MVP: lL-

Team DPs: 72

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Season 50 Update:

Season 50 is here, and the draft is complete. Lisburn City emerge with a 21-man squad and three new faces: goalkeeper Tony Coton, defender Tommy Booth and forward Shaun Goater. The three additions strengthen different areas of the squad and give us a useful mixture of immediate quality and potential for development.

There is a solid core to build around. Andy McDonald remains our first-choice goalkeeper, while Glyn Pardoe, Nicolás Otamendi, John Heron, John Kennedy and Tommy McCracken give us considerable strength across the defensive positions. Damien Kelly continues to lead the midfield options, with Jamsie Irwin providing support and the experienced Gareth Barry still refusing to take the hint and retire.

Further forward, Johnny Crossan and Aaron Cochrane are among our strongest players, while Jeremy Doku continues his development on the wing. Phil McDonagh leads the forward line, now joined by Goater, with Jim Murray providing another option. Nico O’Reilly remains one of the more interesting younger players in the squad, while Bernardo Silva provides useful versatility.

The draft has strengthened us, although in very different ways. Shaun Goater arrives at SL 20 and should make an immediate impact, giving us another strong option alongside Phil McDonagh in attack. Tony Coton (SL 8) and Tommy Booth (SL 7) are longer-term additions who provide useful depth while hopefully developing over the coming seasons. With several of the established squad getting closer to retirement, Goater helps us now while Coton and Booth represent part of the next stage of the rebuild.

The immediate challenge is getting the best possible T11 on the pitch while finding enough opportunities to develop the younger players. The likes of McDonald, Pardoe, Otamendi, Kelly, Crossan, Cochrane and McDonagh will carry much of the responsibility, but Season 50 could also be an important one for Doku, O’Reilly and last season’s newer recruits.

As always, the main objective is straightforward: Division 1 survival. Anything beyond that will be gratefully accepted and possibly investigated for an administrative error.

So we head into Season 50 with 21 players, three new draftees, a decent backbone to the side and the usual Lisburn City mixture of optimism and concern. The squad is taking shape. Whether it is the right shape remains to be seen.

Season 50 update:

Hello again, fellow SFLSL managers. Season 50 is here, which feels like a big deal until I remember that Lisburn City have spent most of those seasons figuring out what we are actually doing.

Retirement is still working out well for me. Mrs O has joined me in retirement, though she still does the occasional nursing shift, probably to get out of the house and enjoy some peace and quiet. I am still committed to making myself useful at home, especially when being useful involves researching something online, buying a gadget or explaining why the gadget I bought last month is no longer quite enough.

The gadget situation has, if anything, gotten worse. Cameras and drones are still a big weakness, and I have somehow got enough DJI equipment to make a small wildlife documentary, even though I have made remarkably few actual films. I am trying to fix that and have been learning how to shoot and edit video properly. Whether the family will eventually appreciate being followed around by a pensioner carrying a gimbal is still up in the air.

My sporting loyalties still give me the emotional boost I need to manage Lisburn City. Manchester City are still the sensible choice, the Raiders are the one that builds character and the Blue Jays keep their long-running experiment to see how much hope a supporter needs before disappointment becomes real.

Family is still the most important part of life. Emma, Jess and Izzy are growing up way too fast and are always a source of entertainment, pride and reminders that their grandfather is much older than he thinks he is. Karen and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary this summer, which shows either amazing compatibility or incredible endurance on her part.

Tenerife is here again, and I’m updating in the sunshine, with a lot more camera gear than most people need! I’m hoping to come back with some good holiday films, not just a bunch of clips that never get shown. Fingers crossed!

So, here we are at Season 50. Lisburn City is still in Division 1, still trying to dodge Division 2 and I’m still a bit naive to think this might be the season we finally make it.

Wishing everyone the best for Season 50. Please keep being kind to Lisburn City. After fifty seasons, you should know by now that we really need all the help we can get.