The realisation of a dream

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Dazz19

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I will be using Hewitsons Scottish Pyramid System database.

I will also be using this post to keep track of awards and trophies.
With the fall from grace of Rangers opening up the potential of Celtic dominating Scottish football for the foreseeable future, the general consensus amongst Scottish football clubs and the SFA was that something needed to be done to encourage more competition or see the nations league system descend into a farce where teams were competing for second place. Initially the SPL, and Celtic in particular, were reluctant to get on board with the idea, until it was pointed out that an increase in competition would see and increase in TV money due tomore interest outside of Scotland, while a lack of competition would lead to a one team league, or worse, the permanent degradation of Scottish football.


After lengthy talks between representatives from the SPL, SFL and the various amateur and junior leagues a new system was settled upon. The new league structure would be a pyramid system loosely based on the non-league structure in England. The SPL would be expanded to 16 teams, increasing revenue and competition. From there on each division would be split into regional areas. Division one would contain three leagues, division two contained six leagues and division three would contain seven leagues. This new pyramid system meant that the amatuer and junior sides were given the opportunity to join the leagues. Unsurprisingly, all of them accepted, none of them wanting to miss out on the extra exposure they would gain from being a league club. It also resulted in one or two applications from new teams to join the leagues and this is where I come in.


I'd been lucky enough to have won a sizeable amount on the National Lottery and two years later I had a million or so sitting in the bank while I was doing a variety of voluntary jobs to keep myself occupied while I worked out what I was going to do with the money. When I heard about the proposed redevelopment of the SFL the cogs started turning. I'd always dreamt of someday managing and maybe even owning my own football club. I'd approached my local side in England as soon as the money was in my account as well as a couple of other clubs pretty low down in the football pyramid, but none were interested. It was a little over a year since my last knock back from a club and I'd almost given up hope, but with this re-shuffle I saw a fresh opportunity. I got in contact with a number of Scottish junior and amatuer sides with a proposal of a takeover wrongly thinking there'd be at least one who would want to try and charge up the leagues.


Unfortunately most weren't interested and the few who were wanted a ridiculously large sum of money for very little return. I got the distinct impression that with the Rangers debacle still fresh in peoples minds coupled with rise and fall of Gretna just four years ago, clubs were wary of anyone unknown offering to throw money at a club. I don't think being English helped either.So I took a different approach. I started contacting towns who didn't already have a football club, offering to set one up. I would pay for the ground to be built along with training facilities and anything else the town would need to get the club going. The only conditions I would insist on would be that I was the manager of the new club and that I would design the kits. Again, I was initially rebuffed by a number of towns either on the basis that the new league system meant they had a league club close by or simply because they didn't want a club in their town, however, one town accepted.


Aviemore.
 
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Aviemore is a small town, it has a population of just 2,500, I'd considered my home town of Fakenham to be a small town, and that had a population almost four times the size of Aviemore. It sits just inside the Cairngorms National Park and is more well known for its skiing and having a preserved steam railway running through it than for its sportig achievements. The closest club would be any of the numerous clubs in Inverness 30 miles away.


The application to the SFA went in and after a nervous few weeks and numerous inspections we were accpeted. It turns out they weren't being that stringent and as long as we were able to have everything in place for the opening day of the season we were OK. After the initial euphoria of realising Aviemore now had a football league club, the reality dawned. The ground was almost fnished and the pitch was being layed, but we were missing something important.


Namely staff, both playing and coaching.

The board of directors consisted of locals from the town. There was a definite 50/50 split between those with a sporting interest and those who put the town first. It was decided that the club would start as an amateur club. This would save a lot on wages, after all, I needed to keep some of my money for myself and the bulk of it had gone on building the stadium and other features needed to get the club going.

Building a management team was easier than I thought. Ads were placed in the local press and we were soon flooded with applicants, some reasonable, some less so. After a week or so of interviews four were chosen.

