The Power of Kentucky Fried Chicken

Matchday 25

Away to Dundee United

Formation: 4-2-2-2

Line-Up:

GK: Bell
RB: Pursehouse
CB: Ashcroft
CB: Pascali
LB: Hay
RW: Silva
CM: Stewart
CM: Harkins
LW: Aluko
ST: Gros
ST: Galan

Subs:

Jaakola
McKeown
O'Leary
Fowler
Dayton
Kennedy
McKay

Result

Draw 2-2

I didn't go into this game with alot of confidence as we were booked as the underdog and Dundee United are the only team other than Rangers to beat us in both games so far this season. So you could understand my surprise when we took the lead very early on. And then to come back from 2-1 down to go in tied at 2-2 on the half time whistle. We managed to battle and hold on through the second half to secure the point and a good draw away from home to one of the better teams in the league.

Monthly Update - January

January was a great month for the club. We finally ended our losing streak from the end of 2011 and nearly went the whole month undefeated, apart from the lose to St. Mirren at the start of the month. Finally it looked like we were getting back into our stride as well, and hopefully it will continue so we can go a full month undefeated next month though that may be harder looking at the fixtures.



Even with the game against Rangers this month I still believe it could be a very good month with us. The cup game at the start of the month should definitely provide some momentum going into the league games and hopefully that will help the team regain its start of season confidence. The leage now seems a lot closer, from 2nd down to 6th anyway as Rangers still seem to be running away with it.



Jorge Galan has finally "come out his shell" it seems as he scored 4 goals last month which definitely helped the team. Hopefully his form will continue to improve till the end of the season as we need to keep banging in these goals. His contract also runs out at the end of the season and so far has rejected a new offer from Osasuna, so there may even be a chance to sign him to a contract ourselves...if he was willing to take a wage cut.

Once again the financies took a beating with another near £122,000 loss though the sale of Ada did help a little. Our biggest expenditure was once again our loan repayments reaching £106,000 while our gate reciepts hit a non-old firm high of £192,000.

Training this month was all together very impressive as no-one failed to impress the coaches. The two most impressive however were:

Cammy Bell - Tactics
Alex Pursehouse - Tactics

As for transfer news for the month here is a look at the top Scottish and English transfers:

Scottish Cup 5th Round

Away to Queen of the South

Formation: 4-2-2-2

Line-Up:

GK: Bell
RB: Pursehouse
CB: Pascali
CB: Sissoko
LB: Hay
RW: Silva
CM: Fowler
CM: Harkins
LW: Aluko
ST: Gros
ST: Galan

Subs:

Jaakola
McKeown
Buijs
Kennedy
Winchester


Result

Won 2-0

Two early goals from Galan ensured that this game would be over before it started as as soon as both goals had gone in it became a game of keep ball for us and when QoS got the ball they never got the chance to settle. We will now see if the team can continue this run of form against fellow Top-6 teams in the up-coming league matches with Hearts and Hibs.

Scottish Cup 5th Round Results and 1/4 Final Draw

Unfortunately for non-league Buckie Thistle who made it so far and done so well, they were drawn against Rangers, who ultimately ended their good run in the cup.



And another unfortunate thing is that for the next round despite both teams making it through to the quarters ourselves and Ayr United were not drawn together for the next round denying us the chance for a derby match.

Matchday 26

Home to Hearts.

Formation: 4-2-2-2

Line-Up:

GK: Bell
RB: Buijs
CB: Pascali
CB: Sissoko
LB: Hay
RW: Silva
CM: Stewart
CM: Harkins
LW: Kennedy
ST: Gros
ST: Galan

Subs:

Jaakola
McKeown
Pursehouse
Racchi
Winchester
Telfer
Heffernan

Result

Lost 3-1

Not the result I would have wanted. We just couldn't seem to contend with Hearts especially when they were on the attack. The only good point about the game was that Heffernan scored on his return from injury. Other than that there isn't much good news. We remain in 5th but only 3 points separate us from 6th and a further 3 from 7th.

Matchday 27

Home/Away to Rangers

Formation: 4-2-2-2

Line-Up:

GK: Bell
RB: Buijs
CB: Sissoko
CB: Ashcroft
LB: Hay
RW: Silva
CM: Harkins
CM: Fowler
LW: Kennedy
ST: Galan
ST: Gros

Subs:

GK: Jaakola
CB: Pursehouse
FB: McKeown
CM: Winchester
RM: Racchi
LM: Telfer
ST: Heffernan

Result

Draw 4-4

Wow. That I did not expect. Going down early made me think we were going to be in for a thrashing, but a quick reply by Gros quelled those thoughts. Just on the half hour mark we had a goal questionably chalked off for offside when it clearly wasn't. Then Rangers took the lead again, for Gros to deliver a delightful long chip over the keeper to tie it up again just on half time. Rangers took the lead for a third time in the second half, but Sissoko made sure that his goal would stand this time and equalised with 20 minutes to play. Lafferty put Rangers 4-3 up with only minutes to play but somehow and from no-where Galan managed to wriggle past the defence and toe poke the ball into the back of the neck with virtually the last kick of the game.

