Although the 18-match mark makes sense as a halfway point in our season and we’ve got the summer period too, our season should really be split into four parts. First, summer/friendly time. Then, we’ve got our European foray — which would ideally last until the end of the season some year. Third, from the time of our European exit until we clinch European qualification (top 4 for Northern Ireland at the moment) we’ve got a frenzied transfer period. Lastly, it’s the end of the season and our Irish Cup quest.
We’re firmly entrenched in the third of those stages at the moment which means I can bring in the likes of this guy from Portsmouth. He’s bounced around a bit over the last few years: Bristol City — Cambridge — Portsmouth — Ross Country (on loan) — Portadown. I’m hoping he’s just been misused rather than him being an Anelka-esque headcase. Worth a punt for £110k, I reckon.
Murray’s arrival triggers a flurry of shuffling players to the reserve side, transfer-listings and incoming bids. Ceesay, Antar, Boyce and Darl Douglas are all wanted and I accept some offers while negotiating some others. I’m so excited by the transfer frenzy that I forget to even include Murray in the lineup for our away match against Limavady Utd.
We begin the back end of the season with a fantastic walloping. We’re up four by the break with Unsworth scoring his first Portadown goal from a Willems corner kick. Jordi and Tokene add two more in the latter stages and JCVD faces zero attempts on his goal.
The incomings keep incoming too, as we add a solid defender to the mix in Dave Bayliss. His 20s in heading, marking and tackling spell the end of Reilly and Lawson’s time in the first team. £18k from Chesterfield? Bargain.
Jatto Ceesay agrees a deal with Ghanian side Hearts of Oak after they offer £250k for his services. He performed decently for us in his 40-odd appearances for us and was a key addition during a Dutch-only window.
I could just reiterate most of the previous two sentences for Darl Douglas. Deal agreed on the same day, was signed during a Dutch-only period, performed decently, left us for £250k. He’s off to ply his trade for First Vienna.
JKA has been in fantastic form since his arrival and he’s severely limited de Weerdt’s time on the pitch. He’s a bit unhappy about this, so I’m forced to transfer-list him as well. It will leave us a bit thin up front, but I’m still in a Black Friday state of mind for buying players. Plus if all else fails we’ve got similarly-skilled Kwame Quansah arriving in the summer.
A few changes for our next match at Coleraine. Gibby and VPG are a little tired so I shuffle the AMs around a bit. Murray is in for a debut there, as is Bayliss at the back for Raeside.
It’s a debut goal for Murray (that the commentators label “the icing on the cake”) and 10s for our strike partnership as we roll over Coleraine. As happy as I am with that, I should mention Tokene. That’s three goals and two assists in six matches now, while averaging over five successful tackles a match. His 8.67 average rating is tops in the squad.
The work permit doesn’t come through for one of my top targets though I can’t say that I’m shocked. Ghana have six World Cup Qualifiers to play before summer, so I’ll keep trying…
Prior to our next match, we bid a fond farewell to a trio of players in Anthony Boyce, Roda Antar and Jochem de Weerdt. Boyce arrived from St. Mirren last season for £230k and has been a bit part player for us. He leaves for the warmer climes of Ponferradina for £190k — though it could rise to £300k if he plays 20 matches. Lebanese legend Antar was picked up as a freebie around this time last year after being released by Hamburger. He was solid for us and his two-footedness was invaluable to our AM corps. He heads to Kaizer Chiefs for £500k who now value him at £1.4M. I may have done myself a disservice in those negotiations. And finally, de Weerdt. He’s off to Greek side Anatoliko for £750k. His 48 goals in 85 appearances and 7.81 average rating are certainly nothing to sniff at. We wish them all the best.
We’re at home to face Linfield in our next league match. A few changes again as I try to work everyone in to the side and onto the same page.
The result is great, the performance is good but the scoreline only fine. I prefer when the margin of victory accurately reflects how well we played and how much better we were. Still, I’m not going to complain too hard when we score more goals then our opposition have shots of target.
