results from Saburtalo means we're just a point behind now. It's getting interesting. That's a very tough draw. I don't think we'll be going through.

June 2054 Quiet month due to the World Cup, but we won both our games so that's good. Had to come back against Telavi, which wasn't really ideal, but we managed it fairly comfortably in the end. Not much change in the table, we're still clear in second and still trailing first by a fair bit.

May 2054 Another loss against Saburtalo. They're still a better side than I am, which is really disappointing - was hoping that I could overtake them this season. Doesn't look like that'll be happening. Rest of the month was good, apart from the 0-0 with Lokomotivi, but we were very unfortunate not to win that, and hit the bar in the last minute so it's just one of those games I think. It's now a six point gap to the top, but we have five points on the teams behind us.

Not as I'd hoped. He's a slightly better player than he was when I signed him, and he does very well in this league (20 goals in 31 games last season, 6 in 12 so far this) but I doubt he'll ever hit the heights that were predicted for him. He's still only 21 though, so maybe he'll get it together. Vs

April 2054 I'll take that, although the Sioni and Dinamo Tblisi games are missed opportunities. The Cup game was some laugh, being 5-0 up after 12 minutes. Admittedly, we were playing the colt team of a side who are 2 tiers below me, so it was expected but still. Koistinen had a tough time in the first two games, but has really hit form since then. Just three points behind Saburtalo, but we're starting to pull ahead of the rest of the league in second. On an unrelated note, this has enraged me... Koistinen is favoured personnel here, and I'm no. He's been here a fucking month. Sakes.

If I mind correctly, it's something about the Highland clearances being a good solution to the West Lothian question.

March 2054 A mixed, but I guess mostly good, start to the season. Threw away a 2-0 lead against Saburtalo and made a complete arse of it against a ten man Lokomotivi side. Three other wins were great though.

Transfers - 2054 Right, I'll just rattle through the ones who actually matter. Driton Sadiku got replaced by a youth player, and I also brought in a new right back, so moved him on. Ugrekhelidze was a young left back who I was planning on using, but he kicked up a fuss about moving so f**k it. I stuck a buy back clause in there in case he comes good. Maroales and Montejano were my back up centre halves but neither were good enough. The main one is Petr Havel. I was really wanting to keep him, but he kicked off about moving as well, so I let him go. Genuinely sad to see him go. Right, not too many signings again. Joel Pelvas was signed, supposed to be a replacement for Levan Khariashvili in central midfield as there was reports that Sevilla and Inter were looking at him, but he never left in the end so Pelvas will be here alongside him. He's an excellent passer, and very gifted technically. Not much defensively, but I don't really intend on him doing a lot of that work. Antti Lehtonen is my second Finnish signing, and he's the right back I brought in to replace Sadiku. He's not as good going forward, but he's much, much more solid defensively, and I think I need that given how attacking everything in front of my back line tends to be. Oyvind Hammersland is a centre half, and a pretty good one too. He has a cracking name as well. Giorgi Mikeladze is another centre half, and he's here for squad depth. A decent, if unspectacular, player, but will be fine. Also, weakens fucking Samtredia - an added bonus. Revaz Lomia is a back up striker, young enough to improve a lot and a good finsher. Aleksi Koistinen is here to replace Petr Havel, so he has big shoes to fill. I have faith that he can do it, he's a great finisher, composed, fairly quick and just generally good at being a striker. Very pleased with him, especially as I got him in a rush when Havel was leaving.

Poor bit of goalkeeping. What a terrible shame.

Georgian Super Cup - 2054

The problem with the ‘Falkirk can still go up’ chat is that it doesn’t account for the fact that a good number of there players appear to have completely chucked it, and are simply going through the motions till the end of the season - at least if last Thursday is anything to go by. Durnan’s “defending” on Thistle’s fourth goal is evidence of that for me, plus the fact that only one player (Morrison) seemed even remotely frustrated or bothered at being 5-0 down in a game which could have had them back in the title race. I also don’t know what’s happened to Blair Alston as I remember him being decent enough, but he was worse than a man down. As you say, really shite teams can get promoted, but if Falkirk are to get promoted, then they’ll need to get an awful lot of players back on side in a short space of time. I don’t see it happening.

Only if you’re a complete fucking moron.