Gibraltar: Taking a Pub Team To The Top With Bruno’s Magpies

[Hampus Silverholt]

One thing I have mentioned very little so far is the youth intakes - and that’s for a good reason. They have been terrible and the latest one was the worse of the lot.

We desperately need to improve the intakes to help with league registration rules and the Gibraltar national team going forward - the money from the Champions League should help!

I thought that this season could be the one where we’d win 100% of our league games, but a 0-0 draw against Red Imps means that we have to wait another year at least for that feat.

However, it was the only time we dropped points in the season as we cruised to a second league title in a row.

Despite the utter dominance and the unbeaten season, we ended up losing to Red Imps in the Rock Cup Final which was just typical!

But I can’t really complain, this season has been all about our Champions League run which saw our team of semi-pros make it to the group stage.

It means we have an absolutely insane budget for next year - I almost don’t know what to do with it all and I doubt we can even spend that big on players who are actually willing to join us.

There was no official notification for it, but we’re now a fully professional club so hopefully that will allow us to attract some better players in the summer.

The squad have done us proud this year, with many National League quality players appearing against Liverpool, Inter Milan and Real Madrid on the biggest stage of them all.

The only annoying thing is that as soon as a player wants more game time, no matter what conversation you have, it ends up with them wanting to leave.

It means there will likely be big changes in the summer, most of which were planned anyway.

We’ll be saying goodbye to key players over the years such as Bjorn Hardley, David Gonzalez, Aaron Reartes, Juan Aguero and Mungo Bridge who is now a Gibraltar international after being at the club for so long.

Despite the addition of players like Mungo Bridge and Nya Kirby to the squad, the national team have not had a good year and sit 186th in the rankings, which is 6 spots lower than last season.

The Gibraltar Football League is now up to 85th in terms of reputation in Europe, ahead of the National League and Welsh Premier but below leagues such as the second tier in Finland.

We’re up to 219th in the club rankings, with Gibraltar above nations such as Iceland and Northern Ireland in the coefficients table.

I’m not expecting to make the Champions League group stage again next season at all, but I’ve got a taste for European football now.

I’m hoping we can get to the Europa Conference League group stages next season at a minimum.​

 

[StormToChampion]

Excellent season @Hampus Silverholt . Hoping for another exciting european adventure next season. The 7m budget is huge, waiting to see what you will do with the money

 

[Spiklas]

Brilliant save .. Huge Magpies. Good luck for the new season

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Excellent season @Hampus Silverholt . Hoping for another exciting european adventure next season. The 7m budget is huge, waiting to see what you will do with the money

Brilliant save .. Huge Magpies. Good luck for the new season

Thanks both, it's difficult to find better quality players who are willing to join but the cash will be splashed soon!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

We’re now in the summer of 2026 and about to start our 5th season in charge of Bruno’s Magpies in Gibraltar.

After getting to the Champions League group stage last season for the first time, we have more money than we know what to do with. It’s mainly been invested on player wages so far, but a big transfer is due soon….

One thing I’ve done is plan for the future of Gibraltarian football and signed lots of youngsters recently released from u18 teams in England (who will go straight into our under-21 team and hopefully gain Gibraltarian citizenship in 2 years) as well as a few hot prospects in Gibraltar.

The hottest of all the prospects is Jack Sodi, who was bought for £14k from our main competitor Lincoln Red Imps.

Next in was centre-back Sam Barnes on loan from Portsmouth, who will join permanently next summer.

Our first signing for actual money was Luke Matheson for £99k from League One Blackpool, who immediately becomes our highest paid player by a mile on £3.5k a week - with him and Barnes I’m again thinking about 2 years time when I’m hoping they take up Gibraltar citizenship.

We then broke our transfer record for the second time in quick succession by signing Juan Manuel Gutiérrez for £350,000 from Cardiff - the only downside being he’s on a 1 year deal.

Next in was Oscar Aquino, a Paraguayan international in the lower leagues of Spain, who we managed to pick up on a free transfer from C.D. Coria.

Finally, Connor Barron joins on loan from Stoke and is easily the best midfielder at the club.

