mr goodwin fm career

So now season 2011/12 is over here is a comprehensive look at East Stirlingshire’s season and surrounding events.

New Leagues

I decided to add the Dutch, Spanish and French leagues to the game as I have the ability to scout these countries and the pickings are slim but by adding these nations should open up a few more opportunities to the Club.

Third Division ,Table Fixtures

Overall I was delighted by the performance this season. We achieved what was most unlikely and that was a top two finish. Bearing in mind we were expected to finish rock bottom.

I set out with modest intentions. I envisaged a three year plan in order to get out of the Third and it is safe to say we are way ahead of schedule.

We made a slow start but we soon got to grinding out good results. We had a poor spell over Christmas  but we put that behind us. The only other poor spell was when second place had been secured and the players switched off mentally however we pulled it together at the end!

Rest Of Scotland Competitions

Scottish Premier League

Irn Bru First Division

Irn Bru Second Division

Scottish Cup

Scottish League Cup

Which completes a domestic treble for Celtic this year! I am sure there will be at least one FM Crowd blogger who will be delighted to see that!

Scottish Challenge Cup

English Premier League and Cup Competitions

Barclays Premier League

FA Cup

Carling Cup

European Competitions

Champions League

Europa League

Summer Expectations and Dealings

In the summer there is still a lot of work to be done. I want to enhance both wings as despite the fact Ronald and Spaul are performing well there attributes are lower than standards set around other areas of the team. Initial scouting and viability assessments prior to the end of the season has revealed only one option at the moment and that is Daquain from Alloa Athletic. With Alloa missing out on the play offs this may be a opportune moment to prise him away.

Changes Of club Infrastructure

A board meeting was held and due to the slightly strengthened financial position of the Club, the board agreed to my request of increased funding for junior coaching. This is done in the hope of next years hopefuls will be of a better quality and will lead to more youngsters breaking into the first team.

With no corporate facilities this hinders our sponsorship potential but there is no end in sight for that problem as we do not have our own stadium.

Playing Staff Assessment

We have a lot of players here at the Club who have over achieved this season. It is also a fact that several of our players are in the twilight of their careers. My main area of strengthening this summer will be two new wingers. I want a new central midfield to give strength of depth and maybe a new defender to give us more options there to. I will be on the look out for a keeper to but I have faith in Gilpin at the minute and will only replace him with an outstanding candidate.

Staff Changes

In terms of staff turn over I will be letting go Don Anderson in his capacity as scout. He has refused to enter into contract discussions for the last six months and his deal is up in a week so he will be replaced.

Mark Christie will also be shown the door. He is a youth coach but is not offering me anything I cant get from other elements of my coaching staff.

I will be looking to bring in a specialist for goalkeeping that way all main areas of positional coaching will me covered.

Thoughts and observations

We were too aggressive this season and I will be resolving that in the post and pre season. Too many bookings and sending off put us under strain at various times during the season and though the squad coped pretty well it was asking a too much to overhaul Elgin in the end. If Sinclair wasn’t suspended for five games maybe we could have been tighter.

Targets For next Season

Simple. Stay up minimum. Good strong cup run to maximise income.

Finances

The financial picture is pretty strong though it is fairly obvious that it is the prize money from various competitions which have kept us viable.

We have opened up a new revenue stream with the deal with Aberdeen. The new kit sponsorship deal is pretty poor but it’ll help in the long run.

The Club is now debt free so that is a positive. We still have to pay Stenhousmuir £10,000 a year in rent on the stadium but there is little that can be done about that at the minute.

Summary

It has been a difficult and trying season but we achieved! The squad is older and needs to be refreshed but the existing old head will be required to guide the young blood. However if they are unable to their jobs then they will be ruthlessly axed.

Tony Powell and Kristian Butcher have been excellent when they have had the chance and I expect them to continue to develop. I don’t intend to let any of my players I wish to keep go but with the right offer……..

The club needs to continue to develop off the field so I will be nudging the board to keep us going in the right direction.

Tags: East Stirlingshire FC

East Stirlingshire 2-0 Stranraer

This is our stadium, our game and our time.

I set the men up as per usual as a 4-4-2. This was out game so we were going to impose ourselves on the game and deliver. Stranraer set up as a 4-4-2.

They come out the blocks quick and like a team who needed a goal to save the season. We defended well and defended luckily at times and after half an hour they had muster six passable chances to our one. From then on in they ran out of steam. Their fitness levels weren’t as high as ours and my running players began to run at them and stretch the game.

Stretched game is an understatemnt! At he half it was tight but it was ours to lose.

I began to relax when an in swinging corner from the right was nodded home by Ryan Francis. The game was over minutes later when captain Andy Stirling smashed home from inside the box. The fight went from Stranraer. Maybe they knew it was done. I care not East Stirlingshire are not in the bottom league of Scottish football for the first time since 1979/80!

Tags: East Stirlingshire FC

Stranraer 2-3 East Stirlingshire

This was very much a game of two halves for me. I elected to deploy with our favoured 4-4-2 and was unsurprised to see that Stranraer also went for the same formation. Stranraer were favourites and I made the men aware of that in the team talk and they came out like lions. In the first thirty minutes everything went right and nothing could go wrong however East Stiring like to make things difficult.

We took the lead after eight minutes when Stirling danced through the Stranraer defence and and cracked a shot against the post he then pursued the ball and crossed it in and Wales rose best and nodded it in.