Promising young Dutch forward Marc de Visscher is the latest departure. He’s been on loan at Larne but when Gremio offered £575k for a guy that is about fifth in line for our two striker positions, I was happy enough to let him go. We’re pushing £8M in the bank now and our open season for transfers is rapidly closing. Our Magic Number is down to 17 already.
It’s Irish Cup time! As per usual, we start in the 5th Round and we’ve been drawn at home to Div 1 side Dungannon. Pinas is in for tired VPG while Feeney is replaced on the bench by Gibson due to a training ground injury.
Dungannon pose no threat whatsoever as we face no shot attempts while scoring four of our own. We march on to the 6th Round to face Insitute in Drumahoe — one of the longest domestic trips we ever have to make.
I’m quite happy with a one-for-one transfer I make featuring a pair of defenders. Berntsen arrives from Norwegian side Sprint-Jeloy for £50k and provides more strength to our back line. Departing is Reilly, who heads to South Melbourne for £140k. Net positive, ability positive but age negative. Still should be able to get a couple of good seasons out of Tommy!
Odartey Lawson and Hans Bond are next out the door. Two more Dutchmen (sort of, in Lawson’s case) that have been replaced by better options. Lawson heads to Bristol for £250k while Emmen come back to us to take Bond for £65k. That makes it a dozen January sales now.
Berntsen makes his debut for us with the other change being a swap of Gibson for Pinas — who recently agreed Bosman terms with Rayo Vallecano. We’ve got another trip to Coleraine to make, with the last time being the 5–0 victory from just eleven days ago.
The hosts take the lead with their first and only shot on target in the match and just as I’m preparing a fiery tirade for the dressing room, we level AND take the lead in added time. We’re forced into a pair of changes at the break and our 2–4–3–1 formation adds one more goal to make the lead comfortable.
£325k is enough money to bring in another incredibly strong (for us) defensive midfielder. He was unhappy at RBC and I was more than willing to give him an escape route.
Schops is right in to the lineup as we head up to Belfast to play Crusaders. Our league lead is expanding rapidly and if we win here, we’re guaranteed to finish ahead of our opponents.
We’re already three goals clear of our rivals when we concede our traditional first goal on their first shot. We add two more before the break (including a Schops debut strike) before they score their second goal on their second shot. Not great, lads. Tokene restores the four-goal cushion and wins himself MotM as everyone except JCVD plays very well.
Another January departure sees Robin van Persie move to England. I’m really trying to thin out our numbers as we were getting dangerously close to the 50-man limit. And for some reason, I’d got it stuck in my head that I needed to hang on to our Dutch lads when that CLEARLY was not part of the rules…
We wrap up January with a Manager of the Month award for me and a change of squad for one final player. Brewerton has left for S-Pulse in Japan. He was the longest-serving regular in the side having played in 145 matches since I bought him in August of 2001. He cost us eight thousand quid back then and in an unorthodox deal, he’s been purchased for ten thousand quid…per month…over two years.
I splurge on a shiny new toy to start February. Leitl was rotting away in the Frankfurt amateur side and arrives for a cool half mil.
He’s a bit short of fitness for our match the next day but I throw him on the bench anyway. We’re back in Belfast again, facing Glentoran in TOTTC. We’re fifteen points clear with a pair of matches in hand, but still. It’s technically correct and we all know that’s the best type of correct.
The action comes thick and fast as we’re up by three goals in the first eleven minutes. I scale back the aggression — both tackling and pressuring — and settle in to a nice rhythm of keeping possession and soaking up any attacks…if you could even call them that.
New month, same game plan. Within the first handful of days, we’ve off-loaded one of our youth keepers to Margate for £35k and Gillingham have signed van den Berg — signed for free earlier this season — for £170k. If you take in to account the five players leaving on Bosman deals and an agreed deal to send Nijkamp to Greece (I’m not counting my chickens just yet though) we’ll be down to 27 players in the squad. Technically speaking, we’ve also got a few summer Bosman arrivals en route, but I’m not sure how many of those I’ll go through with…
It’s MUD time! We’re hosting Glenavon and they’re probably safe from any relegation talk…but also look safe from having to exert themselves in Europe next season. It took six matches, but Murray is no longer lacking match fitness. Maybe we’ll get some more out of him now. Leitl is itching for some game time himself.