Kevin Agnew would be my assistant manager. He'd managed local youth sides for years and was assistant manager in a local supermarket so he was probably more qualified than I was, but he seemed more than happy to be offered the role. Alan Easton was chosen as physio. He was only 26, but had just qualified from Lincoln University with a first in Sports Therapy, so he seemed an ideal choice. Daryl Alexander came in as a scout. We'd asked all potential scouts to compile a report on a game of their choice and his was by far the best, as well as being the only one not featured on TV. Finally Joe Findlay was named head coach and similarly to Kevin, he'd spent years coaching youth sides.

Of course, there's no point having coaches, scouts and physios without any players. All five of us had proposed to the board that we hold trials to see if we could find some local lads good enough to play for us. It seemed the easiest way to get the squad started as well as involving the local community even more. I thought watching a few games would be a quick and easy way to find players. I was wrong. It was, without doubt one of the most draining weekends I have ever spent. But it was worth it. We managed to find not one, not two, but seven local lads who stood out from the rest.

They were:
Aaron Coleman - An Irish goal keeper who had just moved to the area.
Chris Hendry - A 6'8" 18 year old centre back
Johnny Herbert - No, not the F1 driver, but a nippy right midfielder
Billy Paterson - A 16 year old forward
Roddy Cochrane - A 17 year old forward
Michael McIndoe - A surprisingly agile centre back
Jeff Murphy - A no nonsense right back

They were a start, but the hard graft came next as we tried to get a squad big enough to compete and make sure the club didn't fold before we'd even started.
​
 

The ground was finished, the back room staff were in place and we had seven young local lads who were ready and raring to go. But we needed more than seven players to get going in the league and that meant some hard toil sifting through the lists of free agents, watching hours of dvd's and, the worst part of the whole process, talking to agents.

We had decided that the best thing for the team would be to have at least two players capable of playing in each position. This would provide us with cover in each position and more importantly it would provide competition. After all, we may only be an amateur side, but I didn't want players getting complacent because they were the only ones available in their position. I wanted all of them to know that they would have to be at their best to keep hold of the shirt once they'd gotten their hands on it.

Of course, all this would count for nothing if we couldn't get anyone to sign. I knew attracting players to a brand new club, on amateur contracts in the lowest league in Scotland would be difficult, but even I wasn't prepared for how difficult it ended up being. Our first match was on the 24th July, this gave us a little under two months to sign at least four more players so we could field a starting XI in our first match, although I was aiming for at least 25 to give us plenty of cover for injuries and suspensions as well as covering for players who don't turn out to be quite what we were expecting.

The recruitment drive started reasonably well. We picked up a goalkeeper and two left backs within the first week. James Gilpin was the keeper. He'd been on the books at Celtic and Doncaster, but never made it and was very keen to finally get a chance to show what he could do. The left back's were Narada Bernard and Thomas Lyskov. Bernard came from Jamaica and had had an extensive career in England while Lyskov was a young Norwegian who'd been on the books at Reading.

After that things slowed up. We kept plugging away in the hope we would get a few more players on board, but, as we expected, more established clubs were chasing the same players we were and naturally they were more interested in signing for a club that would be ready for the start of the season.

We kept going and the squad started to grow. It was mostly made up with guys in their early 20's who'd been released from youth contracts and had been out of the game for a couple of years. Ryan Connolly, a right back formerly of Port Vale, was the next to join and he was followed by the biggest name at the club, and somewhat of a coup. I don't know how we managed it, but we somehow persuaded Trevor Benjamin to sign for us. Although not the best player in the world, he would be the best player at our little club.

As the season grew closer, our squad numbers increased, all be it slowly. James Cronesberry, a left winger, Ethan Mannion, a forward and Simon Dunne, a centre back, all agreed to play for us. They were shortly followed by Nathan D'Laryea (DC), Rami Raofat (ML) an Alejandro Caiaffa, a Colombian who had been released by Livingston. The last two to join the club we Ashley Towler (MC) and Alex Stockinger (MC) who had been at Reading with Lyskov, who had convinced us to give his mate a trial.