We did sell first-choice keeper David Celic to Lincoln Red Imps after he requested to leave. I’m actually willing to strengthen their side so they can compete in Europe - but it does mean we are still on the lookout for a goalkeeper.

In other news, Will Andiyapan who signed as an 18-year-old and has been at the club for 3 years, now qualifies as homegrown.

It’s big news in terms of having to play 5 Gibraltar trained players at all times in the league and we just need him to commit to the Gibraltar national team now - he must still be holding out for a Wales call up!

The early starts to the season with European qualifying rounds are now becoming routine for us and in this season's Champions League we’ll play Breioablik of Iceland in the 1st qualifying round.

We’re not favourites to go through, but we’ve heard that one before! Seeing as we beat Besiktas last season, I think we should have enough to progress to the 2nd round.

Getting to the Champions League group stage last season was admittedly a bit of a fluke. Still, I’m confident of getting either Europa League or Conference League group-stage football again this year.

Let’s see what we can do!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Our second venture in the Champions League qualifying rounds will do very well to live up to the first, where we went all the way to the group stage last season.

The squad has improved since then too, although there were only 2 debuts in the first leg against Breioabik - record signing Guiterrez and our highest-paid player Luke Matheson.

It was another debutant who made all the difference though as substitute Oscar Aquino scored the only goal of the first leg.

And we got through the second leg with ease, with striker Ruben Enri scoring his 10th Champions League goal for Magpies.

Enri has been a key player for us for over a year now, so he was probably not pleased when we smashed our transfer record on a replacement for him…

That’s because we’ve spent £1.5m on Jamie Coburn - the first player to be bought for over £1m in Gibraltar!

Unfortunately, he couldn’t be registered in time for the 2nd round qualifiers, which were against Romanian champions Cluj.

We know from last season that being underdogs doesn’t mean anything and earned a 1-1 draw away from home in the first leg.

It was looking like we’d progress to the 3rd qualifying round and I was already eyeing up the Champions League group stage/league phase for the second season in a row.

But instead, it was heartache in the second leg as we lost 3-0 on penalties.

I have to admit I was a bit shocked at the result. We’ve become so used to beating bigger teams that it’s almost a surprise when we do lose!

The defeat means that we drop down to the Europa League 3rd Qualifying Round, where we will play FK Sarajevo.

Group-stage football (still refuse to call it ‘League Phase’) is still the aim this season and If we beat them, then we’re guaranteed group-stage football in the Conference League at least.

It’s time to unleash £1.5m man Coburn!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Despite the hiccup against Cluj in the Champions League, I was excited at our prospects in the Europa League qualifying rounds especially as we now had record signing Josh Coburn registered for the games.

He scored on his debut, but it was not enough as we lost 2-1 in a tricky first leg away in Sarajevo.

I thought we had enough to turn things around in the second leg but unfortunately we let ourselves down with a poor performance.

We took it to extra time and did enough to win the game, but just could not get a goal at the crucial time with Sarajevo knicking one at the end as we pushed for a leveller on aggregate.

So that meant we dropped down competitions once again, this time to the Europa Conference League where we were paired with Hapoel Be'er-Sheva in the 4th qualifying round.

We have previous with them, having knocked them out of the Champions League last season on our way to the group stage - which seems even more remarkable now we’ve experienced 2 losses in a row

If we beat them again over 2 legs then we’d make the Europa Conference League ‘League Phase’ - defeat would mean no European group stage football at all, which I was not even contemplating.

But we were out of form and up against it in the first leg away from home.

All 4 goals in the match came in the first half and we led the game twice, but a 2-2 draw was still a decent result.

However, we were down to the barebones defensively with starting fullbacks Matheson and Anderson both out

All that was needed was one win, just one win, to send us to the Conference League group stage.

And finally we produced a solid performance when it mattered.

Josh Coburn turned on the style in the second half and in the end, we cruised through to the League Phase.

Unlike the Champions League where there are 8 games, it’s just the 6 games in the Conference League and it was an interesting group stage draw. We’re facing some big European teams such as Atalanta, Red Star and Malmo as well as Dinamo Tbilisi who we beat last season in the qualifying rounds.

