Football Journey

Division 2. One dominating team and one outsider. Bigger fight for escaping relegation than for promotion. Apart from the leader, only other teams competed for the remaining 2 promotional spots. The agony of Leeds United continued without a sign of recovery, it was painful to watch it. That for sympathetic hearts, of course. And one pleasant promotion, although not suggesting things to come. Yet.

Fulham – terrible this season: last with 36 points an out.

Middlesbrough – put some fight, but also inferior and joining Fulham in exile: 21st with 45 points.

Carlisle United – the third relegated team: 20 the with 46 points.

Blackburn Rovers – 19th with 49 points. It was becoming almost unbelievable that once upon a time they played in the top division.

Sunderland – down on their luck and perhaps happy to escape relegation. 18th with 50 points.

Shrewsbury Town – 17th with 51 points.

Huddersfield Town – 16th with 52 points.

Grimsby Town – 15th with 52 points.

Leeds United – 14th with 53 points. One can really pity Peter Lorimer…

Bradford City – 13th with 54 points.

Barnsley – 12th with 56 points.

Brighton & Hove Albion – 11th with 56 points.

Stoke City – 10th with 59 points.

Millwall – 9th with 59 points.

Oldham Athletic – 8th with 60 points.

Sheffield United – 7th with 62 points. Considering they were in Third Division only recently, not bad.

Hull City – 6th with 64 points. Nice achievement – they were just promoted.

Crystal Palace – 5th with 66 points. A prove of rarely fancied norm: if you stay long enough, you become a minor legend – Micky Droy was considered hopeless once upon a time. Now, after many years with Chelsea, he was the veteran star of Palace. Tradition works, though… a team with Droy was never a winning team.

Portsmouth – strong season, battling for promotion, but failing short at the end: 4th with 73 points.

Wimbledon was on focus in recent years and the season was sensational, but they were still a minor sensation: 3rd with 76 points. Overcoming Portsmouth and missing 2nd place by a point – and promoted to the top league. What a joy – in 1982-83 they were still playing in Forth Division and now were going to the First, practically repeating the amazing climb of Watford. But they were less spectacular than Watford and surviving among the best was questionable.

Charlton Athletic clinched 2nd place with 77 points. The trend, started in the second half of the 1970s, of smallish clubs climbing and sometimes even playing for a few season in the First Division was still going on.

Norwich City had no real rival and won the championship with 84 points. 25 wins, 9 ties, 8 losses, 84-39 goal-difference. Comfortable victory, which in a way was a commentary of sudden decline of second level standards: Norwich was just relegated and immediately they were going back to top football. But they were relegated largely for having inferior squad and this one was similar – experience helped, but… it was a team with much promise. The problem was not Norwich itself – they hardly could afford big names – but clubs like Leeds, Middlesbrough, Sunderland, Sheffield, Stoke, which were in dire straits and unable to gather even a squad similar to Norwich’s. As for the winners – they deserved their triumph, their second division title and their return to top flight.

Division 3. English football could be best appreciated in the lower divisions – former champions would descent there, strong clubs just a few years ago, famous clubs… and relatively unknown clubs could go up in the same time. It was still that time, it was still not just possible, but regularly happening. And everything was still the same – 4 teams relegated, 3 teams promoted.

Swansea City – last and out with 43 points. Just for the perspective: in 1981-82 ‘The Swans” were 6th in First Division. In the same year Jimmy Rimmer won the European Champions Cup with Aston Villa. Now it was going to Forth Division.

Wolverhampton Wanderers – 23rd with 43 points. Well, that was a real shame. In 1983-84 they were still in the First Division – but will play Forth Division in 1986-87.

Cardiff City – 22nd with 45 points and relegated. Cardiff mostly played second division football in the last ten years, dropping to the third occasionally, but Forth Division? Well, there they went.

Lincoln City – 21st with 46 points. The best among the relegated and the only modest name among the unfortunate.

Bury – lucky 20th with 49 points. Good for another season.

Newport County – 19th with 51 points.

Bolton Wanderers – 18th with 53 points. England was perhaps the only country in Europe where one can see famous names playing in the lower divisions: Asa Hartford here, for example. True, they were veterans, but elsewhere big names hardly ever played lower than second level, even at their last legs.

Chesterfield – 17th with 53 points.

Bristol Rovers – 16th with 54 points.

Bournemouth – 15th with 54 points.

Darlington – 14th with 58 points.

Rotherham United – 13th with 57 points.

Blackpool – 12th with 63 points.

Doncaster Rovers – 11th with 64 points.

Brentford – 10th with 66 points.

Bristol City – 9th with 68 points. At least ahead of city rivals Bristol Rovers.

Notts County – 8th with 71 points.

York City – 7th with 71 points.

Walsall – 6th with75 points.

Gillingham – 5th with 79 points. The best of the bulk of the league, but short of aiming at promotion.

Wigan Athletic – 4th with 83 points. Unlucky – they tried hard, but missed promotion by a point.

Derby County – clinched 3rd place with 84 points and achieved their aim to climb up to Second Division. However… one can laugh: ‘spending spree pays off’ with clinching third place. A project for going back to top flight? Strangely, it was.

Now, Plymouth Argyle harboured no similar to Derby’s ambitions and certainly had no money or mind for ‘spending spree’, but they finished comfortably 2nd with 87 points. They spent the last 10 years in Third Division, seemingly glued to it, but finally managed to climb up and were going to play second level football for the first time since their relegation in 1976-77.

