The Rise of the Mighty Diamonds

[gregmurdoch1]

Hey, this is my first FM story and i'm going to start with my boyhood club, Airdrieonians. My main goal is to finally get Airdrie back into Europe and become one of Scotland's top clubs.

First update to follow in roughly a hour!



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[kiedude]

Should be a good read, very similar to alot of threads on this game, but appeals to me considering I grew up in Airdrie, and I was about a 2 minute walk away from their stadium. Good luck, and get European glory back to Scotland!

 

[gregmurdoch1]

AIRDRIE HIRE SCOTLAND LEGEND LEIGHTON
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Airdrieonians have announced that manager Gary Bollan has left the club by mutual consent and has been replaced by Jim Leighton on a 1 year deal. Chairman Jim Ballantyne said: "It was very sad to see Gary leave but I am very happy to have got someone with international experience to replace him. I hope Jim will be able to bring the good days back to Airdrie after a difficult few years."

Leighton takes immediate charge of first team affairs and has kept all of his backroom staff. In a short interview with Sky Sports News Lieghton had this to say: "I am delighted to be given the chance to manage Airdrieonians and hope I am able to bring back to European glory days this club once had. I am very confdent in the set-up we have here and I am definitley hoping for promotion if not this season then next."

CLUB OVERVIEW
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STAFF
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SQAUD OVERVIEW
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KEY PLAYERS​

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Grant Adam is definitley one of the best players at the club, only on a one year deal he'll be very hard to keep but there is a solid backbone to the team that can allow me to build a good team around it.

YOUTH PROSPECTS
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Not much in the youth team but Chris O'Neil looks a very good talent and hopefully there is plenty of talent in the market for me to get.

SEASON EXPECTATIONS

Finish in top 4 to achieve a play-off place
Reach 3rd round of the Challange Cup
Reach 3rd round of the Scottish Cup
Reach 2nd round of League Cup
To use as many Scottish players as possible in the team


JUNE AND JULY UPDATE TO FOLLOW ASAP

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[gregmurdoch1]

JUNE AND JULY- PRE SEASON

NEW SIGININGS
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Quite a few new signings especially in the CB ans STC roles. Kyle Millar, Blair Spittal and Matty Allan are all good young prospects who should hopefully develop well. John Gemmil and Darren Lavey are both good strikers who along with Jim Lister will hopefully provide me with all my goals. Alexis Dutot and Craig Mckeown are both solid CB and will help provide some stability and David Anderson is a very experienced CM who could become a very important player.

PRE SEASON FRENDLIES
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A fairly promising start to the season with Jim Lister proving to be a very key player up front.

CHALLANGE CUP 1ST ROUND
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A tricky 1st round tie against a stronger Greenock Morton who proved to be just too skillful for Airdrieonians. After taking the lead with a rebound from a free kick, Morton seemed to be in control in the first half. Obviously words from Airdrie manager Jim Leighton at half time worked as Jim Lister scored witihin 3 minutes of the restart. However, a couple of terrible defnesive errors allowed Morton to score twice more and comfortably make it into the second round.

After the game Jim Leighton had this to say in the press conference: "I thought we played poorly tonight. There was no composure shown by the lads and our ability to not keep possession haunted us in the end. There is much work ahead if we are to gain promotion this year but i fully believe we have the squad capable of doing this."

NEXT UPDATE AUGUST FIXTURES AND MORE CUP TIES AND TRANSFERS

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NOTE: ANY FEEDBACK IS MUCH APPRECIATED AS THIS IS MY FIRST STORY

 

[gregmurdoch1]

A MONTH OF MIXED FORTUNES AT NEW BROOMFIELD



August brought the start of the Scottish League One and with it some mixed resluts for Airdrieonians. Manger Jim Leighton will be happy with good victories against Stenhousemuir and Arbroath as well as a godd result against East Fife in the League Cup, but will be dissapoionted with the loss to Stranraer in the league and the close loss to Hearts in the cup.
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LEAGUE CUP 1ST ROUND

AIRDRIEONIANS 3-2 EAST FIFE
LAVERY(2), BLOCKELY
A dominating first victory for manager Leighton with Airdrie going 3-1 up before a late consolation making it a fairly straightforward victory for the diamonds.

