I knew the season was going to be hard. After the frippery of the two minor cup competitions that start before the league gets going in Scotland, my first choice goalie gets himself injured by dislocating his shoulder. That pretty much set the scene for how badly the year was going to go. To follow that up, on matchday 10 the loan goalie I got in managed to actually break his shoulder after getting hit by the ball! It was around then that I decided a blow by blow account of the season wasn't going to happen and instead settled for trying to avoid a relegation scrap.
Obviously I didn't avoid a relegation scrap. A particular highlight of the year was taking Partick Thistle to extra time in a replay in the Scottish Cup 4th round but that was just a blip in a real downer of a season.
So two loans were on goalies, which didn't help much when my defence decided it was their turn to pick up ridiculous injuries. Regardless we ploughed on until the last game of the season. 8th place, 1 point clear of Albion Rovers and 1 goal better on goal difference. Win and we were safe. Draw and as long as Rovers don't win we are safe. Lose by 1 goal and as long as Rovers don't win or don't draw 5-5 we are safe. Rovers drew. We lost 3-1.
So the playoffs. Remarkably we won the first leg by 3 goals to 2, and despite a loss in the return match at home by the odd goal, extra time came with us grabbing that one goal to win the tie outright.
Playoff final time, again over 2 legs, this time us playing at home first. Not that our home form was anything to shout about, losing 1-0. In the return match somehow we grabbed a goal and clung on for dear life to send it to extra time, and then penalties. Which we lost in record time.
Astonishingly I didn't get sacked. Not so astonishingly, most of the squad had refused to sign a new contract, leaving us with 5 first team players, one of whom was useless. To compound this the board gave me an ultimatum; 8 points from the next 5 league games. Things were looking dire, but on the plus side, League 2 should be easier to win, and winning trophies gives me good club reputation. Also lots of good free players were now available, some must want to come to me.
That ultimatum stopped me writing a season write up. After all, what use is a season write up if there's only 7 more matches (including cups) to come?
So over the summer the rebuilding started, and then stopped abruptly after the supporters' trust put in an offer to buy the club. On the plus side it would pump some much needed funds into the club. On the massively more weighty negative side, I couldn't sign any more players.
A penalty shoot out in the challenge cup to start the season was particularly frustrating, as we scored all of our first 6 penalties. If they could have done that a couple of months earlier we would still have been in League 1. Inevitably one of the players that hung around from last year took penalty number 7, and someone in the stands has a souvenir match ball of yet another Peterhead penalty shoot out loss.
Somehow after 3 matches we had picked up 5 points. A win against Brora would do it. A 5-1 humping certainly wouldn't do it. So next up were Berwick Rangers who were doing abysmally. However the witch doctor that put protective charms on the goals had a blinding match seeing us hit the woodwork 3 times, and also saw my left winger, when faced with an open goal, put a cross in.
And with that 0-0 came the sack. Now, I have had the sack early on in saves before. Getting relegated from the Welsh Prem in season one is instant dismissal but that career worked out ok, winning the Champions League with Arsenal but in this challenge to get Peterhead to name their stadium after me, that's a career breaker. And so challenge failed after 14 months.
So what next? Start again, of course, and see what lessons I can take into the next save. I may have lost the battle, but not the war!