We manage NOT to concede on the first/only shot we face. And we score three of our own, though that number could have been doubled had the assistant’s referee not been raised for offside on three occasions. We lose Willems for three weeks to injury but after calling out Murray, he answers with a goal, a 10 and a MotM award.
That win also ensures another season of European football, not that it was ever in much doubt. Newry could win their next ten matches and only amass 66 points. I’m not sure Coleraine could catch us with their goal difference either, so we’ve got all but locked up a top three spot now.
Therefore, our non-Dutch transfer spending must end. I have five deals agreed that can go through if I choose. Barnes (waiting on a work permit again); Quansah (he’s Dutch-ish anyway); Lennartsson (a Swedish MC), Forssell (yes, that one); and Northen Irish keeper Roy Carroll. Unfortunately, I will have to pull the plug on both the Skiljo and Augustsson negotiations.
Crusaders have popped down here for another footballing lesson. We’ve won seven matches and drawn one with them head-to-head. And that solitary draw was the second leg of a Cup tie with us up 6–0 from the first leg.
A Hose strike is plenty to oust the visitors but Jordi decides to net a hat trick. He’s on fire lately, averaging 9.5 over his last four matches. Crusaders barely mount an attack, perhaps due to our ridiculously high tackling percentage.
There’s a lot less transfer business to do now as there aren’t too many Dutch players that a) I want b) I can afford and c) that will even hear me out if I agree terms with their club. This leaves my focus entirely on the pitch, though with recent form I’m not sure it’s entirely necessary. I opt for an if-it-ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it style of gaffering. I’ll make changes here or there due to fitness, injury of performance but otherwise we’ll just cruise to the title…and hopefully the Irish Cup.
We’ve got Limavady Utd visiting next and they’re in a battle with Crusaders to avoid that relegation playoff spot. Level on points and goal difference with Limavady ahead on goals scored.
I fear the worst when — after just three minutes and change — #2 keeper van der Haar trips up an attacker. It’s a penalty but thankfully, no red card. It’s a wake up call and we snap right out of our daze. Three goals in the next twenty minutes and things are normalised. We make three changes at the break and sub Feeney adds our fourth goal. Crusaders “only” lose 4–2 to Glentoran, so they pop up ahead of Limavady…for now.
In spite of his yellow card, foul leading to a penalty and conceding from that first shot last match, van der Haan actually ended last match on an 8. I reward him with another run out, this time with Newry in town. Any other 7s from last match are replaced and out we go.
All the action comes in the first half hour: All four goals and a yellow for Tokene. We pump the brakes a bit and ease our way through the rest of the match. We’ve got an Irish Cup match in 72 hours and may as well reserve some energy and avoid injury. Our Magic Number is now at 1, though our goal difference over Glentoran — +70 to their +10 — means we’ve basically sewn it up.
Sebastian Barnes’ work permit falls through a second time. He’s also not Dutch, so I have to put a pin in his transfer. Fingers crossed for next season.
We make the 90 minute drive up to the closest bit of Derry to face Institute in Drumahoe. Four Prem sides were eliminated last round including Glentoran and Linfield, so I imagine teams would have been happy to face anyone but us.
89 people witness a massive almost-upset. We’re ahead through Feeney before the ten minute mark, but Institute level the match immediately with — you guesses it — their first shot attempt. We’ve got the upper hand in the match yet concede a second goal against the run of play. For 40 minutes (the longest period in a domestic match since October) we’re behind. JKA levels the match in the 73rd before Murray scores a winner for the good guys at the absolute death. We scored, there was a comment about it being Murray’s 5th goal of the season and the whistle blew. We’re rewarded with a home QF match with Coleraine in a few weeks.
Dick Koopman has been on our books since October of 2003 but has never played in a Portadown match. He was on loan at Haarlem this season playing decently, so Yokohama F Marinos take an interest. They offer us £190k for him and although I attempt to negotiate in some of the seats from their 99,866 capacity stadium, I settle for a cash-only offer.