Elsewhere, we now have 6 Magpies players in the Gibraltar national team, which includes Ryan Trevitt - the most recent player to convert to Gibraltar after spending 2 years in the country.

That makes 4 of the 6 ‘Top Players’ in Gibraltar all players that have taken up nationality in the past 2 years, the most recent being full-back Aaron Lewis at Red Imps.

Trevitt even got an assist on his debut as they beat Lithuania in the Nations League.

The more Gibraltar improves, the more I want to take over as the national team manager. That’s despite international management being horrific on FM!

There was no more transfer business before the window closed as I’m happy with our squad. It does mean that Gibraltar number 1 Dayle Coleing will be first choice for us in the Conference League this season in what is potentially a weak area of the side.

Although we’ve comfortably won the league for the last 2 seasons, Red Imps still have a good side (they narrowly missed out on Conference League group stage too) so the Gibraltar title is by no means a formality.

But the league isn't really a focus for me now, I’m very interested to see how competitive we are in the Conference League this year.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Shortly before our first League Phase game in the Conference league, our first-choice goalkeeper Coleing picked up an injury that would rule him out for a month.

Typically, goalkeeper is the only position where we don’t have any depth. So it meant that a very unfit Lewis Forshaw, who I did not plan on having anywhere near the first-team squad this season, was making his debut in a key game.

Our first match was against Dinamo Tbilisi, a side that beat us 2 seasons ago in the Conference League qualifying rounds.

So I was pretty pleased with a 1-1 in our first game against them as it showed how we’re slowly progressing as a team.

Omonoia Nicosia followed in our second game, where we got another draw.

So it was a solid start at least, but we then got a big win in our 3rd game at home to Red Star. 2 goals were scored by centre-back Quansah, both from indirect free kicks.

He celebrated a memorable month by making his Gibraltar debut against Cyprus a few weeks later - he’s the latest of the Magpies players to convert to Gibraltar nationality as the national side steadily improves in quality.

That makes 3 players (Kirby, Trevitt, Quansah) who have taken up Gibraltar nationality after being at Magpies for more than 2 years, along with Mungo Bridge who is now at fellow Gibraltar club College Europa.

So 3 games into the Conference League group and we’re 13th in the League Phase table.

Finishing in the top 24 positions is the aim, as it means we’ll make the knockout round stage after the Christmas break.

I reckon 7 points will do it, so we just need 2 points from our remaining 3 games.

We’ll face Italians Atalanta - where I don’t expect us to get a result - but then have a very winnable match against Neftci Baku of Azerbaijan.

Our final match will be against Malmo, which could be an interesting one as it’s the Hampus Silverholt derby.

Malmo may or may not be the birthplace of a Swedish regen I had on FM16…​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

We’ve been to some weird and wonderful places in our European games over the years, but one thing has never changed - our dismal away following.

Just one Magpies fan travelled to Bergamo to see us lose 1-0 against Atalanta.

Thankfully a few more fans turned up in our next Conference League match, which was a convincing 4-0 win at home over Neftci Baku.

That put us on 8 points with one game to go, surely meaning that we were going to finish in the top 24 and make it to the knockout rounds after Christmas.

It all came down to the Hampus Silverholt derby against Malmo, which occurred on the same day Wayne Rooney was appointed as Man United manager…

I knew that we were probably going to finish in the top 24 no matter what happened, so we went into the game with no fear.

And the lack of pressure worked in our favour, as we produced a brilliant performance to beat Malmo in their own backyard.

Not only did we finish in the top 24 of the League Phase, that win meant we finished 8th on goal difference and qualified for the last 16 immediately! Those games are a few months away but I’m already looking forward to seeing who we get.

Domestically we’re top of the Gibraltar Football League which is expected, but Lincoln Red Imps and College Europa have been very strong this year.

Our £1.5m record signing Josh Coburn has been solid but unspectacular since joining from Middlesborough in the summer. He has 9 goals in 7 league games, but just 1 goal in 6 Conference League League Phase matches so I’m expecting a bit more from him in the second half of the campaign.

So now our winter break starts and the January transfer window is almost upon us.

We still have £4m remaining from our original budget in the summer, so we could make a few big signings to improve the squad in time for the knockout stages of the Conference League.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

January 2027 has been a busy month and not just because of the transfers!