SPFL LEAGUE ONE

STENHOUSEMUIR 1-2 AIRDRIEONIANS
MILLER, LISTERThere were a lot of chances created in this match but Airdrie will count themselves lucky to get the win which could have easily slipped away from them

AIRDRIEONIANS 1-3 STRANRAER
LAVERYVery poor from Airdrie, outplayed in every department from start to finish

LEAGUE CUP 2ND ROUND

HEART OF MIDLOTHIAN 1-0 AIRDRIEONIANS
Always going to be a tough match but 1-0 is a generous score for Airdrie, outplayed by a much more talented squad

SPFL LEAGUE ONE

ARBROATH 0-1 AIRDRIEONIANS
A good result at a tough venue, dominated the game from strat to finish so slightly disappointed it was only 1-0

TRANSFERS

ALAN O'SULLIVAN
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A young player with good potential in as a back-up to th three main strikers of Gemmil, Lister and Lavery

SEPTEMBER UPDATE SOON INCLUDING MATCH AGAINST 'THE RANGERS'

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[gregmurdoch1]

UNDEFEATED MONTH SEE'S DIAMONDS RISE TO THE TOP
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An undefeated month for League one side Airdrieonians has seen them rise to the top of the league. Victories against Rangers and Ayr along with draws against Dunfermilne and East Fife saw the North Lanarkshire club pick up 8 points from a possible 12. Manager Jim Leighton said this in an exclusive interview with BBC Scotland: "I am delighted with the boys' performances this month. We have been very disciplined and compact which has enabled us to pick up victories no one expected of us. I am fully confident that we can continue our league run and hopefully cement our place at the top of the table."

SCOTTISH LEAGUE ONE

AIRDRIEONIANS 3-1 RANGERS
GEMMIL, LAVERY, BLOCKELY
An excellent and very clinical performance by Airdrie that showed pundits they were a threat in the league to every team.

AIRDRIEONIANS 1-1 DUNFERMILNE
GEMMIL
Another good performance from Airdrie who were unlucky not to hold on to the 1-0 lead they held for a long time.

EAST FIFE 2-2 AIRDRIEONIANS
LAVERY, O.G
Was slightly disappointed here as we were 2-0 up with 15 minutes left but in the end we were very fortunate to get a draw after a lot of late pressure from East Fife

AYR UNITED 2-4 AIRDRIEONIANS
LISTER, O'SULLIVAN(2), O.G
A good performance from Airdrie and a well deserved brace for young O'Sullivan, however, will be disappointed with the number of late goals we are conceding.

LEAGUE TABLE AND FIXTURES
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NEXT UPDATE FROM OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER
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[gregmurdoch1]

A MIXED THREE MONTHS FOR MANAGER LEIGHTON

Airdrieonians manager Jim Leighton will be a man of mixed emotions come the starts of 2014. After what seemed like the perfect start, Airdrieonains went 6 games without a win before picking up thhree in a row to have some forward momentum for the new year.

SCOTIISH LEAGUE ONE
AIRDRIEONIANS 6-3 BRECHIN CITY
GEMMIL, O'SULLIVAN, MCKEOWN, LAVERY(2), LISTERAnother good victory from Airdrie but conceding three goals against a poor team may worry the manager a bit

AIRDRIEONIANS 4-2 FORFAR ATHLETIC
MILLER(2), MOULET, LISTER
A good victory to leave Airdrie comfortably at the top of the table

AIRDRIEONIANS 1-0 STENHOUSEMUIR
GEMMIL
Yet another win and more importantly a clean sheet which will make manager Jim Leighton very happy

SCOTTISH CUP 2ND ROUND
AIRDRIEONIANS 1-2 QUEEN OF THE SOUTH
LISTER
Always a difficult game but we were never in it and Lister's goal was only a consolation


SCOTTISH LEAGUE ONE
RANGERS 3-0 AIRDRIEONIANS
Outplayed against a much better team who seemed more organised than our previous encounter

STRANRAER 3-3 AIRDRIEONIANS
LAVERY(2), SPITTAL
A good result considering we were 3-1 down but should have never conceded 3 goals- sloppy defending yet again

AIRDRIEONIANS 1-3 ARBROATH
MILLER
A horendous performance from Airdrie, deserved nothing at all here

AIRDRIEONIANS 1-2 EAST FIFE
LAVERY
Another loss topped off a horrific month for Airdrie

AIRDRIEONIANS 0-1 DUNFERMILNE
We were unlucky to concede a late goal but didn't do enough with our possession

FORFAR ATHLETIC 3-3 AIRDRIEONIANS
LAVERY, GEMMIL, MOULET
Poor result, should have won considering we were 2-0 up within 10 minutes

AIRDRIEONIANS 3-1 AYR UNITED
LAVERY(2), LISTER
Finally a win, thoroughly deserved and much needed too

BRECHIN CITY 0-1 AIRDRIEONIANS
LAVERY
Another good win and a clean sheet away from home- perfect!

STENHOUSEMUIR 0-2 AIRDRIEONIANS
GEMMIL(2)
Back-to-back wins away from home makes sure we end 2013 on a positive note

LEAGUE TABLE AND FIXTURES
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So slipped back to 3rd place but still in the hunt for the league and comfortably ahead of 4th place. Definitley happy with the performance of the team this year and may our winning run continue on in 2014!

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PLEASE GIVE FEEDBACK ON LAYOUT OR ANYTHING, WOULD LOVE TO HEAR WHAT PEOPLE THINK OF STORY SO FAR