Sunshine On Leith

[Falkirkyabass]

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Hello there! I've decided to start a thread on here after reading so many other great ones in the last 3-4 years. I'm not a great writer so it won't be very story based it'll just be me detailing my FM journey. As you can see above the team I've decided to go is Hibernain F.C. They're currently in the Scottish Championship though I intend to take them back to where they belong. The goal of this story is to hopefully solidify Hibernain's place as the main team in Edinburgh.

 

[Falkirkyabass]

I've already finished my first season so I'll be back later to give you a brief history of the club, my goals for the season , my transfers, Our cup runs and finally our league campaign and final position. I hope you enjoy this thread I look forward to sharing a long and successful career with you all

 

[Falkirkyabass]

Hibernian Football Club commonly known as Hibs, are a Scottish professional football club based in Leith in the north of Edinburgh. It is one of three Scottish Professional Football League clubs in the city, the others being their Edinburgh derby rivals Hearts and Edinburgh City. Hibernian was founded in 1875 by Irish immigrants but support for the club is now based on geography rather than ethnicity or religion. The Irish heritage of Hibernian is still reflected, however, in its name, colours and badge. The club enjoyed their most successful spell in the years that followed the second world war. Headed by the "Famous 5" the club won the top flight 4 times between 1948 and 1952. And have won the league cup 3 times in 1972, 1991 and 2007. Despite winning the Scottish Cup twice their last one came a whopping 114 years ago. They've been beaten finalists on 7 occasions. Currently the team are in a rough patch but I hope to end that in this save and hopefully, just hopefully end 100+ years of pain.

 

[bashuijsmans]

Nice, had a long term save with them

 

[Falkirkyabass]

Hello again! Before I start I'd just like to apologise for the rushed nature of this first season update. I finished it weeks ago so I don't really have great screenshots and honestly I just want to bring you all up to date as quickly as possible.

SEASON 1 REVIEW
TRANSFERS


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First thing you may notice is my decision to sell Jason Cummings. No I'm not losing it due to the pressure of management. He was a disruptive wee **** and threatened to turn the dressing room against me. I felt we were actually in a strong position without him so I agreed to let him go. I also got rid of walking injury Farid EL Alagui and brought in young Faissal el bakhtaoui from Dunfermline (Please lord forgive me) We were also lacking in midfield so I brought in former Dumbarton man Chris Turner to toughen us up in the middle of the park. Blair Alston was brought in to give us a bit of quality sitting behind the strikers. Before the start of the season my captain got injured so Sebastian Faure was brought in to sit there until his return.

 

[Falkirkyabass]

SEASON 1 REVIEW

CUP COMPETITIONS:

CHALLENGE CUP
We start with the least important cup in the board's eyes. It's not top of my list but as a manager you want to win everything you possibly can so it's not a cup we'll be sniggering at.


In the first round we were drawn against fellow Championship promotion chasers Queen Of The South. I saw it as a great opportunity to gain some momentum early in the season.

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The game was fairly routine they're lucky it was only 1-0 tbh. Great show from the team in my first competitive game.




The second round saw us drawn against recently relegated St Mirren. The game was a great opportunity to play them before they found their feet at this level.
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Again another game where it probably should have been more than 1-0 but all in all another important win moving forward to the league campaign.



Moving onto the QF and with most of the big hitters out of the cup I was feeling very confident about the competition. This confidence was doubled when we were drawn against Ayr Utd who were in the league below.

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Exactly the sort of performance I expected from this game. The only negative was the injury to Fraser Fyvie who was one of our key players. Still I felt confident as we had depth in midfield. We played fantastic without him and are looking like the favourites for the competition.


Semi-final time and quite honestly I was praying to every god that would listen that we would avoid Rangers. Thankfully my prayers where answered and were once again given lower league opposition. This time in the form of Dunfermline Athletic who were favourites for the league below. We were the better team and I felt confident but their one of those tricky teams.

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I let the thoughts of the final get in my head prematurely and clearly it trickled down to the players. We just didn't look like we wanted it. We had a lot of shots but only a few were on target and the rest were smashed into the stand from 30 yards out. In the end the team that wanted it more got it and they put one away and deservedly moved onto the final.