We travel to Armagh next and they’re currently in a three-way tie for 5th with Newry and Glenavon. However, they’re in no danger of dropping to the playoff positions and they’re still five points adrift of the European places. We, on the other hand, will win the league even if we earn a single point from this match.
We get ahead early via a head from Hose. Leitl scores his first for the club just before the break. It’s not a vintage performance from the lads on the day with fewer than ten shots taken for the first time since late 2004. But it’s enough to say…
…Four-peat, you Ports!
Just because the league it wrapped up doesn’t mean we don’t have things to play for. We could tie the/our points record of 100, despite the two losses this season. The/our goals record is 104 and that’s well within range. Hose’s average rating record of 8.57 is under serious threat with three players chasing it: JKA (8.73), Hose himself (8.71) and Tokene (8.57).
Newry are the next team that hopes to slow us down a bit. The Ports fans that have made the thirty minute drive south want the exact opposite.
Our three top performers get it done in the first half with a goal each. I muzzle our hounds for second half, with my eyes on our upcoming Cup match rather than any individual accolades. The lads remain happy and healthy and we get our three points.
Arie de Haan — signed in October — was a beast in reserve team matches (7G and 2A in 8GP) but never got a sniff of the first team. I still don’t think he will, as he’s left for Sheffield Wednesday. Another £150k into the coffers!
We’re hosting Coleraine in the Cup QF today and I must say that I’m VERY surprised. I brought van der Haan in to give JCVD a break and he hasn’t set a foot wrong. He’s even closing the gap on average rating with our #1 now. I replace all our 7-and-belows from last match and send them out. If (when) we win, there’s only a 50% chance that we’ll play a Prem side in the SF.
We look fantastic for the first forty minutes. We’re up by four goals and facing very little pressure. I ease off the pressing and tackling and — although we still dictate play — we’re actually outscored for the rest of the match. The win sends us through and we’re drawn to play Limavady Utd at their place in the semi-final.
It’s our final TTOTC of the season (provided they don’t choke away an eight point lead) as we host Glentoran. The 7s are out and the 8-through-10s keep their spots as we continue to rotate our shrunken squad.
It’s a tightly fought match in which we do juuuuuust enough to claim victory. Level at the break score-wise, play-wise and shot-wise, we ratchet things up ever-so-slightly in the second half and earn ourselves the breakthrough. Various potential injuries to all three of our AMs leave us in a weird 3–4–1–2 formation by the end that probably hindered our style of play.
A bid comes from Lyon for Kox: £550k over 6 months. I’m not interested in selling and couldn’t swap for non-Dutch players anyway, but the players’ names make me chuckle.
Our next match is a visit to basement-dwellers Cliftonville. They’re seven points adrift with five matches to play and we look to make things worse for them. I follow my usual rotation rules and crack on.
I’ve got to go all the way back to January 8th to find a match in which neither of our starting strikers scored a goal. Fortunately for us, Feeney wore his corner-sniping boots today. Pinas’ injury has him missing the next few weeks and may spell the end of his Portadown career.
Despite our transfer window being closed, we have a bit of player news. Mels van Driel, who featured a few times for us in defence this season (prior to our non-Dutch spending spree) has left us for Haarlem. He was a loanee there a couple of seasons ago and makes a permanent switch for just £22k…though we’ll get an additional £55k after 20 appearances.
I spend all of it and a lot more to retain Hose’s services for an extra two seasons. Release clause of £1M but he should be here til the end of the 2008 season now.
I’d forgotten that Irish Cup SF matches were at a neutral ground. We’re headed up to Belfast to face Limavady Utd but at The Oval (Glentoran’s home field). Van Leeuwen is recalled from the reserves and I’m hoping our strikers get back on the scoresheet.
It’s a second successive 5–2 victory in the Irish Cup for us, as our strikers do as I asked and make nuisances of themselves. Newry win the other SF over Bangor and the Final is set.
David Currie scored a brace against us in that match. His 28th and 29th goals of the season in 38 competitive matches. That’s better goals-per-game that JKA and he certainly doesn’t have the same calibre supporting cast to provide him with his goal-scoring opportunities. Currie is the only non-Port in the top seven performers in the league this year. And he boasts a bloody 4 for finishing. Weird.