Four minutes later Eaglesham received a pass midway in the Stranraer half and drove for the box before clipping it in from just inside the box. 2-0 with twelve minutes gone.

Stranraer were rocked and shocked and we were now breaking through with ease. Their defence became wayward and it was only a matter of time before we got a third. The only surprise was that we had to wait nearly ten minutes for it.

Wales traded passes with Ronald who knocked the ball over the top in return. Wales was already on his way and surged clear of the defence and went one on one with the Stranraer keeper. Wales slotted it home for three.

Stranraer hit back before half time with a soft free-kick driven in and Mckeown slid it home from about 18 yards out.

The second half began with Stranraer throwing themselves furiously at us. We weathered the storm well and it began to look like they were running out of impetus when a poor cross made its way to the keeper. Gilpin has collected hundreds of these before but this one spilled from his grasp right into the path of Casalinuovo who tapped home from a yard.

We hung on for the win but I was disappointed by the result. We did enough in the game to have been taking a six goal lead back home but we havent and wont.

The mathematics are simple. Win and we go up. Draw and we go up. Lose by a goal and its extra time and penalties. Lose by two and we stay in the third.
Norbert is injured and will miss the return game but everyone else is moderately well recovered for the game.

Only one thing to do now…………..

Tags: East Stirlingshire FC

East Stirlingshire 2-0 Queens Park

This was a crunch game. For the first time it was the potential end of the season. Our strength this season has been our defence and our ability to strangle teams. Today we needed one of them performances. The obvious statement is if we could keep a clean sheet, we are in the final. I did feel however if it went to extra time we would be at a disadvantage as the fitness level amongst the squad was not as high as Queens Park’s.

I elected to deploy as a 4-4-2 as it was our game and we needed to dictate the flow of play. As expected Queens Park went with 4-5-1.

The first twenty passed without too many opportunities for either side but the best aspect was the fact Queens Park were being smothered. They did have two clear cut chances according to the stats but I wouldn’t have called them that.

As half time approached they did unleashed a furious five minutes where it was very much backs to the wall and we got pulled out of shape and didn’t have time to reorganise but the men hung on well and the half came to an end tied.

I debated long and hard at half time whether to switch to 4-5-1 and match Queens Park and grind it out but I elected to remain at 4-4-2 and attempt reassert control.

From the start of the second half Queens Park didn’t manage to test our keeper and with an hour gone I made a switch and put Butcher on in place of Ronald. Within three minutes he received the ball and drove down the right and crossed a perfect ball which eluded the keeper and defender and Eaglesham was on hand to tap the ball home from a couple of yards. This now swung the tie in our favour massivly.

The fight went out of Queens Park and we pushed the ball around very fluidly culminating in Butcher again driving down the wing and pulling it back to Stirling who hit a first time outrageous cross across the panalty area which was controlled instantly by Spaul and tuck away with his next touch.

Game over.

Queens Park must have realised it was done because the didn’t launch any attacks of note and subsequently withdrew for the challenges in the midfield. We could have had a third but it was ruled out for offside.

The game ran down with little further incident and we were in the final.

The players need recovering for the first leg in three days but the stamina and fitness levels are rising with each passing game so I see no major problems.

Tags: East Stirlingshire FC

QUEENS PARK 2-3 EAST STIRLINGSHIRE

This was a tough game. Queens Park set up exactly as I thought they would going for the 4-5-1. I elected to go for a 4-4-2 with advanced wingers to try and poke at their soft flanks

The game started with an exchange of passes each team controlling for two or three minutes and after everyone settled down Stefan Oakes made the most of a fortunate rebound went past the full back and crossed the ball in for Owen Ronald to power a header home.

A quick check of the rules and there is no away goals.

James Gray, who is a transfer target replied pretty swiftly. He was operating in the centre of the defence and the centre back found it difficult to pick him up.

From that point on it was all Queens Park. They dominated and I was looking forward to getting the men in at half time so I could bounce tea cups off their collective heads when a free kick from Lyskov was drifted in a Gibbs surged onto it and nodded home to make it 2-1 to Queens Park.

At half time I aggresivly told the men I wasnt happy and all but two reacted well. The two that didnt were told individually the same message and subsequently both reacted well.

I also changed the formation to mirror Queens Park’s and Queens Park started well and after five minutes we began to stifle them and eventually began to push back and probe them.

A cross from Oakes eluded everyone but was brought back toward the box by Kristian Butcher and he was muscled of the ball. I threw my arms up in exasperation only to notice that the game had been stopped for a foul in our favour and a penalty was awarded.

Gary Wales stepped up and slotted it home and it was 2-2. In honesty I didnt see too much wrong with the challenge but I wasnt going to chase the referee down and change his mind.

Immediately Queens Park shifted to 4-4-2 and I followed suit. They were after all now playing my game.

We were threatened by Queens Parks weakening team to be stretched but every time they threatened we dealt with it an stretched them right back and I felt a winner was to be had and it was delivered via the spot after Lyskov, on a booking, took out Eaglesham from behind, as the last man, in a goal scoring opportunity and didn’t get a second yellow.

Wales slotted it home and a fourth would make it comfortable but despite two further good chances did not arrive and I will settle for the 3-2 advantage.

My big concern has been so many players coming back from injury and long term suspension that we have not got the men’s match fitness back up to standard and they are coming around slowly but the second leg is on Sunday, should we reach the final the first leg is on Tuesday and the second is on Saturday.

This asking an enormous effort of the players and there is only one way to see if it is doable.

Tags: East Stirlingshire FC