Not one of my top priorities but still annoying that we couldn't at least make the final as we were beaten by a team we should be comfortably beating. 1 down 3 more trophies to win this season.

 

[Falkirkyabass]

SEASON 1 REVIEW

CUP COMPETITIONS:

LEAGUE CUP

The next competition we turn our attention to is the League cup. The board were expecting at least a QF but I was confident we could get to Hampden. The first round drew us against bottom teir side East Stirlingshire. The game went exactly as you'd expect with us running out comfortable winners.

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Upon beating East Stirlingshire we found out we'd be playing Championship strugglers Livingston. I was once again pleased with the draw as I knew my Hibs team was comfortably better than Livi. Though the scoreline was closer than I would have liked I was still pleased with my team's performance.

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Two rounds two lesser teams, I knew our luck was going to run out sooner rather than later. As it turned out I was right. Upon hearing Dundee Utd's name drawn from the hat I knew we faced a very tough game to stay in the League cup. As a club they were a shell of their former selves but on their day they were still a force to be reckoned with. The match was a fight from first to last whistle, our boys gave everything they had and held out against the bigger side for 120 minutes before finally falling to the dreaded penalty kicks.


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We had fallen two rounds before the target I set myself and I struggled to hide my disappointment as they Dundee Utd players celebrated. My team was knocked out of another cup and now the only hope for domestic silverwear was the Scottish cup, the cup that had caused us so much pain in the past, the cup we hadn't held in 114 years.

 

[Falkirkyabass]

SEASON 1 REVIEW

CUP COMPETITIONS:

SCOTTISH CUP:

Last but not least we have the most illustrious and in our case illusive cup in Scottish football. The famous Scottish cup. 114 years since we held it. 7 times since then we've been beaten finalists. One of which was a 5-1 loss to our City neighbours, Hearts. This was the ultimate goal for me, to finally see Hibernian lift the Scottish cup. Because of the set up of the Scottish cup we don't actually come into it until the 4th round just in case anyone was confused when they saw the screenshot.

Our first opponent in this year's William Hill Scottish cup was to be non league side Huntley away in the highlands. Though this may seem like an ideal draw we still had to be careful as the Highland teams had a reputation of giant killing in recent times. In the build up to the game I made sure my boys were 100% focused on the task at hand and were aware they had to perform today. Clearly my efforts were successful as we went up to the highlands and played them off the park coming away 5-1 winners. Start as you mean to go on and all that.

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After beating Huntly we moved on to the 5th round. We knew we were one game away from the QF. We also knew all the big boys were in the pot now and were once again praying to the footballing gods for a manageable draw. Once again they answered. We were drawn against our old pals QOS and were once again playing on the road. This time at the bottom of Scotland though. After beating QOS earlier in the challenge cup we were confident we knew how they played and how to expose their weaknesses. Once again we proved we had QOS' number in the cup as we beat them. This time with a more comfortable scoreline. They didn't stand a chance from the way we played and we comfortably brushed them aside.

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We had beaten QOS and lived up to the board's expectations. However, for my boys and I that wasn't enough. We knew one more win and we'd give our brilliant fans the day out at Hampden they deserved. As the draw started I couldn't help but notice the big names in the pot. The only team I didn't want was Celtic, I knew on our day we could take any of the other teams. The ball was picked out and on it was a name that caused excitement across Edinburgh. Hibernian at home to.....Hearts. My heart skipped a beat when I saw it. It would be a fantastic occasion, the only Edinburgh derby of the season. My first chance to test myself against the Maroon side of Edinburgh and a chance to get payback for the Hibs fans who had to watch Hearts romp to the championship last year. Excitement was very much in the air. In the days leading up to the Hearts game I couldn't sleep. This was the biggest game of my career by far. The game was very intense and physical, with our side picking up bookings for silly challenges. But this game was huge and I had to keep my players passionate but disciplined. As an inexperienced manager this was difficult for me but I guess my message got through as we kept all 11 players on the park. The game was very, very evenly matched and in the end neither team could find the winning goal.