So our squad was complete and looked like this:
GK - James Gilpin, Aaron Coleman
DL - Thomas Lyskov, Narada Bernard
DR - Ryan Connolly, Jeff Murphy
DC - Michael McIndoe, Simon Dunne, Nathan D'Laryea, Chris Hendry
ML - James Cronesberry, Rami Raofat
MC - Alejandro Caiaffa, Alex stockinger, Ashley Towler
MR - Johnny Herbert
FW - Billy Paterson, Trevor Benjamin, Roddy Cochrane, Ethan Mannion

We were still short of cover in the middle of the park and on the right wing, but I was happy and we were looking forward to our first two games in the clubs history. Away to Nairn County, followed by our first home game at Mountain View Park against Inverness City.
 
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Game one
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Nairn County (a) Lost 1-2 (Benjamin)

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We'd all been looking forward to this day since the team had been officially accepted into the league. Training had been going well and the squad was starting to resemble a team. We were a bit upset that the first game would be away from home, but it did give us a few more days to add some finishing touches to the ground.

Saturday rolled around and we all piled into the team bus, full of excitement and nerves. Unfortunately, the game didn't go as well as we'd hoped. For the first half we were the proverbial rabbits in headlights. We froze. Nairn County peppered our goal and we were lucky to go in at half time just 1-0 down. Within two minutes of the second half starting we were 2-0 and looking well out of our depth, but the lads didn't give in and in injury time Trevor Benjamin popped up and scored our first ever goal and made the score line a bit more flattering than it should have been.

I wasn't too hard on the lads. Most of them had been out of the game for a couple of years, so instead I told them to forget about that game and look forward to playing our first home game in a couple of days.


Game two
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Inverness City FC (h) drew 2-2 (Cochrane, Cronesberry)
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We had our first point! The side that turned up at Mountain View Park was completely different to the one that ran out against Nairn County. They looked more like a team and started at one **** of a tempo and soon took a 1-0 lead, Roddy Cochrane taking the honour of scoring the first goal at our new home. Inverness responded rapidly and were back level before half time. We came out like a rocket in the second half, James Cronesberry firing us back into the lead just two minutes into the second half. The fairytale win wasn't to be though as we fell asleep at a corner and allowed Inverness to equalise. Still, it was a credible result given it was only our second game.

August would see us play five games, three away and two at home. I had set the team a couple of modest targets. I wanted a goal a game and a couple more points. Nothing spectacular, just a steady improvement.
 
August

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Caledonian FC (a) won 2-1 (Cochrane, Cronesberry)
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Our first league victory! And we did it the hard way. We went 1-0 down early on again, something we definitely needed to address in training, but we showed spirit and kept the scoreline the same at half time. We came out all guns blazing and equalised pretty early on through Roddy Cochrane, before taking the lead with a stunner from James Cronesberry. In the end we had to hang on, but I was proud of the lads, especially as we lost Lyskov, Caiaffa and Cronesberry to injury thanks to some very heavy tackles.



Whitehills FC (h) won 1-0 (Mannion)
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The score line in no way, shape or form reflected the game. We dominated. Whitehills didn't register a single shot all game while we peppered their goal. The fact that their keeper walked away with the man of the match award says it all really. Its a shame we only managed one goal, but it was good to see young Ethan Mannion up and running.



Inverness Union (a) won 4-1 (Mannion 3, Benjamin)​

Um...wow. I was not expecting that. After the displays against Whitehills and Caledonian I was hoping for a draw at best, especially as Inverness Union had started the season so well. We were unplayable in the first half though. Mannion nodded home from a corner early on, before hitting a 25 yard belter midway through the half. Benjamin added a third two minutes later and when we were awarded a penalty right on half time Mannion stepped up and completed his hat-trick. We looked a bit complacent in the second half and that's the only downside.



