Category Archives: FM20

This final blog post has taken me a while to write up, mainly because I genuinely wasn’t sure how to present this. Following the heartbreak of being denied a place at Euro 2028 twice, courtesy of a a 93rd minute goal on both occasions, our efforts were refocused on the next challenge which was theContinue reading “The Legend of Stephen Coyle”

Ok, this one came as a total surprise to me. After missing out on qualification through the standard group, we were somehow placed into a Play Off fixture. I can only assume this is in some way related to the UEFA Nations League although there does not seem to be any actual explanation of thisContinue reading “Northern Ireland: UEFA Euro 2028 Play Off”

Carrying on from the last update, we are sitting in a reasonable position within the group but cannot afford any slip ups from here. We also must rely on either Czech Republic or Spain losing ground if we hope to qualify for the Euro finals. With that in mind, we firstly host Malta in SeptemberContinue reading “Northern Ireland: UEFA Euro 2028 Qualifying Part 2”

As we go into the 2028 European Championship Qualifiers, Northern Ireland sit a record low of 61st in the FIFA World Rankings. Hardly reason to be confident. Add to that the fact that our competition for qualification will be Spain and Czech Republic – no mean feat. We also have Malta and North Macedonia withinContinue reading “Northern Ireland: UEFA Euro 2028 Qualifying Part 1”

We’re back into UEFA Nations League action and, as mentioned previously, we will compete in League B with Austria, Slovakia and Ukraine in our group. It’s a difficult enough group for a nation of our level and, realistically, a good campaign would simply be maintaining our place in League B. Matchday 1 v Slovenia There’sContinue reading “Northern Ireland: UEFA Nations League 2026”

An even year brings with it another edition of the UEFA Nations League competition. However, before we get a crack at that we have two international friendlies lined up before the winter football season finishes and the 2026 World Cup starts up. In the early part of 2026 we found out our fate for theContinue reading “Northern Ireland: 2026 Friendlies”

At the halfway point Northern Ireland sat proudly atop the pile, above two time World Champions France. However, despite my attempted positivity in citing the old cliché that points > games in hand, I knew that we were building our house on sand rather than a solid rock. Moldova at Windsor was to be takenContinue reading “Northern Ireland: 2026 World Cup Qualifying Part 2”

Fresh off the back of our success in the 2024 UEFA Nations League, it was time for the 2026 World Cup Qualifying Campaign to begin. Eight games is a lot to take in at once, so we’ll digest this campaign in two parts. The 2026 World Cup will be hosted by USA, Canada and MexicoContinue reading “Northern Ireland: 2026 World Cup Qualifying Part 1”

In my last post about Glentoran I talked about how to keep the save alive, the keep it challenging and, more pertinently, interesting. Time for a bit of honesty, I don’t like being a dominant force in Football Manager. I enjoy the struggles of mediocrity. It might seem strange to some, maybe it’s a formContinue reading “Six Whole Years of Joy”

No sooner had we made our inglorious exit from Euro 2024 than we were ready to engage in the 2024 UEFA Nations League process. I really like this competition, sadly not a view that was widely shared in Northern Ireland footballing circles at its inception in 2018. International friendlies (or International Challenge Matches as theContinue reading “Northern Ireland: UEFA Nations League 2024”