[INSERT WITTY TITLE HERE] - A Journeyman Save

Congrats on winning the league! Look forward to your european exploits!
 
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WHO ARE LOUGHGALL FC?
MEET NORTHERN IRELAND'S VERY OWN FAIRYTALE
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Welcome to Loughgall, the tiny Northern Irish village an hour's drive from Belfast that is home to, at the last count, 282 people

What's so special about Loughgall then? Well, let me tell you. Just two months ago this tiny village team became the first non-Belfastian team to win the Northern Irish Premiership since Portadown in 2002 and are now gearing up for a Champions League Second Qualifying Round tie against Danish champions FC Midtjylland

What's even more remarkable, perhaps, is that this side were playing Championship football the season before last, and hadn't featured in the Premiership since 2007, with last season's title-winning campaign being their first top flight season in a decade.

What's perhaps even more remarkable, is that they are managed by a 22 year old Welshman who's only just started on his National "B" Licence and who had never stepped foot in Northern Ireland before being hired two years ago

He is now the centre of attention for many clubs south of the border, with Derry City, Sligo Rovers and Longford Town all expressing an interest in the young boss

Its been a meteoric rise for Loughgall and they will be hoping it can continue on in Denmark on Wednesday night
​
 
Velkommen til Danmark. That's Danish for "Welcome to Denamrk", apparently, I don't know, the guy I asked was drunk and Northern Irish and definitely not Danish, well I don't think McKinney's Danish....

Anyway, here we are, Denmark. Land of the Danes, high standards of living and, most importantly, the home of Carlsberg. I know we're a football team, but we're a SEMI-PRO football team, so that professionalism nonsense doesn't apply to us. To the pub lads!

We've come here to play in the Champions League and, to be honest, this might be our only away European trip of the season. We're up against FC Midtjylland and they are good, like, quite good, not really good, but quite good, you get the point. This lot beat United a few years ago, we just lost a friendly to Annan Athletic.

So, uphill struggles and all that, but if we get 'em back to our place and rough 'em up innit like (Read in Cockney accent), we could probably get at least 1 goal, maybe 1 and a half goals, this is UEFA, who knows what rules they implemented in the summer

The fans love me, well except Mark, f*ck you Mark
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This is our first Champions League game ever, full stop, so we're going to have to play well in order to kepp people happy, right?? Besides, if we somehow win this, the next round can't be much harder, can it?

We've gone for a 4-1-2-1-2 on counter, because these guys scare me and I don't want be "Torn a new one", which is what I believe the kids are chattin' these days, ya feel me? As you can tell, this Danish air has driven me insane.

This is my 100th game in management, my first was a 3-3 draw at Armagh City in front of 111 people, this game is in a 11,500 capacity stadium, meteoric?

We're on a hiding to nothing here and I told the players as much, they seemed relaxed, that's good.

And then, the torture began. Midtjylland scared me, their professionals! They, well, didn't do much at first, we had the first shot of the game, on target as well but then we lost the ball in their half and 20 seconds later its 1-0 to Midtjylland.

We regrouped and kept going, and apart from one instance where he pulled off an excellent reflex save, Harry Doherty didn't have to do much and all of a sudden its half time. Keep going, I said, and we did, kicking everything that moved and holding on for dear life, and all of a sudden its full-time, and we haven't conceded 7!
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This is probably the best result we could have hoped for​
 
We are back in Belfast! For a bit, then we drive down to Loughgall, where we will play host to FC Midtjylland, hopefully they get lost on the drive down and we get to win 3-0 by default

We played pretty well out in Denmark, but we need to win here if we want to get through to the next round to play Salzburg, an even better team, Christ the Champions League scares me

Anyway, this time we're going to attack Midtjylland with the 4-3-1-2 that served us well in the Championship, hopefully it'll work. We've had to change the size of the pitch for the Champions League. Annoying.

I was scared, but all of a sudden, we had the ball, in their half, and then in their net Sean Heneghan! We were level! What do I do? Do I sit back, I did nothing and we were controlling the game and all over Midtjylland could we?