Inverness Citadel (h) drew 1-1 (Benjamin)
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Again, complacency in the second half snuck into our game and this time it cost us a win. Benjamin had powered home a header from a corner after half an hour and we looked comfortable, but unlike their Union cousins, Citadel didn't fold and struck after 79 minutes. We ended up hanging on for a point.



Rothes (a) won 2-0 (D'Laryea, O.G)
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This was more like it. Another dominant display which saw us simply over power a struggling Rothes team. We were quicker to the ball, more forceful in tackles and more accurate with our passing. Both goals came as a result of set pieces.


We ended August sitting in an amazing fourth place. Personally, I thought this was more down to luck and surprise than anything else, but I didn't let onto the team about this as I wanted to keep their confidence levels high.
 

September brought good news for two of the squad. Ethan Mannion made his debut for Ireland U19's on the 1st and a day later Ryan Connolly made his debut for the Welsh U19's. Neither made winning starts to their international careers but it was a good experience for both guys.

By the end of the week we'd also added four more local lads to the ranks. David Cargill (Gk), Stuart Chisolm and Chris Thompson (MC) and Mike Forbes (FW). All four had been at the trials at the start of the season and with injuries taking their toll, we thought we'd give them a chance.



Dufftown (a) won 2-1 (O.G. 2)
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I think fortunate would be the best way to describe this result. We struggled to compete all game, but somehow came away with three points. The first own goal was courtesy of pressure from a corner, the second was lucky. A shot cannoning back off the post, onto a defender, onto the keeper and in. I had a chat with the Dufftown manager after the game and luckily he saw the funny side, but promised he'd get his own back at our place.



Inverness Thistle (h) won 1-0 (Bernard)

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Again, we didn't play well, but again we somehow came away with a win. Thistle looked like they might get a share of the points until Bernard popped up late on to nod a home a free kick. It was harsh on Thistle who played better than us, but I'll take the points.



Portgordon Vics (h) won 3-0 (Caiaffa, Mannion, Benjamin)

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This was by far and away our best performance so far this season. Portgordon didn't stand a chance and it was more a case of how many we could get rather than if we'd score. Caiaffa opened the scoring, finally getting the reward his performances have deserved. Mannion added the second right on half time before Benjamin wrapped things up.


The month ended brilliantly. We were somehow sitting top of the league, I'd completed my move up to Scotland and now had a lovely little house just outside Aviemore and Norwich, the team I'd supported all my life had made a great start to the Premier League season. Things couldn't get any better could they?
 
October

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Nairn St Ninian (a) won 5-0 (Mannion 3, Benjamin 2)

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Talk about a mis-match. Nairn were bottom, we were top and this match showed why. We ripped them to pieces in the first 45 minutes with Mannion and Benjamin having a one game of one upmanship. We eased off in the second half, manly because we didn't need to go full throttle due to the five goal cushion and Nairn offering no threat what-so-ever.



Bishopmill Utd (h) won 1-0 (Mannion)

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For some reason, we can't replicate our away form at home. We're still picking up wins, but we're nowhere near as fluid as when we play away. I'll start to really worry when we stop picking up points though, but as long as Mannion keeps playing the way he is at the moment we don't need to worry.



Fochabers (a) won 5-0 (Cronesberry, Benjamin 3, Cochrane)

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As if to prove my point about us playing better away, we bang in five for the second consecutive away game. The scoreline was harsh on Fochabers though as they had a goal disallowed and two valid penalty claims waved away. It was only 2-0 at half time and they were still in it, but a goal on 47 minutes, just after theirs was ruled out killed the match.



Strathspey Thistle (h) won 3-0 (Benjamin, Caiaffa, McIndoe)

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Finally we had a decent game at home. Strathspey gave us a good match, but our finishing was superior. Yet again Benjamin scored from a set piece, something he's making a habit of. Caiaffa scored a cracking free kick mid way through the second half before McIndoe added some gloss to the score line in injury time.


