Our last domestic match was beating Newry in the Irish Cup Final and as league winners, we face Newry in the Charity Shield to begin the new domestic season. We’ve had two Champions Cup matches to get some match fitness but they haven’t begun their UEFA Cup schedule just yet.
Lennartsson has been great in a supporting role in our first matches, so I give him the start in the middle of the park today. I’m pretty sure of my choices for GK, DM and ST, but my D and AM groups might need some tinkering before I nail down our best XI.
Lennartsson rewards my faith with a MotM performance. Absolute dominance from the off, though a red card (second yellow for dissent) made life even easier for us. That’s fourteen of sixteen (and ten straight) domestic competition wins in my Ports career.
My “next opponent” scout comes back with some info about Sturm Graz that doesn’t particularly cheer me up. Since playing us three year-ish ago, they’ve added Juninho Pernambucano, Jan Simak, Denis and new star player Alex Pinardi (amongst others). We’ve managed to spend £5.6M in three seasons, while they’ve AVERAGED an £11.5M/year spend over the same time span. I was happy when the draw took place as a) we’d beaten them before and b) we’re a better team than we were before. But I think they’re a stronger side too…
On the back of that thumping of Newry, I decide to send out the same XI to face the visiting Austrians…who have exactly one Austrian starter and one Austrian substitute.
Our acute diacritics (even though I don’t type them out) get it done for us in the first half as Hose and Tokene add to their Champions Cup accounts for the season. A few changes are made throughout the second half but a pair of our non-accented players double our lead to give us a huge four-goal clean sheet victory.
Leg 1: Sorted. Leg 2: Almost sorted too. We’ll see them again in Austria in a fortnight!
It’s time to kick off the Northern Ireland Premier League Division and we head up north to face Coleraine at their place. Quansah has injured himself for a couple of weeks, so his debut will have to wait a while longer as I look to get all the lads their match practice...
Maybe fielding eight players that are lacking inmatch practice on opening day wasn’t the smartest decision as we drop two very earnable points. But then again, EVERY domestic match should have earnable points and I’m not terribly worried about our prospects of winning the league. Somehow, Coleraine only had one player lacking match fitness after five friendlies and a league match while we’ve played four competitive matches already this season…
I roll with our our match unfit crew for the trip to Austria. I’m hoping our four-goal advantage will be plenty to carry us through to the group stages.
Almost 20k fans witness a far tamer match than the first leg. We make three half-time changes (two potential injuries and a yellow card) and sub Lennartsson notches the only tally of the match with ten minutes to go, though Sturm Graz’s fate was probably decided by that point anyway.
Just a quick aside as I’m not sure I mentioned this three seasons ago but their stadium is named after the Austrian star of such blockbusters as Kindergarten Cop and Jingle All The Way: Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Into the Champions Cup Phase 1 Group stage we go! Group D specifically, where we enter one of the stronger groupings and join automatic qualifiers Valencia (La Liga runners-up) and Braga (Portuguese champions) and fellow play-in qualifiers Liverpool (English 4th place side).
The prize money of £1.8M pushes our coffers close to eight digits though I’m sure the visits to the decently-sized Mestalla (54,800), Estádio 1º de Maio (40,000) and Anfield (45,362) will push us well past.
We continue our de-lacking with some more rotation for our second league match against Crusaders. It’s a first competitive sniff of action for academy product Quinn in goal as the home fans show their support for the local lad.
We’re “aided” by a red card/penalty for Crusaders’ keeper but we’re up a couple of goals by then anyway. We convert the PK and then we add four more goals in the second half for good measure to tie our record winning margin.
We continue to play whoever we need to to get fit. This time it’s in the League Cup Group Stage as Dungannon pays us a visit. The lone D1 side in our group is a long shot to qualify from Group 2.
They demonstrate why they’re the long shot as they attempt zero shots on us. But their keeper earns himself an 8 by saving thirteen of sixteen shots on target while Quinn ends with a clean sheet and a 7 rating. JKA wants to make my striker decisions a lot more difficult with five in our last two…
Linfield are a couple of points ahead of us in the league table at this early stage and they come to town featuring William Murphy and Noel Bailie in their back line for what seems like the millionth time. We drew our last match against them 3–3 (late-April last season), conceding on their only three shot attempts. Let’s not have a repeat of that.
