Willie McFaul
1966-75 (player) - 1985-88 (manager)
Goalkeeper
290 apps
Signed from Linfield, McFaul was the goalkeeper in the side that won the 1969 Fairs Cup. He won 6 caps for Northern Ireland and managed Newcastle in the late 1980s.
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DECEMBER
Lineup - Donnarumma,
Briggs*, Montes, Godfrey, Renan Lodi, Tonali, Longstaff (Zajic), Parent (Mitchell), Mejbri, Sancho (Bellingham), Silva
Frantisek Zajic scored on his league debut here to give us the win. Once again we were without so many players and with the Liverpool game just 3 days away it is a bit of a concern.
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Lineup - Donnarumma, Aarons, Montes, Varela (Godfrey), Renan Lodi,
Tonali*, Palacios (Moriba), Bellingham, Olmo (Mejbri), Fati, Silva
Liverpool blink first! We came back from behind here to inflict Liverpool's 1st defeat of the season and we move 3pts clear. Sandro Tonali got the winner with a long range strike. A huge result.
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Lineup - Donnarumma, Aarons, Montes, Varela, Renan Lodi, Tonali, Palacios, Sancho, Olmo (Mejbri), Fati (Dembele), Silva (Alcock)
And we blink second!! Tbh we were fortunate to get anything here as we were awful. Wolves gifted us our goal and then dominated us and Romelu Lukaku missed sitter after sitter until he finally levelled late on. Wolves dont even have a manager so to lose our 100% record in this way is infuriating.
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UEFA Champions League Group A
Lineup - Michel Costa, Briggs, Ljubicic, Godfrey, Renan Lodi, Longstaff (Moriba), Bellingham, Dembele, Mejbri,
Fati*, Silva
My injuries are getting so bad that when I want to play my backups both of my backup strikers get injured so Fabio Silva played instead which isn't a hardship lol. As it was we won easily to finish top of the group and with 24 goals we are averaging 4 a game - and we didnt score in one!
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Lineup - Donnarumma, Aarons,
Montes*, Varela, Chilwell, Tonali, Palacios, Mbappe, Olmo, Sancho (Fati), Silva (Dembele)
Safe to say that I didn't expect Cesar Montes to pop up with 2 goals before the match! Both goals were a replica of each other as he got on the end of a Dani Olmo free kick at the back post and headed home.
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Carabao Cup Quarter-Final
Lineup - Michel Costa, Aarons (Briggs), Montes, Varela (Godfrey), Renan Lodi, Tonali, Palacios, Mbappe, Olmo (Mejbri), Sancho, Silva
Disgraceful. We were 2-0 up and cruising but then we conceded once and basically shat it as we stopped creating chances and it was just a matter of time before Chelsea went ahead. Fuming!!!
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Lineup - Donnarumma, Aarons, Montes, Varela, Renan Lodi, Tonali, Longstaff (Bellingham), Mbappe, Olmo (Mejbri), Sancho (Fati), Silva
What the **** is happening? Once again we were truly awful and we didn't deserve anything. Mejbri put us ahead with a world class strike but they levelled in stoppage time with a wonder goal of their own. We are really struggling at the moment. My forwards aren't scoring and we are just struggling all over really.
Liverpool lost the previous game week so fortunately we are still ahead but just by 2pts.
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Lineup - Donnarumma, Aarons, Montes, Varela, Chilwell (Renan Lodi), Tonali, Palacios,
Mbappe*, Olmo (Mejbri), Sancho, Silva (Parent)
More dropped points but at least we got a point having been 2-0 down. Liverpool also drew so we are getting pretty lucky. Silva has failed to score in his last 7 league starts, Sancho 5 and Olmo 8!!!!
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Lineup - Donnarumma, Briggs, Ljubicic, Godfrey, Chilwell, Longstaff, Bellingham (Moriba), Dembele, Olmo, Fati (Locatelli), Silva
(Parent*)
This match came just 2 days after the Arsenal one so I was forced into making 7 changes here. In the end we somehow won 5-1 thanks to Yves Parent. I had arranged to make the sub just as Silva scored the 2nd and I went ahead with it and Parent came on and scored a hat-trick in under 10min to give the scoreline a more emphatic look.
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SUMMARY
Somehow and don't ask me how we are 5pts clear at the top of the table after we had a pretty dismal month. In the league we were far from convincing and although we won the huge match against Liverpool we dropped points to Wolves, Bournemouth and Arsenal and even when we won matches we failed to impress - including the 5-1 win over Norwich.
In the Champions league we saw off Vitoria Guimaraes and will play Roma in the knockout stages while in the Carabao Cup we were eliminated as holders as we threw away a 2 goal lead away to Chelsea to lose 3-2.
I seem to remember last season having a bad month and we came back on fire - lets hope it happens again!
Fabio Silva won the Ballon D'or and World Player of the Year, Mbappe won a mens player of the year I think and Donnarumma won the goalkeeper of the year. Oh and Cesar Montes is the best player in Central America which isnt a shock.
Now for Scotland news. In the World Cup qualifiers we have been drawn in a group alongside Holland, Iceland, Belarus, Kosovo and Andorra.
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PLAYER OF THE MONTH
CESAR MONTES
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PREMIER LEAGUE
Manager Moves
Spurs sack Jurgen Klinsmann
Brighton sack Marco Giampaolo and appoint Mark Van Bommel
Erik Ten Hag sacked as Leicester manager
Chelsea appoint Leonardo Jardim
Ernesto Valverde is the new manager of Wolves
