Ernie Allan: An FM19 Journeyman Story!

[BeforeTheBusWasParked]

Looks good mate! I love a good unemployed career, keeps the game interesting and requires a bit more tactical tinkering. Best of luck. Fancy a wager on who gets a Cpl first? hahah

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Looks good mate! I love a good unemployed career, keeps the game interesting and requires a bit more tactical tinkering. Best of luck. Fancy a wager on who gets a Cpl first? hahah

Cheers mate....the way I'm going I'm well off winning anything or getting anywhere anytime soon lol

 

[FM_TNSSO]

February 2019

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February 2019

Saturday 2nd February 2019
Ladbrokes League 2
Annan vs Stirling
Formation: 5-2-2-1 Wing Backs

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We really struggle to cope with the teams in the top 4 and this was no different here. Annan going forward were great at times and our back line were made to look very average at times!


Saturday 9th February 2019
Ladbrokes League 2
Stirling vs Albion Rovers
Formation: 5-2-2-1 Wing Backs

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Poor, really poor!! No excuses, just not ****** good enough!


After the loss to Albion Rovers, the board summon up to their office so that they can question me on the poor result. Naturally, I shun all responsibility and blame it on the players and the board agree with me...even they realise my team is ****!

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Just before the Albion Rovers game, I'd thrown my hat into the ring for the Guiseley job and after the game, they invited to interview for the role. With things at Stirling getting worse, I'm keen to move on sooner rather than later now and it's getting to the stage where any job will do.

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Saturday 16th February 2019
Ladbrokes League 2
Peterhead vs Stirling
Formation: 5-2-2-1 Wing Backs

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A massive away win against the mighty Peterhead! We were really good and this was possibly our best team performance of the year against a very good side! It's a shame we can't play like this every week!


Willie Robertson picked up an injury in the Peterhead game that will see him miss a couple of months of action!

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Guiseley feel I wasn't the right man for their manager's job! Wankers!

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Saturday 23rd February 2019
Ladbrokes League 2
Stirling vs Queen's Park
Formation: 5-2-2-1 Wing Backs

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Back to back wins for the first time since the start of the season! Is it finally clicking for us, is it finally coming together?! Darren Smith took home the match ball after bagging all 4 of our goals...**** knows where he pulled that performance from?!


Darren Barr will miss the next 4 weeks after picking up an injury against Queen's Park.

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2 defeats and 2 wins this month and we finish February in 6th place with 10 games remaining! It's looking likely we'll finish anywhere between 5th and 7th now and it would take an almighty effort to make the top 4 now! With the job front going very quiet, it looks like I'm resigned to seeing this season out with Stirling, which I guess was the right thing to do all along.

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Player of the Month
Darren Smith

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Finally, finally a striker of mine hits a run of form...it's only taken 6 months! Smith picks up the player of the month after scoring 6 goals in 4 games.


Four games coming up in March. We've already beaten Berwick twice this season so we'll be looking at that one for 3 points, but Clyde have beaten us in all 3 previous meetings this season and will be a tough finish to the month!

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[FM_TNSSO]

March 2019 (part 1)

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March 2019 (Part 1)

Saturday 2nd March 2019
Ladbrokes League 2
Stirling vs Cowdenbeath
Formation: 5-2-2-1 Wing Backs

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I've played Cowdenbeath 3 times this season and in all 3 games we have gone 1-0 up, only for the games to all end in 1-1 draws!


Apparently, the youth intake has the makings of a 'golden generation' about them.

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Ricky Goodwillie and Regan Cameron both look like promising attacking midfielders who have the potential to break into the first team over the next couple of years.

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The Boston United job came up and I sent off my application. I'm still looking but not quite as desperately before. If an opportunity comes up, I'll take it, but at the same time I'll be happy to see it out here at Stirling for the rest of the season if not. Anyway, Boston came back immediately with the offer of an interview so I attend.

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Saturday 9th March 2019
Ladbrokes League 2
Stirling vs Berwick
Formation: 5-2-2-1 Wing Backs

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This was a really poor result against a side that hadn't beaten us in 3 previous meetings this season! We struggled to create anything going forward and gave our fans very little to get excited about!


Saturday 16th March 2019
Ladbrokes League 2
Elgin City vs Stirling
Formation: 5-2-2-1 Wing Backs

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I really don't know what to expect from this team in each game anymore. Our form is so up and down and our performances are too. This was another decent one following the shocker against Berwick and we get another win on the board!


After nearly 2 weeks of not hearing anything and assuming the opportunity had gone, Boston United come back and offer me the manager's job, along with a cheeky £50 per week pay rise as well! The lure of a whole £200 a month extra is too much for me to resist and I'm on my way back down to England.

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My record at Stirling has been pretty shocking if I'm completely honest with only 8 wins from my 35 games in charge! I didn't manage to win a single cup game and leave the club under performing in 6th place in the league and with no real hope of making the top 4! I'm pretty sure the Stirling fans will be happy to see the back of me, although I'll always remember them as the most patient fans in the world as they've never really got on my back at all despite my numerous shortcomings!

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I'm going to look at my first job in football management as one thing and one thing only....a big fuckoff learning curve! I've had the opportunity to play with a lot of tactics/mentalities/player role combinations along the way and I do 'think' I have learned a lot! After 274 days, I'm ready to move on to a fresh challenge, a fresh start, and apply everything I've learnt to make a success of this football management lark!