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The game would go to a replay, this time at the other end of the City. I was more nervous this time around as home advantage was not enough to win the first game. The game was just as close as the first as both teams had great chances to score. This time however there was one key difference, clinical finishing. The Hearts players were clinical and put 3 goals past us. We just couldn't compete this time around. Hearts were different class and I was shown just how inexperienced I was by Robbie Neil.

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Once again we were out, once again we had failed to reach Hampden. This time there was no more cups to fall back on, we were out of them all. Losing in the cup was one thing but to be put out by your arch rivals was a horrible feeling. All the players and staff left Tynecastle disappointed but they all also left swearing it wouldn't be them next time. Next time we'll get our revenge. But for now it's another year without holding that trophy 115 and counting.

 

[Falkirkyabass]

SEASON 1 REVIEW

Scottish Championship

This is the last part of my first season review so you'll be all caught up after this. Because I've already finished the league It'll be a little lackluster. Basically it came down to the last game of the season. Rangers and I were neck and neck. One would win the league and the other would have to settle for playoffs.

Rangers were top by two points but had to travel to Paisley to play St Mirren, we however were at home to our old pals again QOS. Rangers found themselves 2-0 down in 30 minutes but as we were drawing it didn't matter and should it stay that way Rangers would be champions.

At HT it was still 2-0 in Paisley but Rangers were holding onto the top spot due to it being 0-0 in Edinburgh.

58th Minute: Jason Holt scores for Rangers making it 2-1 and putting them ever closer to that draw that would seal the title due to a vastly superior goal difference.

60th minute: Ross Cameron scores for St Mirren giving them their 2 goal cushion back. Rangers fans check their phones nervously waiting to see a goal in Edinburgh, it's still 0-0.

65th minute: Still no shots on goal in Edinburgh. The Hibs fans are restless, their team needs to win.

70th minute: QOS player Lewis Kidd picks up the 9th booking of the game in what is a snorefest in Edinburgh...still 0-0.

72nd minute: Hibs win a corner, the entire stadium wills them on to find a goal.

73rd Minute: Liam Henderson runs up to take the corner, he swings a beautiful ball into the box. It's met by the forehead of Hibs CB Paul Hanlon. He crashes a header against the bar. The entire stadium groans. The ball is cleared by the QOS defence but the wind catches it. It only goes to the edge of the box. Dylan McGeouch controls it, takes it 5 yards forward and smashes a shot at the goal. As soon as it leaves his left foot the Hibs fans are on their feet. The ball flies past the QOS 'keeper! GOAL! GOAL! GOOOOOOOAAAAALLLL! HIBS ARE IN FRONT IN EDINBURGH!!!

75th minute: News of the Hibs goal starts spreading through the ground in Paisley. Hibs are winning. If Rangers don't find 2 goals in the last 15 minutes they will have had the title stolen from them on the last day of the season. The away support rallies and cheer their team trying their best to encourage Rangers to get back into the game.

80th minute: Rangers players and fans alike start to panic. They have 10 minutes to find two goals or Hibs win the league. The Rangers manager Mark Warburton starts ordering all out attacks on the St Mirren goal but the ball just won't seem to go in.

85th minute: Rangers are seriously running out of time now. They need goals! Lee Wallace just surged through the St Mirren defence but could only find the post with his shot. The Paisley side have every man behind the ball trying to hold their lead. The Rangers players keep trying and trying to get through the masses of St Mirren bodies but nothing is working.

88th minute: The news of Rangers' shortcomings filters through to the ground in Edinburgh. The Hibs fans know it's so close, Rangers have 2 minutes plus injury time to find two goals. The Hibs fans start to go into party mode, there's smoke bombs being set off around the ground and the entire 11,000 strong Hibs support is on its feet singing at the top of their lungs.

91st minute: There's no time left, the fans and the players both know it. The Rangers players coast through the last minute without creating much. The look of defeat is obvious on all their faces. There's not a sound from the Rangers support. Almost as if they've been shocked silent by the events that have transpired today. The started the day all but champions but somehow the Hibees stole it from them on the last day of the season.