We did, new signing Curtis Dempster got on the end of a Joe McKinney cross, 2-0! We're going through at this rate! Half-time came, concentrate, I told them, and they did, keeping their cool and running the game still, but inside I had a nagging feeling, this isn't how football works, the little teams don't do well, their goal is coming

And it came via a worldie from Sebastian Buch, 2-1, 20 minutes to go, we need to score but Midtjylland shut up shop, did what we supposed to do and held out. All over, 2-1, out on away goals. The dream is dead.
 
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SHOCK AS "MIRACLEMAN" HAWKINS LEAVES LOUGHGALL
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The village of Loughgall has today woken to the shock news that Loughgall FC manager Matthew Hawkins has left the club following their Champions League defeat to FC Midtjylland last night

Hawkins, who's team put in a spirited against the Danish champions before losing on away goals, has left the club citing that he needed a "New challenge"

With the club preparing for only their second top flight season in over a decade, a number of Loughgall supporters are worried for what this means for the club
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In his time with the club, Hawkins won the Danske Bank Premiership, Irish Cup, Irish Intermediate Cup, Mid-Ulster Cup (twice) and promotion from the Belfast Telegraph Championship

He managed 101 games in his 728 days at the club, winning 65 and losing just 17, with an astounding win percentage of 64%
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Queue a day of mourning in the city and calls for a statue to be built in your honour!
 
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HAWKINS MOVES SOUTH OF THE BORDER
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22 year old Welshman Matthew Hawkins has today been announced as the new St. Patrick's Ahtletic manager.

The 22 year old has replaced the departing Liam Buckley, who had been sacked by the club last month following almost 7 years in charge of the club following a 2-0 defeat by Shamrock Rovers that left the side in fifth in the Airtricity Premier League

Fortunes have improved since then, with St. Patrick's currently sitting in 2nd, although 3rd placed Dundalk do have 4 games in hand

Hawkins has come in following just 3 weeks out of a job, having left Northern Irish champions Loughgall on the 25th of July

Hawkins has come in with great pedigree for a man of his age, having won the Danske Bank Premiership in his first season in the top flight with unfancied Loughgall, as well as the Irish Cup, Irish Intermediate Cup and the Mid-Ulster Cup (Twice)
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​
 
Nice touch with RTE!
Best of luck with St Pats!
 
Cardiff to Dublin, via Belfast! Welcome to the capital of Ireland, the Republic of Ireland that is (I made tht mistake at Loughgall and it almost cost me a leg)

Dublin, unlike Loughgall, is the home of ACTUAL PEOPLE! I'm just one of over 1 million other Dubliners, going about our work in the wonderful city of Dublin (Gaelic translation "Blackpool")

Anyway, onto the team, St Patrick's are a proper professional club and they're paying me well, a nice sum of £1,000 per week, or 1,200 euros per week as they say over here

St Patrick's are a decent club, with a 5,400 capacity stadium and plenty of potential to become a Europa League regular, that's my aim

But first, we have to get past Dundalk, the Irish powerhouse themselves, they've won the league four years in a row, the last team other team to win it? St Patrick's Athletic.

Anyway, I've got to meet the team, I'm off
 
KEY PLAYERS
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New club, new players, some of them are pretty good

GREG MURPHY
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Greg Murphy was brought in on a free from my former adversaries Portadown in the summer and has made 6 appearances for St. Patrick's, keeping 3 clean sheets and this guy has quite a bit of potential, he'll be my number 1

LEE DESMOND
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We have quite a good young team which makes this team very exciting and Desmond is a part of that, he's my captain, plays at centre back, is very good and has potential, I like him

CALLUM REILLY
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24 years old and he already has a load of experience, playing more than 100 professional league games, with 99 of those coming in England with Burton Albion and Birmingham, making 84 appearances in the Championship!