One of the very best ways of not conceding goals is to not allow any shots on target. It’s certainly not fool-proof (ask West Brom about their January 2006 match with Sunderland) but it’s a good tenet to live by. Scoring more goals than the number of shots the opponents take is even better. It’s a great tune-up before we head off to Spain for our first Champions Cup group stage match.
My scouts tell me they’re a very strong team. They’ve got international caps coming out the wazoo and their two attacking midfielders will attempt to control the game: Aimar and Nedved. Yeah, I may have heard those names somewhere before.
JKA’s recent form pips Hose to a starting spot at the Mestella and as we’re fully healthy, I choose what I believe to be our best current XI and XVIII. This will be a very tough opening match.
Valencia’s quartet of Argentines do a number on us as Pereyra scores the lone goal of the match, while Sorin, Aimar and Lombardi end on 8s and 9s. Forssell had our best chance of the match at the death but his drive for the top-corner was saved by reigning La Liga GotY Canizares.
It’s not a result that does anything for us in the standings, yet the lads can certainly take pride in a fantastic performance against world class opposition in a famously hostile venue.
There’s a two-fold reason for the heavy rotation here in our next league match. It may be our first MUD of the season and our home fans may be baying for blood, but…
Firstly, we’re still trying to get match fitness up for everyone — including Quansah who finally makes his maiden appearance. And second, our mid-week European match will probably be our most winnable one: home against Braga. That means that a little rest and protection for some key players wouldn’t go amiss.
The ball is in their net five times but only three of them legally…according to the linesman’s wonky interpretation of the offside law. Leitl and Gibson net their first goals of the year while Feeney subs on to ice the cake. We avoid all injuries and should be raring to go on Wednesday.
I can’t imagine there’s going to be a better chance to get a group stage win than this. We’re at home. Our Saturday match was at home and we haven’t had to travel anywhere. Home-cooked meals, our own beds etc. We’re fully fit. We’re facing the weakest of our three opponents. Come on lads, show me what you can do.
We absolutely dominate the visitors and score one early and one late for a two goal victory. Forssell’s goal and assist earned him a MotM award, but the whole team deserve credit. We out-shot, out-passed, out-tackled, out-headed, out-possessioned and out-zoned the Portuguese champs for a comprehensive victory.
Newry are the first side we’re facing for a second time, having beaten them in the Charity Shield to start the season. My scout has reported back that again, Barry Smith is the rock around which the formidable Newry defence is built. He’s now up to one match played in his last five seasons (and he only earned a six in that one), despite being completely healthy this season. Credit to Newry though, as they’re the only other Northern Irish side still alive in Europe. They squeaked past Obilic 2–1 in both legs of the UEFA Cup qualifying round, only to get trounced 4–1 by Trabzonspor in the first leg of the UEFA Cup 1st round.
We’re dominant and we win, but only with a last-gasp winner from Mercimek. Plus we lose Forssell for three weeks which is certainly detrimental to our Champions Cup prospects. I could certainly have been happier with how that match went.
With Forssell’s recent injury and Quansah having hurt himself (again) in training, we’re suddenly short on striking options. Jordi starts in the central AM role and will be pushed forward if anything untoward happens to JKA or Hose. Liverpool are in town and after scouting all three teams in our group, a total of zero players have any interest in joining us. Liverpool have got their own striking issues with Owen and Fowler crocked, though Jardel, Figo and Heskey are probably decent alternatives…
It’s an all-out attack kind of day as we pelt each other’s keepers with shots. We each score two of our own but a fortunate (or unfortunate depending on whether you support the Scouse Reds) bounce earns us a massive victory from a Ben Thatcher own goal.
Our reserve side are back to their winning ways having won their opening trio of matches. Some familiar names are on the score sheet as I’ve got a bunch of lads in on trial. The side also features Roy Carroll, Alton Thelwell and few promising youngsters. Just trying to get a head start on scouting for what I’m hoping will be a much-shortened transfer window.
Back to league action with a trip to Belfast to face Crusaders. They’ll be looking to improve upon the seven-goal defeat they suffered at our hands in late August.