The month ended with us still sitting on top of the league. We were unbeaten since the opening day of the season and hadn't conceded for six games. This was the stuff dreams were made of and I was just waiting for it to all fall to pieces.
 

November started with prizes. Trevor Benjamin and Ethan Mannion were named Division three player of the month and young player of the month respectively for October. Quite an achievement when you consider division three covers seven different leagues.



Inverness Celtic (a) won 3-2 (Lyskov, Mannion 2)

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Mannion celebrated his award by banging in a match winning brace in a pulsating end to end game. We finally conceded after nearly 600 minutes of football to go 1-0 but we responded well and went 2-1 up at half time. The second half saw Inverness draw level and then have a goal ruled out before we snatched the win.



Colony Park (h) won 1-0 (D'Laryea)

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Once again we've struggled at home and for Colony not to get anything out of the game was a bit harsh. They battered us for the whole game, but succumbed to one of our early season faults and fell asleep at a corner and for the second game running we came away with three points when we really only deserved one.



We had a bit more good news in the middle of the month as James Cronesberry won his first cap for Ireland U21's. Although not a full cap this was the first recognised international honour to be bestowed upon anyone at the club. Unfortunately, it meant that the clubs who were keeping an eye on him were going to be even more interested.



Nairn County (h) won 1-0 (Caiaffa)
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I'm starting to see a pattern emerge with our home games. Struggle for most of the game, have a ten minute spell where we play well and end up stealing the points in those ten minutes. This one was made all the sweeter as it was against the only team to beat is so far this season.


So, here we sit at the half way point in the season. We've played 17 games and have somehow amassed 44 points. In this time we've scored 38 goals and let in just 10 and the latest victory over Nairn County saw us open up an eight point lead at the top of the league!
 
December

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RAF Lossiemouth (h) won 5-0 (Cochrane 2, Cronesberry 2, Caiaffa)
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We only have two games in December and we certainly weren't feeling the Christmas spirit in the first of the two. RAF Lossiemouth turned up, but we were in the mood for giving our fans a good present. We were 1-0 up within the first minute and 3-0 up by half time. Lossiemouth went down to 10 men and the contest was over. We still knocked in a couple more to improve our goal difference.



Inverness City (a) 1-1 (Benjamin)
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It had to happen. Our winning run was over. After 12 straight wins this one proved to be unlucky 13. We played well but couldn't find the back of the net until the 81st minute. Inverness equalised in the 83rd minute. The lads didn't look their usual selves and I had a pretty good idea why.


Over the past couple of months we'd done amazingly well. We were an amateur side, competing in our first ever league campaign and we were running away with the league. We'd had two of our youngsters capped at U19 level and one capped at U21 level. Our forwards were scoring for fun and our defenders were shutting out the opposition.

The adverse affect of this was that our players were getting noticed. We'd had a couple of tentative inquiries from clubs about a couple of players but no firm offers. The biggest issue we had was that in a few days the transfer window would open and with our players being signed on amateur contracts if any hard offers came in we'd have one **** of a job keeping hold of them.
 
January

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Caledonian (h) won 4-0 (D'Laryea 2, Benjamin, Lyskov)
​

Well, that's the way to start the new year. The weather was atrocious but we put on a show for the hardy few who turned up. D'Layea powered home two identical headers from corners to give us a 2-0 half time lead. Benjamin nodded in a third before Lyskov lit up the afternoon with a 25 yard screamer to round off the win.


Unfortunately that game was the last time we saw James Cronesberry and Nathan D'Laryea in the green of Aviemore. Both had their heads turned by full time contracts. D'Laryea went to Johnstone Burgh in division two, while Cronesberry signed a contract with Queen of the South. On a plus side James Gilpin rejected the offer put to him by Cambridge.



Whitehills (a) won 5-1 (Benjamin, Mannion, Raofat, Thompson 2)

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It didn't look like we were missing D'Laryea and Cronesberry too much as we continued to batter the opposition. Whitehills took the early lead but we scored at regular intervals, the final two goals being scored by Chris Thompson, one of the local lads we'd signed up after a second look.