We have made a few additions to improve the squad the first being midfielder Antonio Moyano, formally of Alcoron in Spain, on a free transfer.

Next in was Tom Fellows for £325,000 from West Brom - a quality player for our level who can play in many positions.

Our final signing was Yago Santiago, who was most recently at Lincoln Red Imps of all teams. He again came in on a free transfer but was signed after we confirmed our Conference League squad, so isn’t registered for the knockout stages.

There was just one transfer out but it was a significant one as we said goodbye to striker Ruben Enri, the main reason why we made it to the group stage of the Champions League last season.

So that was us done for January and prepared for the second half of the season.

But then, very unexpectedly, the manager of Gibraltar retired.

International management is something I find really poor in Football Manager and it’s been that way for a number of years… but the temptation was too much.

There was nobody else who was going to get the job. It’s earlier that I would’ve liked, but we are now the manager of the Gibraltar national team as well as Magpies.

The short term aim is to get them higher than an abysmal 182nd in the rankings. Long-term ambitions are to qualify for a Euros or World Cup but that might be wishful thinking!

Our first match in charge is a friendly against Armenia before our EURO 2028 qualifiers, where we are in a daunting group including Croatia and Germany.

All the best players in the squad have recently switched to Gibraltar nationality having been in the country for more than 2 years - there’s just one notable exception, striker Jaiden Bartolo who is at Lincoln Red Imps (although was born in Slough…)

One of the first things I did as manager was convince Magpies defender Will Andiyapan to convert to Gibraltar, which he did!

Joe Anderson has also been at Magpies for 2 years and immediately announced his intention to represent the country, so we’ve already improved the defence without playing a game!

As exciting as national team management is, attention is now firmly on the Europa Conference League and we have been drawn against Danish side OB in the last 16.

They’re 8th in the Danish league, so it looks like a winnable tie for us on paper.

However, we prepped for the first leg by losing our first league game in 2 years to Red Imps

I was confident ahead of the OB matches, but now I have no idea which Magpies team is going to turn up. If we put in a decent performance in those 2 games, we’ll be in the quarter finals of the Conference League!​

 

[zacram]

Very excited to see how you fare with the International job!

Agree that international management isn't the greatest on FM, but I find when you do these lower Nation saves and start dominating the domestic League you are essentially only waiting for the European fixtures, so International management does add an extra element to the calendar year.

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

The significance of our matches against OB could not be downplayed - this was the first time ever a team from Gibraltar were in the knockout stages of European competition.

Despite the January additions, I decided to stick with the team that got us to the knockout stages in the first place.

But it was an awful, awful performance in the first leg - we actually went 2-0 up but were completely outplayed for the rest of the match.

That left us with it all to do in the second leg and we didn’t fare any better…

I really thought we’d beat OB over two legs but in the end it was a rather anticlimatic end to our European run this season. It was our first venture into knockout European football, but won’t be our last that’s for sure!

Elsewhere, it was another poor youth intake for us in what is becoming an increasingly frustrating thing year-on-year. That was despite Benjamin Green probably being the best player we’ve produced.

We’re going to drastically improve the players we produce if we want to make Gibraltar a competitive international team.

Talking of which, our first ever squad as manager of Gibraltar contained 7 Magpies players, 4 of which have gained nationality whilst at the club.

And our first game was actually a decent draw against a team 70 places above us in the rankings.

Kelvin Morgan scored his 7th goal for Gibraltar in the match and with that become the country's highest score of all time!

However Croatia were up next and the match was as painful as I expected it to be.

All 7 Magpies players took part and even though we’ve improved the Gibraltar squad, we’re still nowhere near teams like Croatia in terms of quality.

Back in Gibraltar, the league title is normally wrapped up by now but Lincoln Red Imps are having an amazing season and are right up there with us.

We have a crucial last 5 games, one of which is against them, to retain the Gibraltar Football League title.

I don’t even want to think about the possibility of getting to the knockout rounds of the Conference League but finishing 2nd in the Gibraltar Football League in the same season!
​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

After worrying we’d not even win the league this season, in the end Lincoln Red Imps and College Europa ran out of steam and we eased to the title.