I was wrong earlier on. There is absolutely a battle going on for European places. Linfield currently sit in third with 47 points, while Glenavon and Coleraine are just a point back. We face each of them once in our final four league matches and could have a big say in how things shake out. We’ve got Coleraine next, who are on the outside looking in at this stage…
By the looks of it, Hose wants to repeat the double PotY and league top scorer. Don’t feel too bad for Coleraine though, they absolutely lucked out. Linfield and Glenavon only managed draws in their matches with the 8th and 9th place sides, respectively.
And speaking of Glenavon, it’s MUD time for the final time of the year. JKA misses out after a less than stellar match last time, so our Dutch youngster Kox partners Hose.
He repays the faith immediately, turning in a Hose cross in the very first minute of action. And we don’t slow down as VPG scores five minutes later, Kox scores his second fifteen minutes after that and then fifteen minutes after that, Jordi gets the first of his brace. Up four at the break, I make a couple of changes for fitness’ sake but Jordi tacks on our fifth of the day within five minutes of the restarts. We scale back our attacking efforts and finish the mach in a 2–4–3–1 formation as we preserve the shutout. Inexplicably, Glenavon’s keeper concedes on half of the ten shots he faces and finishes on an 8… The loss drops them to 5th place, but only two points back of both Coleraine (who win to move to 4th) and Linfield (who drew again).
I swap out two defenders but everyone else maintains their spots as we welcome Crusaders down from the capital. They’re in the relegation playoff spot (well clear of relegated Cliftonville) but level on points with Limavady Utd and safety. We’ve got a lot to say about who finishes where at the end of this season! We’re also sitting on 103 goals, one shy of our Division record.
The “Most Team Goals” record is ours within a quarter of an hour but the lads don’t stop there. Up five at the break, we’re forced into two changes and an altered formation, before we make our last change (substitute Gibson requires replacing) and alter teh formation even more. Kox’s late injury (crocked for ten days) leaves us with a 3–4–1–1 formation as we end of the match. Limavady Utd also lose, so they’ve got everything to play for on the final day.
So it’s a new league record for goals scores, but it’s also a pair of Portadwn records. We’ve now won 26 consecutive matches since December 18th 2004 and Hose’s brace brings him to 42 goals on the season, breaking his own record from last season.
Final league match of the season. Kox’s injured “forces” us to bring back the better player in JKA to partner Hose up front. Linfield are three clear of Coleraine and have sewn up third place…unless there’s an eighteen goal swing today.
I’d love to say that Linfield played out of their skins to earn a point against us, end our winning streak and leave us two points short of tying our record point total. But they didn’t. JCVD had a howler in goal and after “earning” a 4, he seems to think a warning about his poor performance was harsh. Hose on the other hand, ends the season on a tear and breaks his own league record for average rating at a whopping 8.75.
The final table has Glentoran and Linfield earning European places and I believe Newry gets the other one for making the Irish Cup Final — win or lose. 111 goals ends up being the new league record (and target for next season) as we hope to get back to triple-digits in points next season.
As dominant as our first team have been this season, our reserve side deserves a shout out. They had an invincible season, playing 16 matches and finishing 15–1–0 with a plus-50 goal difference. Many of them have been sold off in the past few months with a few more leaving on Bosman deals this summer.
I’ve made a clean sweep of four MotM awards this calendar year, having only won the September one up to that point. I find them rather insignificant, especially when we’re busy in Europe and don’t play as many matches as other sides in the division. I average four monthly awards per year, but the important thing is that I’ve won MotY in each of my first three seasons…with another one presumably arriving in a few weeks.
Our final match of the season is the Irish Cup Final, once again. We swept the domestic trophies last season and this is a chance to do it again. I abandon my drop-anyone-with-a-seven-or-less rule and send out our highest rated XI for this one. All except for grumpy JCVD who can go suck an egg.
The man, the myth, the legend! Brutil Hose adds two more tallies to his season total as we outscore Newry 3–1 in the first half and then stalemate the second. A dominant performance to cap a dominant season.