92nd minute: The whistle blows, the fans all rush onto the pitch to congratulate their heroes. They've done it! Hibs have won the championship, they're back in the SPL. All the pain of losing the league to their rivals last year forgotten in an insane last day of Championship football!!
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Post match: Once the stewards finally removed the jubilant Hibs fans they took a moment to interview the man behind it all rookie manager; Kyle Wilkie.

(Interviewer) First off Kyle congratulations you must be delighted.

(Kyle Wilkie) I'm over the moon, this club and these fans deserve to be involved with the best standard of football possible and I'm absolutely honoured to have been the man to give them it.

(Interviewer) There's been some fantastic games this season but also some bad ones too. How did it feel when you were put out the Scottish cup by rivals Hearts?

(Kyle Wilkie) I'll be honest with you, it hurt. It always hurts to lose to your rivals, especially when it's the only game against them that season. All the boys and I are truly sorry to all the Hibs fans. We wanted to give them something to cheer about especially after watching us lost the league to Hearts last season. Hopefully this league win will go some way to redeeming ourselves and I guarantee we'll be the ones celebrating next time we meet.

(Interviewer) Bold prediction there, might need to hold you to that come next season. Anyway congratulations again from me and everyone here at STV, enjoy your night lads and the bus parade tomorrow.

 

[Falkirkyabass]

SEASON 2: Pre-Season

After last season's successful campaign Kyle Wilkie knew his team would have to be drastically upgraded to make a dent in the SPL next season. Several key players like Liam Henderson and Anthony Stokes were heading back to Celtic as their loan expired. He knew he needed to act fast and that he may have to spend some money to find suitable replacements. Luckily as they were pleased with last season the board were happy to give him the financial backing he hoped for. All in all he spent almost £1m on his squad but he assured the board this hefty investment would be paid back ten-fold come the start of the season.
Here's the screenshot of my transfers.
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Now onto the pre-season friendlies and after a trip down to Annan at the bottom of Scotland we had a short tour of England. This tour went way better than I could ever had hoped. I had resigned myself to accepting close defeats but my boys were having none of that and proved everyone wrong. After the tour of England it was back to Easter Road to host Spanish side Deportivo in what was another very good result for my side. The pre-season had me very excited for the upcoming season.

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Before we could get to the league we had to deal with League 2 side East Stirlingshire in the League cup first round.

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As expected it was a routine win for the heavy favourites and served well as one last warm up before the league campaign starts.

For those interested these are the tactics I'll be using. The won me the championship last season so I figured I'll stick with them.

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The board were looking for a mid-table finish and the media were predicting a 10th place finish. I was hoping we could crack top 4. I believe my team is good enough.

I'll be back shortly with the review of the first month so stay tuned.

 

[Falkirkyabass]

SEASON 2:AUGUST

Finally the moment I had been obsessing over since the end of last season. His first top flight match as a manager. After the excellent pre-season his team had he couldn't help but feel confident ahead of this game. "No offence to Hamilton but we're very happy with this fixture and are very confident of getting a result" Match day came and all the boys were feeling very good about the game, cocky even. They and their manager felt there was no way they could lose.


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Oh...I was genuinely shell shocked by this result. I guess my over confidence once again affected my players and cost us the game. This result had me worried that my team wasn't as good as I'd spent the off-season thinking. This game was a warning that in this league we can't look past anyone or we'll be punished.





After the Hamilton result I must admit I was worried, Ross County were up next and we absolutely couldn't lose again. As a precaution I switched to 4-1-4-1 for the next game. I made absolutely sure the boys knew we had to fight today. Last week proved nothing is assured and we have to give our all every week. We can't give the other teams an early head start, we must hit the ground running now.


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This is much better! We looked like the side I know we are. Absolutely outclassed Ross County and went a long way to making up for last week.





The third match of the month came against Dundee Utd, the team who beat us on penalties in the cup last year. This was the perfect opportunity to show much we'd improved since then and to gain some much needed momentum.





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We put on an absolute master class in counter attacking football and Dundee Utd just couldn't cope. This result was massive in forgetting that first day disaster and gaining a huge amount of momentum moving forward.