A 0-0 draw was an underwhelming way to win the Gibraltar Football League, but we did enough against Red Imps to win our third league title in a row.

That made us the most accomplished manager in Gibraltarian football history after only 5 seasons in charge.

The only game left to play was the Rock Cup final - the domestic cup competition which we lost out to Red Imps last season.

But we got one over them again by winning the match comfortably 3-0.

Our league victory wasn’t as emphatic as it was in previous seasons because of the 2 losses, but we had 2 unbeaten seasons before that so I guess it was about time we lost a couple!

It was an interesting debut season for record signing and best player Josh Coburn. He was pretty average in the Europa Conference League for us and is wanted by Championship clubs, so we could sell him in the summer if we make a profit on the £1.5m we paid for him.

Spurs ended up winning the Conference League by beating Red Star in the final - what’s annoying is that we beat Red Star in the group stage so we’re feasibly good enough to get to the final already.

Behind the scenes we have slowly been improving things, the training facilities are great for the level we’re at but there is still a lot to be done with the youth facilities.

We end the season with £6m in the bank and with the prize money from European competitions we get every season, I don’t expect finances to ever be an issue now.

The Gibraltar Football League is up to 77th in terms of reputation, just behind the top division of Northern Ireland.

And after getting to the last 16 of the Conference League, we have shot up to 133rd in the club rankings which is very impressive for a team from Gibraltar.

We’re also now the most reputable club in Gibraltar, the next step is to build on that 1.5 star reputation.

With the finances in a good place, the board have given us another £5m to spend in the summer to upgrade the squad.

I was eyeing up all sorts of deals, but then the club was put under a transfer embargo…

If we’re going to improve the squad and have a crack at getting to the group stage of a European competition again next season, this embargo needs to be lifted immediately!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Whilst we waited for news on our transfer embargo with Magpies, we had 2 games in June 2027 with Gibraltar, both of which were EURO 2028 qualifiers against Iceland.

They were equally frustrating games, with us losing in the final minute in the first match and then drawing after going 2 nil up in the second.

Star boy Jaiden Bartolo got sent off in the home match where we got our first point in the group. He’s been quality for Red Imps in the last few years but has yet to show any of that form on the international stage just yet.

Those Gibraltar games were the perfect distraction from Magpies, where we were saying goodbye to key players over the last few years Anderson, Trevitt, Coombes and Coulibaly - with no indication of when we’d be able to replace them.

But it turns out we had nothing to worry about as new owners were swiftly announced and the transfer embargo was lifted.

No more money was put towards the transfer budget but finally we could get to work.

However the first piece of business was a transfer out…

That was because, out of nowhere, star striker Josh Coburn announced he was planning to run his contract down and leave on a free at the end of the season. We paid £1.5m for him, so there was absolutely no chance we were letting that happen.

Weirdly, he was rejecting contract offers when we agreed a deal with some clubs.

But in the end a £1.2m offer from Milwall was the best we could accept. I’d much rather take the money and reinvest in the squad, which is exactly what we did…

First in was a new record signing, Rui Dionísio for £2.7m from Porto. It was a lot of money to spend and Porto made a big profit on him, but I see him as the long-term solution for us at left back

We also spent £2m on 19 year old Gareth Gallagher from Salford. I wanted to sign him last year when Man United released him, but we had to wait a year until we could finally get him. He’s another one I could see converting to Gibraltar nationality in a few years time.

Vojtech Vymola also arrived for £750k from the Czech Republic - the 19-year-old will be our new first-choice keeper in Europe, with Gibraltar number 1 Coleing likely to continue playing in the league due to the competition rules.

The other major signing was Richard Asamoah on loan from Arsenal, he’s one of the brightest prospects in English football so I was amazed when he actually agreed to join us on loan.

He’ll be one of our main players in the qualifying rounds of Europe and this season we have been drawn against the champions of Kosovo, FC Drita Gjilan, in the Champions League First Qualifying Round.

We’re a decent side now, so it’s a tie we should comfortably win.