So, after the victory over Whitehills we'd now gone 20 games unbeaten, but things were starting to look worrying off the field as more offers came in and more players left. Jeff Murphy left to go to our league rivals INverness Celtic. Alejandro Caiaffa went to play for Stenhousemuir, an understandable move as he had been one of our stand out players. Simon Dunne also climbed the leagues moving to Alloa while Johnny Herbert and Michael McIndoe went to Luncarty and Vale of Clyde repsectively. The only signing we managed to make in this time was Philip Ojapah, a replacement for Nathan D'Laryea. Unfortunately this signing hadn't gone down well.

We only had one more game this month, but at this rate we were going to be starting the second half of the season with a completely different squad. We'd managed to bring in Charlie Matthews and Dominic Green to fill the void in midfield and Alex Patterson to become the only right midfielder at the club. A couple of days later Akil Grier signed, he was capable of playing on the wing or as a striker. However, none of these covered the biggest blow of all, Ethan Mannion leaving the club. He upped and left for Muirkirk. Personally I felt he could have done better but ultimately he wanted to get paid for playing. The next player in was James Shields from Dundee City, he would add versatility to the side as he was able to play anywhere in midfield. The day before our final match in January Aaron Coleman left for Camelon Albion and Ashley Towler went to Deveronside. We did manage to bring in George Beavan, another centre back and Zach Kalthoff, a goal keeper.

Inverness Union (h) won 1-0 (Raofat)
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We started this game with just four of the players who had started against Whitehills and it showed. The team looked disjointed and nervy and for the first time since the start of the season I wasn't confident. We somehow managed to scrape a win, but I was a lot less optimistic about the rest of the season.


After the game Chris Hendry announced that he would be leaving for Fort William and had actually agreed a deal at the start of the week but felt it would be wrong to abandon the side before the match against Inverness. The month did end on a bit of a high with James Gilpin rejecting two more offers, this time from Stockport and Newport County and Thomas Lyskov being awarded the young player of the month award for January.
 
Cheers guys, hopefully the board will make us semi-pro at the end of the season. Can't be signing 10-15 players every six months because they've all cleared off to clubs who will pay them
 
February
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I was preparing myself for the final run in. We had just 12 games remaining and we were still sitting pretty at the top of the league. The new lads seemed to be fitting in well in training and I was quietly confident that we would be able to hold on until the end of the season and hopefully gain promotion to division two.


I was enjoying life in the area, how couldn't I? I was managing my own football team. I had views like that right on my doorstep. Even with the recent revolving door activity with players I was happy.



Inverness Citadel (a) won 1-0 (Raofat)
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This definitely brought my mood down. After spending a couple of days walking the Cairngorms and leaving the coaching team in charge of the lads this match made me realise that the new lads weren't integrating quite as well as we hoped. We stuttered through the game and picked up the win, but it was by no means convincing.

Rothes (h) lost 1-0

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It had to happen eventually. We lost. The score line suggests it was close. It really wasn't. Rothes outplayed us from start to finish. Everything about them as better and we fell to a defeat for the first time in 21 games. We were still sitting top of the league but the gap had narrowed, the teams chasing promotion were catching and all of a sudden we looked like a team of amateurs who had been found out by the opposition.

Dufftown (h) won 2-1 (OG, Beavan)
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A win is a win, but once again we looked dodgy. All our early season form had flown the nest with the raft of players who had left us and we were now relying on own goals and keepers flapping at corners to give us victories.


By the end of the month, the weather had turned nasty, my optimism was dwindling and the press had us down as a novelty item that had lost its appeal. It seemed like the Aviemore adventure was turning sour, but spring was just round the corner and that could only be a good thing.
 