Well, we score another seven goals but Crusaders do indeed improve on the earlier result. We didn’t have a goalie red card/penalty to help our attack this time around either! Four 10s and three 9s in the side today, including our teenage keeper with his penalty save.
For the third time in nine domestic matches, we face Newry at theirs. This time it’s a League Cup group stage match. Four of our five still-not-match-fit players are trotted out in Leitl, Van Leeuwen, Mercimek and Berntsen, and I hope the fact that three of them are on the defensive side of the ball doesn’t cost us.
Teams in Northern Ireland really must hate it when they injure one of our players but the replacement is even better than the starter. Of all the players to get injured in a match, I’m thrilled it’s Van Leeuwen and not another striker. He’s crocked for two weeks but we’ve got sufficient cover in our DM positions.
Our League Cup group is surprisingly tight, as Armagh have won their three matches and we’ve won our two. We face each other at the Shamrock today as we look to join them on nine points.
It’s a relatively even match, save for the dozen minute period across halftime. Two Lennartsson goals sandwich a strike from each of our strikers — it is their title and their job, after all. A loss for Glenavon elsewhere books us both into the QFs and as it’s a random draw for venue, I’ll be less bothered with our final group match, a MUD at Mourneview Park.
We face Institute in league action next with a chance to go top for the first time this season. Coleraine are a point ahead of us with two extra matches played.
We concede a crappy late goal after I do a shuffle at the back to avoid injury and fitness issues, but our four earlier goals make it a consolation strike only. Coleraine also win, so we remain in 2nd place…for now.
With Liverpool and Valencia both on six points with us after three group matches, we’ve still got loads of work to do. Our flight to Liverpool is a relatively short one compared to some other European trips we’ve made. Lennartsson keeps his place as he’s out-performing VPG of late.
We have the better of the first half and are fortunate to be two goals to the good at the break. Because whatever was said by Gerard Houllier in the dressing room was taken to heart by the Liverpool side. We get absolutely nothing going in the second half and after Owen scores to halve the lead, we’re just clinging to our lead as the minutes tick away. We do manage to survive and secure an even famous-er victory than the one we achieved three weeks ago at our place!
Valencia only manage a draw with Braga, so we now lead our group by two points! And we’ve clinched a top-three position, so we’ll continue in Europe no matter what… Up next, we’ve got Valencia in town (for a match that might clinch our Champions Cup continuation) before we travel to Portugal to finish out the group.
We face Glentoran in the league next and we’ve got another chance to go top here. Forssell is finally back but Lennartsson has crocked himself for a fortnight with a twisted knee.
We’re comfortably up 2–0 and I’m packing up my belongings in the technical area when I hear the whistle go. It’s a red card for our keeper and I don’t have one on the bench. Oh well, since they’ve not yet taken a shot on target, we’ll roll with the current formation. Assman Gary asks if I’m sure and I tell him that it’ll be fine. It’s a bit too late when I realise that it was a red card/PK combo and I’ve let them roll their penalty into a gaping net. Not my finest managerial moment, I’ll admit. Fortunately, we don’t allow another shot on target and secure all three points…and top spot in the table for the first time!
We’re back into European competition as Carlos Bianchi’s Valencia travel to Northern Ireland. I’m hoping the six degree weather will put them off slightly, or perhaps the crowd size of 5% of their regular home fixtures. They’re missing their best performer of our earlier match (Sorin) with a twisted knee.
We match Valencia blow for blow and even take the lead two separate times…only to concede two equalisers. I was worried things would fall apart once Jordi pulled up lame (gone for a bloody month with a groin strain) but we held our nerve just long enough to share the spoils.
And Braga beating Liverpool at Anfield seals our qualification for the next round of the Champions Cup! A step further than last season and I’m hoping we can improve on our appearance at the next stage from three seasons ago: 0–0–6 with two goals scored and eighteen conceded.
Quansah is finally healthy again and I throw him on the bench despite his slight lack of fitness. Quinn is suspended for this one, while Mercimek/Lennartsson/Jordi are all nursing their wounds. We’re facing Armagh at home in the league today.