After getting to the League Phase of the Champions League 2 years ago and the Europa Conference League last season, I’d take the Europa League League Phase this campaign!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Our starting lineup for the 1st Champions League Qualifying Round was a lot stronger compared to what we had this time last year, with our early transfer dealings meaning debuts were handed to 3 players.

But it was last season's signing Juan Gutierrez who stole the show, with his 2 goals securing a 3-1 win in the first leg in Kosovo.

The second leg was even easier for us and even better for Gutierrez.

That made it 5 goals and 2 assists in those two matches for the Uruguayan, who was playing as a striker with us yet to replace Josh Coburn up front. His performances are making me question whether we even need a new first-choice striker!

Victory against Drita gave us a tricky tie against Slavia Prague in the second qualifying round.

They were favourites for the tie and it was actually one of the hardest draws we could’ve got at this stage.

But their starting eleven was low on match fitness whereas we were raring to go.

So despite being underdogs, we were much the better team in the first leg and deserved to win 2-1 in Prague.

Once again we scored 4 at home in the second leg as we comfortably saw them off to make it to the 3rd qualifying round for the 3rd season in a row.

During those matches we also signed Elias Jelert, previously of Fulham, on a free transfer to be our new starting right back.

He’ll very likely make his debut against FK Partizan in the 3rd Champions League qualifying round.

Once again, we are just 4 games away from making the Champions League league phase. This time I’m quite confident we can make it for the 2nd time in 3 seasons.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

The same tried and trusted Magpies lineup was selected for the home leg against Partizan Belgrade in the 3rd qualifying round of the Champions League

And they produced a ridiculous performance reminiscent of our run in the qualifying rounds 2 years ago where we were defeating superior teams easily.

Because of that first leg result, a 1-0 loss in the second leg did not matter one bit.

It set up a tie against FK Goteborg the champions of Sweden in the playoff round.

If we beat them we’d make it to the League Phase of the Champions League for the 2nd time in 3 seasons, lose and we’d enter the Europa League ‘League Phase’ for the first time ever.

I was expecting us to blow them away but instead it was an average performance in the first leg which we ended up paying for, as we lost the game 2-0.

And that seemed to take the momentum away from us as we could not overturn the first-leg defeat in the rematch

So it’s the League Phase of the Europa League for us this season. I have to admit that I’m secretly pleased we’ve dropped down to the Europa League as I reckon we have a strong chance of making the knockout phase.

It gets us £4m in prize money as well. Not as much as the Champions League money but still a welcome amount for a club our size.

We’ll play 8 League Phase games against a variety of teams, with the Besiktas the only team we’ve played before (two years ago in the Champions League).

Elsewhere, Lincoln Red Imps were unlucky to be paired with Roma in the Conference League and were knocked out in the third round.

Juan Gutierrez started out as a makeshift striker for us whilst we waited to sign a new one, but ends the qualifying rounds with 10 goals in 8 games!

We’re now comfortable favourites to win the Gibraltar Football League for the 4th year running, but this season the focus will be on what we can do in the Europa League.

In other news, we’re still manager of Gibraltar, where backup Magpies players Ryan Stirk and Scott Bailey are the latest duo to take up Gibraltar citizenship after two years at the club.

Bailey even scored the only goal of the game on his debut, which was our first win as Gibraltar's manager over the Faroe Islands. We were also narrowly defeated by Germany in the following match.

Currently at Newcastle under 18s in real life, he’s been in our Magpies under 23 squad for the past few years but is more than good enough to start for Gibraltar.

I’m slowly realising that we can just keep players in our under 23s with the sole intention of them gaining Gibraltar citizenship, so with that in mind we’ve signed Miguel Azeez in the hope he’ll be playing for the country in 2 years.

We’re now up to 176th in the world rankings, which is the highest-ever position for the country but there is still a long way to go.

Our focus now turns to getting Magpies into the top 24 positions of the Europa League League Phase.​

 

[InvertedRegista]

Just caught up with this, really enjoyed it. What an effort from the team in Europe - good luck for this season

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Just caught up with this, really enjoyed it. What an effort from the team in Europe - good luck for this season

cheers mate slowly getting there with both Magpies and the national team - hopefully we can go on a decent run in the Europa League this season

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

After 1 season in the League Phase of the Conference League and 1 season getting battered in the League Phase of the Champions League, it was time for us to take on the Europa League.