March


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Inverness Thistle (a) Lost 3-0

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This was dreadful. It seemed like the more the new Aviemore played together, the worse they got. Of the 14 players on the pitch 12 of them looked like they'd never played football before in their life. We were a shambles. Inverness had a goal disallowed and hit the woodwork twice, so in hindsight 3-0 was a lucky escape.


Portgordon Vics (a) Lost 2-0

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Things just get worse. After the humiliation by Inverness we tried our hardest to go one better in this game, but thank the Lord we were unable to. We suffered back to back defeats for the first time and we deserved it. We looked a bit sharper than last week but there was still a lot of room for improvement. The unfortunate thing was, I couldn't see any coming.


Nairn St Ninian (h) Lost 3-0

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I couldn't believe this. Nairn came into this game bottom of the league, only one win to their name and only 15 goals all season. If you'd played this back to a bystander and asked who was top of the league you certainly wouldn't have picked us. We were awful. I'm not usually one for losing my temper, but I did after this game, especially when I got wind of Nairn County winning, meaning we were no longer top of the league.


So much for an upturn in fortune then. We lost all three games, didn't score...didn't even look like scoring and let in eight goals and just to round it off, we were humiliated by the team rooted at the foot of the table.
 
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Yes, that's right. It's my birthday and as a present I asked the team to try and rediscover the early season form and get us promoted. It sort of worked.



Bishopmill Utd (a) Drew 1-1 (Grier)​

This was a massive improvement from last month. We looked more together as a side and played some pretty neat football. We went 1-0 down mid way through the first half but leveled it up mid way through the second half. We were still a long way from the pre January raid on the club, but it was a start.



Fochabers (h) Won 2-1 (Matthews, Benjamin)
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Back to winning ways at last. Fochabers put up some stern resistance, but we took the lead shortly before half time. They came back at us and pulled level on the hour and promptly shut up shop, but we kept battering away and finally won a penalty in injury time to claim the points.



Strathspey Thistle (a) Lost 2-1 (Stockinger)
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Well that was short lived. As well as we played against Fochabers, we played just as bad against Strathspey. It was a moment of individual skill from Stockinger that gave us the lead after just five minutes, but that was as good as it got. We only went down 2-1 but it probably should have been more.



May​

So here we were, heading into the last three games of the season. We needed just one point to go up, but we were also still in with a chance of winning the league as we were only two points behind Nairn County.



Inverness Celtic (h) Lost 1-0
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Mixed emotions from this one. We lost but we played well. We probably deserved something from the game but as it was we came away with nothing. We were all happier after the game though as news filtered through that Strathspey Thistle in fourth had lost so we were promoted!



RAF Lossiemouth (a) Won 2-1 (Benjamin, Ojapah)
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It seems we were playing more freely now the pressure of promotion was gone and we should have won this by a larger margain. We managed 20 shots in total, 15 were on target and it was only the Lossiemouth keeper and the woodwork that kept the score down.

Colony Park (a) Lost 3-1 (Grier)
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This was almost as bad as the Nairn St Ninian loss. At half time we were 1-0 and playing well. Colony Park couldn't cope with us and we looked to be ending the season on a high. Then we got word that Nairn County were 2-0 and down to 10 men. If things stayed as they were we would be crowned champs in our first season. Suffice to say, we bottled it. We let in three sloppy goals and threw away the title. We were promoted, but we hadn't done it in the style I'd hoped for.
 
End of Season review 2011/12
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The season was over and it had been quite a successful one. The set up of the club had been swift and we had the basics of everything we needed. On the field we'd started slowly but then a 12 game winning run in the middle of a 21 game undefeated streak had left us sitting in a good position in the league.

January had seen the side ravaged as semi-pro and professional clubs snapped up our best players, leaving us at one point with only four players surviving from one match to the next. The consequence of that was our form slipped and we lost our position at the top of the league, however, we did manage to hang on and grab promotion in our debut season as a football club.

We finished second in the league. Nairn County beat us to the title by two points, while Inverness Thistle finished third, four points adrift of us. Ourselves and Nairn County were put into the Second division North West, while Inverness Thistle ended up in the second division Central Belt.