MIKEY DRENNAN
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Another player with English experience! Coming through at Aston Villa and playing for Carlisle United and Portsmouth before returning to Ireland and doing.. okay

BILLY DENNEHY
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More English experience! Four years at Sunderland at 7 league appearances for Accrington Stanley before returning to Ireland and playing for Derry, Cork, Shamrock Rovers and St. Patrick's, making over 279 Airtricity Premier League appearances​
 
AUGUST
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The Irish Premier Division runs from March until October/November which means August is towards the business end of the season, could we carry on the good work o the caretaker and get into Europe?

AIRTRICITY PREMIER LEAGUE
St Patrick's Athletic 1-0 Derry City
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Murphy, Nolan, *****, Desmond, Bermingham, Poynton, Cawley, Reilly (McGrath 78), Kinsella (Gaffney 63), Dennehy, Drennan (North 45)
As fate would have it, we'd start off our St. Patrick's career against a side who also offered me the role of manager in Derry City. We deployed a 4-1-4-1 with advanced wingers and it worked as we dominated the ball and created plenty of chances, the only problem is sticking it into the net

AIRTRICITY PREMIER LEAGUE
Galway United 1-1 St Patrick's Ahtletic
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Murphy, Nolan, *****, Desmond, Bermingham, Poynton, Cawley (McGrath 66), Reilly, Kinsella, Dennehy, Drennan (North 54)
Another dominant performance but we just couldn't find the win, despite just two games in the job, I feel we're only a top striker away from winning this league

LEAGUE TABLE
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4 points from my first two games, not bad​
 
Great read! Quality achievements at Loughall, amazing to see the new manager release 40 odd players despite you getting the title with them and a decent performance in the champions league. Callum Reilly is a very player for that league, especially like the look of Lee Desmond too, good luck and looking forward to further updates
 
NathanITFC said:
Great read! Quality achievements at Loughall, amazing to see the new manager release 40 odd players despite you getting the title with them and a decent performance in the champions league. Callum Reilly is a very player for that league, especially like the look of Lee Desmond too, good luck and looking forward to further updates
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Cheers mate, I was pretty shocked to see the amount of players he'd released but at least it makes the next transfer window easier :p
 
SEPTEMBER
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My first full month features games against Dundalk and Shamrock Rovers as well as a cup final! Oh I do love Ireland

AIRTRICITY PREMIER LEAGUE
Dundalk 1-2 St Patrick's Athletic
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Murphy, Nolan, *****, Desmond, Bermingham, Reilly (Feely 53), McGrath, Cawley, Kinsella (Gaffney 66), Dennehy, Drennan (North 62)
We played very, very well in probably the toughest game in any Irish club's season and we dominated and should have scored more than 1 goal before half-time. Unfortunately, they scored in the 4th of 2 minutes of injury time which spurred us on even more as we battered Dundalk, bagging a deserved second goal and victory

AIRTRICITY PREMIER LEAGUE
St Patrick's Athletic 1-0 Shamrock Rovers
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Murphy, O'Brien, *****, Feely, Desmond, Poynton (McEleney 71), McGrath, Cawley, Kinsella, Dennehy, Gaffney (North 62)
Another dominant performance but only a slender victory, a good early goal from Dennehy was enough though

EA SPORTS CUP FINAL
Dundalk 1-2 St Patrick's Athletic
After Extra-Time
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Murphy, Nolan, *****, Desmond, Bermingham, Feely, McGrath, Reilly (North 65), Kinsella (O'Halloran 111), Dennehy, Gaffney (McEleney 116)
WE'VE WON A CUP!!! Less than a month at St Patrick's and I've won a cup competition, this is amazing

AIRTRICITY PREMIER LEAGUE
Bohemian 1-1 St Patrick's Athletic
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Murphy, Nolan, *****, Desmond, Bermingham, Poynton, Cawley (McGrath 75), Reilly, Kinsella, Dennehy, Gaffney (North 56)
Another good display but we just couldn't put the ball in the net, very disappointing not to win because of a penalty, but oh well

LEAGUE TABLE
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A very good first full month in charge which ended with this...
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