An early injury to Raeside and two halftime changes for potential injuries push us into a weird hourglass 3–2–2–3 formation for the second half. Forssell has us up a goal and Hose doubles the lead just after the hour mark before Armagh claw one back. We’re under late pressure and it’s a rare domestic squeaky-bum finish, but we hang on for all three points.
We’ve got a double MUD to play here. The first is in the League Cup and our group is already decided. We’ll drop to 2nd place (but still progress) if we lose by ten-or-more goals and I’d wager a hefty sum that we’ll avoid that issue.
Things start fast as JKA scores early only to be level again after six minutes. I fear a back-and-forth contest, especially when we’re forced into a substitution in the tenth minute when Berntsen goes down. It turns out that the Glenavon goal would be their only shot on target for the day and we add three goals in the final thirty-odd minutes to make things comfortable. Quansah nets his first Portadown strike at long last…
We were offside TWENTY times that match??? Yikes.
It’s immediately announced that we’ll face Armagh in the League Cup QF (we knew that already) and that it’ll be at our place (the random bit) so I’m pleased about that. And in the SF (if we beat Armagh), we’ll face the winner of Linfield/Ards.
We’re back at Mourneview just three days later for a league match. We’re missing Raeside, Berntsen, Jordi and JKA for this one but our depth is much deeper and our strength is much stronger this season.
It’s a matching scoreline to our last visit. Only this time, all the scoring happens in the first half. Quansah scores again, despite still not being match fit and leaving early with a potential injury. We ended up in a 3–4–2–1 formation as I tweaked the formation to keep as many fully healthy bodies on the field as possible…
The Board and our supporters are thrilled to hear me confirm that “we are challengers”. Well, we’re six points clear with two matches in hand and have won the league with increasingly impressive goal differences for the past four seasons. Yeah, I reckon it’s doable.
Off to sunny Portugal we go, knowing that we’re through. Point totals are 10 (us), 8 (Valencia), 6 (Liverpool) and 4 (Braga). Everyone has something to play for here. Braga could move past Liverpool for the 3rd place UEFA Cup spot. Liverpool could move up to 2nd place or drop to 4th. Valencia could top the group or drop to 3rd place. It’s going to be a battle. We could do ourselves a favour by staying above Valencia and getting an easier (if that’s a thing) next group.
Everything was looking rosy for the longest time. We’re up two after the first 45 with an early goal from Forssell and a late one from Hose. I make all three changes through the second half as I replace yellow-carded Tokene and semi-injured Hose and VPG. We’re then hit with a late brace from Clayton that tied the match with the final kick of the match…
“How’d the other game go, assman?”, I ask Gary. Well that sucks, doesn’t it? A pair of late goals in the other match (though they only needed one of them) means the top of the table has been relinquished.
Still, we’re through and we’ve been drawn into a group with two group winners (Inter and Man U) and a group runner-up, Schalke. We’ve beaten Man U and Schalke before, while Inter sit 16th in Serie A. Could we possibly make some waves?
As excited as we are about Europe, we still need to wade our way through our domestic matches. It’s December and Limavady Utd are in town for our first of four league meetings. Unsworth and Bayliss are our only healthy defenders at the moment so I hope to avoid any more injury issues.
There isn’t much of a resistance from the visitors as we net four first-half goals and three more after the break. Everyone starter ends on an 8 or better in a fantastic team-wide performance.
After the match, I apologise to Forssell for replacing him with just over ten minutes to go. A fifth goal would have been a team and league record.
It’s been a quiet season on the transfer front as our scouts are handcuffed with our Dutch-only rule. I finally do get one through the door who was out on loan from Ajax (the source of Hose and Quansah) at VVV. He costs us a cool £1.3M and his release fee is WAY too low at £400k, so I immediately attempt to re-negotiate a better option. A hefty signing on fee is no issue at this point as we’ve got £11M in the bank with trips to the 85k seat Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, 68k seat Old Trafford and teeny-weeny 63k seat Arena auf Schalke in our future.
He’s straight in to the side for our League Cup QF tilt with Armagh. It’s their third visit to the Shamrock this season and certainly the most important of our matches. Raeside is back from an injury suffered the last time Armagh were in town but he’ll start this one on the bench.
It’s an action-packed match from the off. No build up, no back and forth, just a punch to the face and a red card.
