Hello and welcome back to the Comendador stadium, as little old Uniao de Lamas find themselves top halfway through season four. Miguel and Diogo have been through some very poor second half showings in recent years, so let’s see if they can buck the trend….
First up is the cup tie at Benfica. Our boys have never seen 70,000 fans before, we barely scrape that cumulatively over a season! Despite that we put up a decent showing and only go down by a solitary goal. Integral CDM Cesar is ruled out for three months after a horror tackle, which puts a dampener on our day in the big time.
Following our cup exploits the injury bug hits hard, along with a couple of suspensions. It’s going to be a tricky few weeks to navigate.
A late equalizer stops us taking all three point at Salgueiros. Backup striker Nene is added to our growing injury list.
Noah Hickey is back before a healthy crowd at the Comendador Stadium, but it’s only another point on the board.
Normal service is resumed with Willy and Sasi back from injury. A Hagi strike zooms us past Estoril, and ensures we retain pole position in the league.
With the Southall regen out injured Nigerian legend Rufai concedes two late goals, but we put up five to breeze past Nacional.
Next up we go shot crazy, racking up thirty two attempts on goal! Only three hit the spot, but it’s enough for a tight victory.
After all that excitement we’re brought down to earth at the Comendador’s stadium. Willy V gives us the lead, but a Belec double provides the first defeat in a while.
The lull in performance continues away at Varzim, but this feels like a huge win. Hickey’s red card means a sub appearance for backup right back Viard. Not only does he see out the game defensively, but the Frenchman pops up with a late winner!
Next up we sneak another tight victory against Chaves. Viard again making the most of his opportunity with another winner from right back!
Another crucial win occurs down Rio Av after a turgid first half. Supersub Alexandre provides our third defender-winner in a row!
With the Pie Daddy out injured, Solicitor Agu gets a shot at left wing. He ensures we make brief work of Aves.
Ovarense are next up, and they see us off after an early Tilico injury. No one else could find their shooting boots, and we’re condemned to defeat.
With six games to go we are looking good to seal promotion. But it’s a tight battle for the title!
With Iordanov away on Ill-timed international duty we draft Hickey into the midfield. He lasts mere minutes before an injury forces us to be lopsided for the rest of the game. Pacos serves us our second straight defeat.
Next up a first half hattie from big Willy gets us over the line, just. We were back to full strength apart from right back Viard, whose broken pelvis will keep him out until Christmas!
This is the kind of game you need when chasing a league title! We smash Gil Vicente after an early red card.
Results go our way elsewhere, and it has finally happened. Uniao de lamas are promoted!
In an interesting wrinkle we’re then instantly awarded 250k for finishing second, despite there being three games to go. This feels very dismissive of our title chances, and only serves to fire up Miguel’s competitive electrodes.
Miguel’s words fire us to a bit of a promotion party at Malveira. Willy V gets four, and we run out 6-1 winners.
We’re just one point off the top with 2 home games to go. The Comendador stadium will be rocking as we take on the league leaders….
Almost 7,000 fans attend the big game, where did they come from?! A vicious affair sees us hang onto an early lead until the last kick of the game. Then hearts are broken!
We remain one point off top spot going into the final day. We are home to 4th placed Penafiel, whilst the league leaders travel to 7th placed Salgueiros. Only a win will do as they have us by four on goal difference.
Let’s go!
Leirios fall to a 1-0 defeat, and we are the champions!
Diogo and Miguel can’t believe it. We’ve done it! Thank the AI overlords that Miguel decided we should take one more crack at promotion.
It’s fair to say Willy Vincent has been the star of the season, check these efforts out….
As the party dies down it’s back to reality, our finances are not great! We sell off fourth choice keeper Miguel.
The next day Diogo is announced as Manager of the Year. Miguel is jealous but knows the Portuguese FA will never accept is AI ways.
The board have been playing silly buggers with Tilico’s contract despite his absolute club legend status.
Which quite understandably leads to this! Thanks for the memories great man.
Hot on his heels Nigerian legend Rufai retires his gloves.
On the plus side other ageing talents such as Hagi and Willy V stay on to take a crack at the top division.
As the sun sets on a fantastic season four we must revisit Miguel’s goals for the campaign…
Number one is ticked off comfortably. On the youth development front regen Southall is now our established number one. Artur Alves played a key role in midfield at just 17 years old, before being shipped out on loan in the second half of the season as the pressure grew. We’ll call that a success too. Finances also improved, and we finish the season a mere 15k in the black, but in the black all the same!
Join us next week as we prepare for life in the top flight, the final season of the Uniao de Lamas challenge!