Coming up to our 4th game of the season and the boys were starting to get a little tired. This, though only natural can't be allowed as our next game was against Rangers. After losing the league to us on the last day of the season they pulled themselves together and won the playoffs. This being their first season back in the SPL since going bust in 2012 I knew they'd be itching to impress. I wasn't as nervous as usual as I knew I had a good record against them and I was confident I once again had their number.




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Did I ever! Huge result against arguably the second biggest team in Scotland. James Keatings' early goals knocked the stuffing out of them and they never recovered. This was now 3 wins on the bounce, we're playing spectacular football right now and we have a huge amount of momentum behind us. It's still early doors though so we know there's still a lot of football to be played but it's great to start your first season in the league like this!




Change of pace now and we were involved in cup action again. After brushing aside East Stirlingshire we were drawn against Airdrie Utd. In this game I decided to give a few youngsters a chance as I didn't want to risk them in the league.




View attachment 146257Faissal El Bakhtaoui certainly made me sit up and notice. He's been very patient so far and when I gave him a chance he played a blinder. Might start him in all the cup games to try keep James Keatings' fresh for the league games.







Our 6th and final game of the month came against high flying Inverness up in the highlands. I know from personal experience irl that they're a fantastic counter attacking team (See Scottish cup final 2015 :'() and that we had to be extremely careful against them. We've had an amazing first month so far and I'd absolutely love to finish it strong.



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This was a real kick in the teeth. We were very close to finishing the month perfectly. An absolute screamer saw Inverness ****** a point at the death. Although I was disappointed not to have won a draw wasn't the worst result. It even saw us go top of the league! It's still very early doors but at the end of the first month Edinburgh is dominating the league table. Will one of them dethrone Celtic this season? Stay tuned.




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[Falkirkyabass]

SEASON 2: SEPTEMBER

After our extremely successful first month we were back in action to prove that we weren't a flash in the pan. We had 14 days until our next game and I utilised all of this time by working on some new stuff in training. For the previous month I had been awarded the "Manager of the month" of which I was very proud.

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This took me by surprise as usually this is award is jut blindly handed to one of the Old firm.

Something else took me by surprise during this international break and that was a job offer from the South African Football association. I've never been a fan of international management anyway and I was completely focused on my task in Edinburgh so it was swiftly declined

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Finally after all these distractions and weeks to over think we arrived at our next game. It was against sleeping giants Aberdeen who were struggling as of late. I was hoping we could use the previous month's momentum to continue our good run.

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Wow. We really don't like the first game of the month, huh? Completely outclassed and tbh lucky it was only 5. I was furious, we couldn't afford to lose games like this if we wanted to capture a European spot. We simply had to do better next game.





Our next game came at home to Partick Thistle and still angry about last week's result made sure the boys knew we had to win this.

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Just like what usually happens when we can be bothered we had far too much for Thistle to deal with and Alex Harris' runs down the left win caused so much trouble two Thistle players were given their marching orders.





Our next game came in the form of a League Cup 3rd round tie against Hamilton Accies. After the pasting they gave us on the opening day we were fired up to get our revenge. Fresh off a great win vs Partick we were feeling good heading into this.
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Once again we were completely outplayed by Hamilton and lost comfortably. We weren't helped by Jordon Forster getting himself sent off when we were already 2-0 down. After having a sit down with him after the game he understands it was stupid and won't do it again. To which I replied "It better f*cking not!"





The last game of the month came away to Dundee at Den's Park. Having never played Dundee we weren't exactly sure what to expect but we knew a team such as ours should be overcoming them.
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Disappointing result but tbh I can't really be too mad at my boys. We played extremely well and if not for a last gasp screamer we'd have been taking all the points back with us. This is the second time this has happened though so one thing's for certain and it's that we will be covering seeing out games extensively in training.



The table at the end of the month looks like this.
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As you can see after some what of a reality check this month we've fallen to third. We're still managing to hold off Hearts for the Europa League spot but if we want to be there come the end of the season we'll have to vastly improve and start beating the bottom six teams.