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[FM_TNSSO]

New Club

New Club: Boston United

[FONT=&quot]It's official...I'm unveiled as the new manager of Boston United![/FONT]

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Boston United are a semi professional club that have never played higher than League Two, the English 4th tier. They enjoyed a spell of 5 seasons at that level back in the early 2000's recording an 11th placed finish in 2004 and 2006. Other than that, they've played all their football at non league level. This is now their 9th season in a row playing in the Vanarama National League North, during which they have made the playoffs 4 times without winning them!

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This season, they were again expected to be in the top half with a potential shot at making the playoffs again, but instead find themselves lingering in 15th, hence why previous manager Craig Elliott was sacked after a year and a half at the club!

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Boston United play their home games at the 6,643 capacity York Street stadium (1,826 seated).

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It's good to see the club's finances in the black....but just look at that wage bill! It looks like I'll have some work to do in the Summer to reduce that!

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It shouldn't be too hard to trim this squad in the Summer...it's massive for a club at this level! A number of players are already up on the transfer list but it seems none of them are drawing the attention of any other clubs!

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One thing I wasn't blessed with at Stirling was decent strikers, but immediately I notice that my assistant rates two of my forwards here as our best players. The first is Adam Marriott and I agree with him completely! He looks like a good striker for this level and has 11 goals this season so far! His career record boasts a goal every 2 games and I'll be looking to get the very best out of him!

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According to my assistant, our other striker Jonny Margetts is also one of our best players. Now this one I'm not so sure about. None of his stats really stand out to me and the fact he only has 4 goals in 27 games this year is not the sign of a good striker....judgement reserved!

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Ben Davies also rates as one of our best and despite the fact he is 37 years old, I'd have to agree. Lacking a bit of pace for a full back, he compensates for this with some very good all round stats and still looks like he has plenty to offer at this level! An average rating of 7.18 from 26 league appearances this season backs that up too!

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With my **** poor record preceding me, the players are not too happy about my arrival and clearly lack confidence in my ability to do this job!

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My players may have no confidence in me, but Hereford manager, Marc Richards loves me off with the media! Cheers Marc....that tenner is in the post mate!

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The board have not set me a target and instead will 'reserve judgement' on my league performance to the end of the season.

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I will see out the rest of March with 2 league games to get bedded in. My new team will take on 6th placed Darlington and Curzon Ashton who sit 21st!

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[ninjaskill]

Well done on managing to get a raise despite the mixed time at stirling, hopefully things go a bit better at Boston

 

[dporter8999]

ERNIE RETURNS! Glad to see the man is back, though what a challenging 1st season it has turned out to be. Hopefully the new job will bring change for the better!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Well done on managing to get a raise despite the mixed time at stirling, hopefully things go a bit better at Boston

Cheers mate...can't complain after being pretty **** poor in Scotland!

ERNIE RETURNS! Glad to see the man is back, though what a challenging 1st season it has turned out to be. Hopefully the new job will bring change for the better!

Cheers mate, glad to see Ernie is gaining a fanbase! I certainly hope it can as I need to kick start his career....hopefully I can return to Scotland at some point in the future and be successful there....feel like I have a bit of a point to prove up there now!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

March 2019 (part 2)

[FONT=&quot]March 2019 (Part 2)
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After reviewing the squad in some detail, this is the setup I'm going to be kicking off with at Boston. It's a relatively simple 4-4-2, that will focus on a narrow structured system keeping the players in a tight unit across the pitch. On the attack, we will focus the ball down the wings where out best attacking players are, whilst the guys in the middle will provide cover for those bombing forward. With my players lacking great passing ability, we will play a more direct style with the aim to get the ball up to the two front men with slightly more urgency. My keeper will play it safe and distribute to the full backs and we'll look to start attacks from those positions and my defence are not entirely slow (although they are not the fastest either), so I'll look for them to push up and close down the opposition on the ball as well!

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Saturday 23rd March 2019
Vanarama National League North
Boston United vs Darlington
Formation: 4-4-2

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The perfect way to start my Boston reign as we beat a team fighting for a playoff spot! A solid performance where we always looked in control, resulting in a very comfortable 1-0 win. We limited Darlington to only a couple of half chances and played some good football of our own.


Jonny Margetts goal against Darlington was his first in over 10 hours! Unfortunately, he picked up a small injury which will see him miss our next game.

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Saturday 30th March 2019
Vanarama National League North
Boston United vs Curzon Ashton
Formation: 4-4-2

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We were really good again here and fully deserve all 3 points. When they went ahead after scoring from a well worked corner, I was a little worried it might turn out not to be our day. But the lads responded really well and once we were back in the game through a spot kick, there only ever looked like one winner from there!


Two quick wins has moved us up one place in the league already! But more importantly, we are now only 4 points off the playoffs with 10 games remaining so we very much have an outside shot at this still! There's a lot of teams between us and 7th still, but at least we have something to aim at rather than just pointlessly seeing the season out!

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Player of the Month
Ben Davies

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The right back has been ultra consistent this month and is showing the youngsters how it's done!


Five league games coming up in April and we'll be aiming to continue my good start here at Boston! Four of our five opponents are above us in the league, so if we can nick points off any of them, it's going to go a long way towards us making a potential challenge for a playoff spot!

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[Brane_Orsou]

Just back from holiday and checking in. Congrats on the Boston job! Well deserved pay rise as well