As we’ll be up a man for the next 88+ minutes, we take it straight to them and…concede in the sixth minute.
Up a man but down a goal, we quickly rectify the situation. Level in the 12th as Quansah gets his revenge for the punch, ahead at the quarter-hour mark via Forssell and then two up on the 43rd. To clarify, we’re not “two up” on goals but two up on players on the pitch, as Buchanan earns a second yellow for the visitors.
Forssell adds two more for a hat trick five minutes from the restart, though we do lose yet another defender to injury (Bayliss for ten days). Debutante van der Gun scores a first Portadown goal before Lennartsson wraps it up with our sixth unanswered goal with a few minutes left. Into the semis (vs Linfield) we go!
Speak of the devil, we face Linfield in our next league match. We’ve travelled up to Windsor Park to take them on in the capital. Our two healthy defenders start the match with Tokene ready to drop back if necessary. JKA is back today too and starts with Hose.
Lennartsson has been a revelation for us. He was a bit of a should I/shouldn’t I Bosman signing in the summer yet he’s played his way into the team sheet at every opportunity. He opens the scoring for us and though Linfield level it against the run of play, we add two more while rarely looking threatened.
Here’s Lennartsson’s stats for the season. Despite being a sub in 48% of his matches, he’s averaging 7.96, scoring a goal every other game and adding an assist 30% of the time. And he’s in pretty good company a third of the way through the season.
We’ll be packing our bags and heading off to Milan to face Inter at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza next. Matchday One of the Champions Cup Phase Two Group Stage. That’s a mouthful to say.
Oh, what’s this in the news three days before our match? If ever there was a time to pounce…
On the eve of our match, as I’m putting the lads through their paces on Inter’s practice pitch, Forssell strains his calf and will be out of action for a month. I also hear that Christian Vieri — who’s been out for six weeks and may be a big reason for Inter’s slump — is due back in the side any minute. Not the greatest news…
Mercimek is back to be a defensive sub for us, while lacking-match-fitness Quansah takes a spot on the bench. We’re short van der Gun who’s not on our European roster and Jordi is still ten days away from returning from the infirmary.
Claudio Ranieri gives me a warm handshake as I try not to let my nerves betray me.
“What nerves?” asks JKA as he tucks home a Lennartsson pass in just the 100th second of the match. We’re still second-best for most of this match and Vieri (who’s obviously playing despite not being fully fit) levels the match in the 10th minute. But we keep getting our fair share of chances and our finishing is top notch. Ten shots attempted, ten on target and FOUR goals as the starting XI average an eight across the board. And that’s not to mention the thwarting of every other one of Inter’s dozen shots on goal. How van der Haar only earns an 8, I have no idea. What a result in front of 70k fans. We’ve already earned three more points than last time we reached this stage!
We’re quickly back to league business and what I believe is our first top-of-the-table-clash (TotTC) of the year. With our late start and how tight it’s been behind us since, this home match with Newry is finally a 1st vs. 2nd match.
Quansah is once again the victim of some random violence as he’s shoved by Newry’s right back in the aftermath of Tokene’s 24th minute goal. Perhaps Rossiter saw the writing on the wall after van der Gun’s earlier goal and was looking for a way out. Gibson adds a third goal not long afterwards and VPG scores a fourth midway through the second half for a comprehensive six-pointer win. We’re now nine points clear with two matches in hand. With our continued European success and a massive league lead, I get the sense that we won’t have a non-Dutch transfer window this season…
Well, he wouldn’t join me earlier this season but after being released by Ajax (DJ Khalid: “aNOTHer one!”) he finally agrees to join us. He joins VPG as our only naturally left-sided attacking midfielders so I’m thrilled he’s agreed to join us.
He immediately gets a run out with many of his compatriots (and former Ajax teammates) as we welcome Linfield to Shamrock Park for the first leg of the League Cup SF.
New boy Tuhuteru scores a goal and is named man of the match in a comfortable first leg win. An away goal would have bothered me in previous seasons but having not lost a domestic fixture since last November, I’m not too concerned. The return fixture is in two weeks and the winner will face Crusaders, who just knocked off Coleraine in their SF.
And speaking of Coleraine, we make the trip up north to face them in the league. I send out a weaker (slah Euro-ineligible) side with one eye on Wednesday’s visit from Manchester United.