I'll probably bring you October tomorrow so please stay tuned and feel free to give me any advice or criticisms you may have. This is my first story as I said and they'd be greatly appreciated to help me improve future updates and make it as entertaining as I can for you all.

 

[Falkirkyabass]

SEASON 2: OCTOBER

​After dropping down to 3rd last month I was keen to turn it around and try take top spot back. We started the month with a huge challenge, we welcomed defending champions Celtic to Easter Road. Not exactly the fixure I would have liked given we desperately needed to regain some momentum.

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Delighted with that result tbh. Huge point against the best team in the country, this is exactly the sort of result we can use to build some momentum for the rest of the month.


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Up next was another huge game. A chance for revenge after they beat us in the cup last season. I was very excited about being able to show Robbie Neilson that last time was a fluke. We're a much stronger side this time and I believe we could win.

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We didn't play well at all and I was very happy with the point but in the last minute young striker Gavin Reilly burst past my CB and fired the ball into the bottom corner. What an absolute sucker punch, once again Robbie Neilson got one over on me. I'm starting to believe he has my number.

After the last week's derby day heartbreak we welcomed St Johnstone to Easter Road. This being our last home game of the month we knew we had to perform to give our supporters something to cheer about this month as we were in danger of going winless.

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Another truly awful result and I'm seriously starting to wonder if my team from the first month were abducted and replaced with headless chickens in disguise. There's no way we should be losing a game like this, especially not 5-2. NOT GOOD ENOUGH!

Our last hope for a win this month came away in the highlands as we faced Ross County. WE HAVE TO WIN. End of. Nothing else will be accepted. A full month without a win is absolutely embarrassing for us. We're letting the top 3 slip further and further away with every poor result. We have to get back to winning ways.

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Jesus Christ. Twice we took the lead and let it slip. Poor Alex Jakubiak tried to carry the team but they weren't having it. This performance was the final straw. I lost him head at them in the team talk and immediately called a team meeting to let them know they haven't been good enough. I don't want better, I demand it. We can't afford another month like this if we want European football.

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As you can see we've slipped down to 5th now and lie 4 points adrift from the European spots. We simply must be much, much better for the remainder of the season if we want to even be in for a chance of European football next year. The top 3 are already pulling away and another month like this could kill our top 3 ambitions dead.

Anyway, that's it for October in Edinburgh. Hopefully you enjoyed and if I don't smash my laptop from the frustration of my team I'll bring you November in the next few days. Stay tuned.

 

[Falkirkyabass]

SEASON 2: NOVEMBER

Welcome back! After some time alone in a dark room I'm prepared to face this save again. Last month was horrendous and I was praying to every god imaginable that this month would be better. Without further ado I bring you November, enjoy!

We kicked off the month against our eternal bogey team Hamilton. Not exactly the fixture I was hoping for after last month. After the team meeting I gave the day before I was really hoping my boys would come out and play with fire in their belly.


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Absolutely fantastic result and exactly what we needed going forward after last month. The absolute goal machine that is James Keatings once again showing his pure class with a fantastic double. I really hope we can keep him as he's a very special player.


The next game of this month came against Dundee Utd. They're currently floundering at the bottom of the league and this would be a great chance to build on the momentum gained from that impressive win last week.


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Another great win. 3 points and a clean sheet, couldn't ask for more. Back to back wins had us filled with confidence for the final game of the month. That team talk before the Hamilton game had worked wonders and hopefully it could last at least another game.



The final game of the month came against fellow Europe chaser Rangers. This was going to be tough as they were in fine form and Ibrox is one of those grounds you dread having to play in. Hopefully we can use our momentum from the last two games and pick up a very important result.

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Not the result I was hoping for. The better team won and picked up a huge 3 points with a very good display. We just couldn't match them and they showed their class. Even though we didn't pick up the perfect month I was hoping for we still put in two very good displays and picked up 6 points.


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A better month but still a lot to do if we want that European spot. We'll need a few more months like this to that spot back as we currently lie 4 points adrift. Next month will be a tough one as we have 6 games, one of which is against champions Celtic.

December will be up in a few days, can't wait to share it with you. Stay tuned.