Rangers are running away with the title, 20 points? O.o, that was a great result against them. good job.

Transfer Update

Robbie Brady and Oliver Norwood have both agreed contracts to sign with us at the end of the season as their contracts with Manchester United run out then. No compensation is to be paid either so the signings are completely free. Both players will provide cover for the first team and will hopefully contend for places in it withing a season or two of signing.

Two other signings that will take place at the end of the season are the aquisitions of current Arsenal Under-18 defender Martin Angha and current Blackpool Under-18 striker Tom Barkhuizen. Both of these will also be free transfers and like Brady and Norwood will hopefully turn into first team players in a couple of seasons while providing cover for the first team when needed.

In the other direction, Billy Bernsston will be leaving the club in July for Ipswich town along with Leon Panikvar, both for £60,000. Both players had become unhappy with lack of first team action and I wasn't pleased with their form within the first team or while on loan so selling them was the best option.

Unfortunately Danny Buijs' contract is up at the end of the season, due to insufficient financies to extend his contract, he has now agreed a contract to join top-6 rivals Celtic next season for free.

#38213 Atreidas : Rangers are running away with the title, 20 points? O.o, that was a great result against them. good job.

Yes they are running away with it, at the moment they are on 65 points while a re-surging celtic have climbed to 2nd and are on 45 points. and yeh i was sitting there going "i don't know what to do, where the h*ll is this coming from!?" lol

Never Thought I'd See The Day

Matchday 28

Home/Away to Hibernian

Formation: 4-2-2-2

Line-Up:

GK: Bell
RB: Buijs
CB: Pascali
CB: Sissoko
LB: McKeown
RW: Silva
CM: Stewart
CM: Harkins
LW: Aluko
ST: Gros
ST: Galan

Subs:
GK: Jaakola
CB: Ashcroft
FB: Pursehouse
CM: Kelly
RW: Racchi
LW: Kennedy
ST: Heffernan

Result

Won 2-1

Gros gave the early lead and Pascali doubled in the first half and the team looked comfortable only letting up one goal because of a mistake. This is a great result for the team as it moves us closer to the 4th place spot as well as 2nd and 3rd. Hopefully the team can build on this next week and start another unbeaten run.

Monthly Update - February

February wasn't a great month but it was certainly better than some of the others this season. In all competitions we played 5 games. We won two, the Scottish Cup match against Queen of the South, and a league game against Hibernian. We also drew two of our games, against Rangers (4-4) and a 1-1 draw in a friendly against the Rangers reserve squad which was arranged just to make a bit extra cash. We did however lose a game, that we probably should have done better in, against Hearts.



The league, I think, is safe with Rangers. They are infront of 2nd place by 7 wins (21 points), and don't look to be slowing up. So it comes down to the very tight battle for the rest of the top-6 places. With only 4 points separating 2nd and 6th its anyones game at the moment and a teams position can shift dramatically after one bad result.



In the last monthly update I said I thought Galan was coming out of his shell, well now I think Gros has joined him as the two combined have scored 9 goals in the past month and a bit. Which personally, after the droughts they both had, I think is pretty damn good.

February was our best financial month as we have only lost £62,550 which is the lowest amount we have lost this season. We lost £105,000 on loan repayments which once again was our biggest expenditure while we brought £290,000 through gate reciepts.

Among the senior players, Mahamadou Sissoko (Tactics) and Lee Ashcroft (Strength) impressed myself and the coaches last month. However Fowler (Strength), Kelly (Aerobics) and Kroca (Strength) all failed to impress in their respective catagories.

Scottish Cup Quarter Final

Home/Away to Falkirk

Formation: 4-2-2-2

Line-Up:

GK: Bell
RB: Buijs
CB: Pascali
CB: Sissoko
LB: Hay
RW: Silva
CM: Harkins
CM: Fowler
LW: Aluko
ST: Heffernan
ST: Galan

Subs:
GK: Jaakola
CB: Kroca
FB: McKeown
CM: Kelly
WM: Kennedy

Result

Draw 1-1

We were really unlucky in this game. We controlled the whole game up until the last few minutes when a ball into our box took a deflection off Pascali for an own goal to tie the game. This means that the there will a replay a few days later, rescheduling the St. Johnstone game for next week. This will cause problems as we have league games both the weekend before and after the game.

Scottish Cup Quarter Final Replay

HomeAway to Falkirk

Formation: 4-2-2-2

Line-Up:

GK: Bell
RB: Buijs
CB: Pascali
CB: Sissoko
LB: Hay
RW: Silva
CM: Harkins
CM: Fowler
LW: Aluko
ST: Heffernan
ST: Galan

Subs:
GK: Jaakola
FB: McKeown
CM: Kelly
WM: Kennedy
ST: Gros

Result

Won 1-0

Like the first match, we absolutely dominated the game and created more than enough chances and once we scored it was a simple case of keep ball. I would have liked to have scored a second just for security but the one goal did it. Next round we now have St. Johnstone in the Semi's.

Right guys I'm taking a break from the story over the holiday period, well till monday anyway. I'll be back as in a few days hopefully the break will let me keep myself interested in having to do all the updates and stuff. Thanks for all your support so far and I hope it continues when I come back.