It’s a comfortable win in the end with three goals in the final quarter of an hour. It’s an all-Dutch scoring affair too but for some reason Van Leeuwen’s goal, 26/28 passing stats (the most accurate of all fourteen players I used) and a completed tackle only earn him a 6/10 rating.
Jordi’s back, just in time to face off against his former employers. They beat Schalke 3–0 in their opening match, so the winner will end up three points clear. Can we repeat our autumn 2002 feat and knock off Man U? Steve Thomson was the only current Ports player in the side that day. He was captain then and he’s captain now…
It’s a famous and dominant win for the home side. Two up in the first ten minutes and up three by the break, it’s all about managing the match from that point on. Man U get nothing going, despite the likes of Beckham, van Nistelrooy, Scholes, Okocha, and Yorke all in the starting XI for the visitors.
We remain at home for a league game with Crusaders. Everyone is fit as a fiddle with our all-Dutch AM corps running the show.
With extremely similar match stats to our our last match, we score our three but concede once. Maybe the Man U match was a best case scenario and this was a worst case. Because M. Graham is certainly no Ruud van Nistelrooy.
We’re nursing that same 3–1 advantage in our League Cup SF second leg tilt with Linfield. They’re missing a starting striker of theirs but ever since they lost Larmour and Ferguson, they’ve not had the same attacking threat.
We don’t get much offence going ourselves but we get more than we needed. We’re through to the League Cup Final after JKA buries our only two shots on target. It’s 5–1 on aggregate and that means another trip to Windsor Park in two weeks, where Crusaders await us.
With the Champions Cup taking a break until February, our focus turns to domestic “challenges”. We’re only five points clear at the top these days…with four matches in hand. We’re visiting basement dwelling Institute next.
Five goals, four scorers, zero shots against (off or on target). A lovely day at the office. Tuhuteru earns a 10 and now has 3G, 2A and 2 MotMs in his four matches played. I’m looking forward to adding him and van der Gun to our European squad next calendar year.
We head home to the Shamrock for our final league match of 2005. Glentoran are the opposition and they’re sitting in third place, exactly one goal scored ahead of Coleraine. Everything else is exactly even.
The scoreline reflects very favourably on Glentoran. We had two goals called back for marginal offside calls and a pair of identical penalty shouts waved away. I suppose once Gough knew he could get away with it, why not try it again?
We surrender a late goal — on their only shot of the match — but only after potting four of our own to the result beyond any doubt.
We’ve got a week off between matches for the first time since early October so I graciously allow the lads a couple of days off to spend Christmas with their non-Ports (and therefore less important) families. But we’re back on the practice field on Boxing Day as we prepare for our League Cup Final against Crusaders at Windsor Park.
I reward our best performers to date with the starting spots while trying to get some unhappy players back on side. We’ve got some wannabe regulars who are a bit upset that playing time is at a premium. Forssell is back from injury for a spot on the bench.
For Crusaders, it’s starts off badly and only gets worse. The fact that their goalkeeper (9-handling) saves a dozen of our sixteen shots is commendable. An own goal is followed quickly by Hose turning home a van Leeuwen cross and we’re ahead by two after ten minutes. A brace from JKA and a Willems drive round out the scoring and we’re League Cup threepeat-ers.
Happy New Year!
We get another week break between matches, so I grant my spoiled players even more time to spend with their parents/better halves/kids. They get New Year’s Day off but we’re back to the practice pitch on January 2nd to prep for a visit from Coleraine. It’ll be our 18th match of the season and the “midway” point of our season.
Coleraine score from their very first shot on target before we get back on track and score three unanswered before the break. Potential injuries to Jordi and VPG force a formation adjustment (2–4–2–2) and the more defensive look doesn’t do much for us going forwards in the second half.
To think that the past five months have been the EASY part of the season. Undefeated in the NILPD and 65% of the way to the current goals scored record. The lads seem to be gelling nicely with eleven of the top twelve (Van Leeuwen just got loaned to Haarlem til summer) performers in the division.
We’ve added a couple more pieces of silverware to the trophy cabinet in the Charity Shield and League Cup and we’re not only alive but kicking in the Champions Cup.