Ludogorets were first up, where a goal from summer signing Gallagher gave us a 1-0 win.

A win at this stage of the competition also gives us £500k in prize money, which is not bad at all!

The perfect start continued as we then beat Genk at home 3-1, before slipping up against Maribor in our next match.

The wheels well and truly came off in the match after that against Betis as they smashed us 4-0, particularly annoying as goal difference could be key in determining whether we qualify for the knockout stages.

So those mixed results in our first 4 games of the League Phase mean that we’re 17th in the table.

We’ll progress to the next stage if we stay there but still have Bayer Leverkusen and Besiktas to play, so we could struggle to make the last 16 after such a strong start to the group.

You’d think by now we’d have a few more fans turning up to support the team, yet just 32 season tickets were sold ahead of the domestic campaign!

We’ve also recorded another win as Gibraltar boss, again against the Faroe Islands where Jaiden Bartolo scored the winner to become the new record goalscorer for Gibraltar.

The win meant that we ended our EURO 2028 group with a respectable 7 points.

We’re up to 173rd in the world rankings and slowly getting there with the national team. But there’s such a long way to go and I’m not sure if we’ll ever have a side strong enough to qualify for a major tournament.

As time goes on, more and more Magpies players are converting to Gibraltar nationality after being in the country for more than 2 years - the latest of which was former Cheltenham midfielder Daniel Adshead.

He’s only a fringe player at Magpies but instantly becomes one of the best midfielders for Gibraltar.

Centre-back Jarell Quansah is the best Gibraltarian player we have at the moment - he’s played every game since switching allegiance from Scotland over a year ago.

He’s still a key player for Magpies too and will have a big say in our remaining 4 Europa League matches.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

With 4 Europa League games remaining, the aim was for us to get 4 points which would almost certainly guarantee us progression to the knockout phase after Christmas.

First up was Dutch side Groningen where we got a valuable point - although I’m still disappointed that we can only get 1 fan to go to away games!

That same fan was there to witness a 3-1 win against Apollon Limassol after going behind in the first half

That put us on 10 points, meaning that a top 24 finish and a place in the knockout rounds looked very likely.

We then had a whole month to wait for our final 2 games at home to Besiktas and away to Bayer Leverkusen.

Injuries and suspensions meant we were down in a few key positions, but that made no difference as we cruised to a 3-0 win against Besiktas to all but seal qualification to the knockout stages.

The only question that remained was whether we’d finish in the top 8 positions - but we had one of the strongest teams in the competition away from home next.

We were never going to get a result against Bayer Leverkusen and a 4-0 was hardly surprising.

But it didn’t really matter as we finished 14th in the League Phase, which put us into the Knockout Playoff Round.

Where we’ll play Weder Bremen who finished 22nd in the group. You never know with knockout football, but we should have a strong chance of beating them.

In between all of those fixtures we were busy in the transfer market where 3 players were signed, all for just under £1m each.

First in was Dennis Drakes-Thomas for £875k from League Two Colchester. He chose us over numerous Championship clubs in England and I’m hoping he can spearhead the team for the next few years.

Jefferson Costa was also bought for £900k from Porto, however he already wants to leave because we failed to bring in another Brazillian player to appease him…

That was because we spent our remaining budget on two Serbians, Nikola Đukic for £900k and Sava Veselinović on a free transfer.

The latter was signed on a free because Arsenal unexpectedly recalled Asamoah from his loan spell, all because he was playing out of position!

I’m also looking at getting some pre-contract agreements sorted and was expecting a big bump in the wage budget from the board considering we have over £10m in the bank thanks to Europa League prize money.

But in the end they only gave us £15,000 more a week, which won’t go very far.

Our yearly salary spend now dwarfs the rest of the teams in Gibraltar, although Lincoln Red Imps are still very much competing with us.

In fact, they’re comfortably beating every other team in the league… apart from us.

Their form means we need to avoid slipping up in the 2 remaining games we have against them, or else we could easily end up finishing 2nd in the league still.

But for now, our full attention is on the Europa League knockout rounds starting with Weder Bremen.​