Alex Stockinger was named our player of the season with James Gilpin runner up. Both benefited from sticking with us for the whole season.

There was some slight disappointment (couple with surprise on my part) as the board informed me that the local council had rejected a planning application to expand Mountain View Park. This was the first I'd heard of the idea and I have to admit I was kind of happy that the application had been turned down. Although we were selling a reasonable amount of tickets, we by no means needed a bigger stadium just yet.

Finally the board announced that we would be turning semi-pro. This was the bit of news I was desperate to hear. This meant I could tie down our best players and at least get some money for them if they left. The first players I signed up were Stockinger, Raofat, Gilpin and Benjamin.
 
Pre Season
It all begins again


Signings
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As you'd expect we needed to bring in some fresh faces. We only just managed to gain promotion at the end of last season as a combination of losing key players in January and being found out by the opposition had seen results drop. Now with playing a division higher it was essential that we freshened up the playing staff as well as adding a bit more flair to side.

We only managed to bring in three new faces during pre-season, but they were in positions that needed covering so I guess that was a bonus. Garry McGowan and Rob Douglas both came in to fill in on the right side of midfield. This was a position that for some reason had been troublesome all last season, so hopefully they would see to that issue. The other new face was Billy Miller, a versatile defender who assured us he could play anywhere across the back four.

Aside from these three we also promoted two forwards from the youth squad. Both Pettigrew and Tweedie had impressed in the under 19's last season and I felt it was time to give them a go in the first team.



Contracts

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With us now being semi-pro I was keen to avoid last January's fiasco and tie down the important players in the side. This was of a course a risky move as it would mean extra expenditure to the club, but there was also the risk of annoying those players who weren't offered contracts. In the end ten guys were offered contracts. Matthews, McGowan, Pettigrew, Tweedie, Douglas, Lyskov, Gilpin, Raofat, Stockinger and Benjamin were the lucky few. I saw these guys as the backbone of the side and the players that would take us forward. These were also the one who were most likely to attract offers from other clubs, so I wanted to make sure we got something for them this time.



Releases
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Obviously some players aren't going to be quite as lucky. With the new signings and the handful of contracts being offered we needed to trim the squad. Seven players in total were released, all of them players who didn't quite live up to the potential they'd shown in training. Forbes, Fleming and Cargill were the youth players who were let go, while Hunter, Milne, Chisholm and Potter had all featured for the first team towards the end of last season and had never quite looked the part.



Friendlies
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We had four friendly matches before the season kicked off. These were a home game against Newmachar, away gaes against Zetland and Dravel and the marquee friendlie at home to Barnsley.

The games against Zetland and Dravel both resulted in 2-1 victories. Patterson scored in both while Pettigrew and Tweedie showed I had made a good decision in putting them in the first team by getting a goal apiece. The game against Newmachar was a disappointing 1-0 loss, but I was more worried fitness at this point. The game against Barnsley was also a 1-0 defeat, but this was far more encouraging. Barnsley put out a strong side and we matched them for the bulk of the game.



​Miscellaneous
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In other news, the club offered me a contract. It seemed strange to start with, given that the club was practically mine anyway and besides I had no intention of leaving. I understood why though, it was for the same reason I'd tied down some of our best players to contracts. I'd been linked with the Burton job and a couple of other lower league jobs in England and although I'd turned them down the board were covering their bases just in case I did leave.

I'd asked the board if there was a possibility of us being linked with a bigger club. As I saw it we would be able to get some players in on loan without paying too much. Initially the board seemed open to the idea but after a couple of weeks deliberation they came back to me with their decision. They couldn't see any point in creating any links at this time. I was a tad upset by this decision, but there was no point arguing.

Finally, thanks to the prize money from promotion we were able to announce that we'd made a profit of £190k for the year. Pretty impressive for our first season and it meant we had money spare for the contracted players wages.
 
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