Reading had fantastic season and won the championship with 94 points. 29 wins, 7 ties, 10 losses, 67-50 goal-difference. Hard to recall what exactly made them ‘record breakers’ – possibly something counted only in their own minds – but it was nice victory. They were going back to Second Division for the first time since their relegation in 1930-31 and won Third Division for the first time since 1925-26.

England. With no European football to be played after UEFA suspended English teams from participating, the country returned to its preferred insular game. Not everybody was happy, but for the most clubs there was no loss.

Division 4. A record was made here – the winner finished with 102 points. That was because England adapted 3-points for a win in 1981-82. Down in the lowest professional league only promotion really mattered – 4 teams going up, as ever.

Torquay United – last with 37 points and the only team winning less than 10 fixtures this season.

Preston North End – 23rd with 43 points.

Cambridge United – 22nd with 54 points.

Exeter City – 21st with 54 points.

Halifax Town – 20th with 54 points.

Tranmere Rovers – 19th with 54 points.

Rochdale – 18th with 55 points.

Peterborough United – 17th with 56 points.

Aldershot – 16th with 58 points.

Scunthorpe United – 15th with 59 points.

Burnley – 14th with 59 points.

Wrexham – 13th with 60 points.

Crewe Alexandra – 12th with 63 points.

Stockport County – 11th with 64 points.

Hereford United – 10th with 64 points.

Southend United – 9th with 64 points.

Northampton Town – 8th with 64 points.

Hartlepool United – 7th with 70 points.

Colchester United – 6th with 70 points.

Orient – 5th with 72 points.

Port Vale – 4th with 79 points. Fought for promotion and got it. Well done.

Mansfield Town – 3rd with 81 points. Going back to III Division after their 1971-72 relegation.

Chester City – 2nd with 84 points. Promoted, but not a title contender.

Swindon Town dominated the championship and won it with record 102 points from 32 wins, 6 ties, and 8 losses. 82-43 goal-difference. Wonderful season, much applauded. The former Manchester United star Lou Macari did excellent job.

One more look at the champions in the their happiest moment.

The Cup final opposed Bayern to VfB Stuttgart. Frankly, the final was a statement of the current state of West German football – Bayern played against one the best teams, recent champion, still in great shape, 5th in the championship this year. And the result was 5-2 Bayern… The results almost spells out the current reality – West Germany was pretty much reduced to one club of great class.

If Stuttgart lost in overtime or at least lost by a goal or two, one could be sorry for them and blame bad luck. But receiving 5 goals… too many for excuses. Well, nothing to be done – Stuttgart for some reasons failed to add quality to their champion team, the development was stunted as result and now was running already on inertia.

Bayern with the Cup and with a double this year. Well, that was and is Bayern – winners.

Bundesliga. Competitive championship as ever, with dramatic finish – 2 teams with same points and goal-difference determined the winner. At the opposite end of the table – 2 outsiders, but almost half the league was preoccupied with efforts to avoid 16th place and thus the risk of relegation. However, Bundesliga lost its edge – there was no truly exciting team and apart from Bayern, no really classy and well-rounded squads. In part, the new reality was due to the changes in football development – physical , but not imaginative players were the norm, so there was higher general level of players, but few exceptional ones. In part, the strong foreign competition – most visible in the case of foreign players: by now, top talent, including German, was going to play for higher paying Italian, Spanish, and English clubs. The result was weaker and bland German teams, decline of some formidable clubs, and narrower group of classy teams – perhaps only 3 at the moment: Bayern, which maintained high level all the time, Werder, which was up and own club, but in good shape currently, and the only steadily developing club – Bayer Leverkusen.

Hannover 96 – last with 18 points. Up and down, up and down, up and down – playing in the Bundesliga meant relegation, so consistent with its own history, Hannover was relegated.

1.FC Saarbrucken – 17th with 21 points. Relegated as well and little surprise in that.

Borussia Dorlmund – 16th with 28 points. Now, this was quite a drop – just a few years back Borussia was climbing up and was one of the more promising teams. Now it looked like they were going terribly back to old ways and second0level football. And a look at the squad was telling why – Immel was the only rising star. Only two well-known players, but both getting old – Hrubesch, back from Belgium, and Raducanu, not so famous, but a Romanian national team regular for years. Yet, Borussia was not an outsider – they generally lost the fight with equal teams : the difference between them and the 8th-placed team was 5 points. And not relegated yet – they went to the promotion/relegation play-off against the 3rd team in the Second Division, Fortuna Koln, and managed to keep their place in top flight at the end.

Eintracht Frankfurt lost so much ground in after 1976, that they now were among the outsiders. They survived only on better goal-difference this season, ending with 28 points like Borussia Dortmund.

Fortuna Dusseldorf – another formerly strong club in decline. 14th with 29 points.

Yes, 1. FC Koln reached the UEFA Cup final, but the performance in the Bundesliga was the true story: they were going down fast. 13th with 29 points.

1. FC Nurnberg – familiar performance: escaping relegation equaled good season. If not relegated, they were among those barely escaping, so nothing new here – 1th with 29 points.

1.FC Kaiserslautern – 11th with 30 points.

Schalke 04 – 10th with 30 points.

VfL Bochum – amazing survivors: always with a squad suggesting immediate relegation, but managing good position at the end of the season. 9th with 32 points.

SV 07 Waldhof Mannheim – 8th with 33 points. The highest-placed team among those concerned with avoiding relegation. Well done, but more importantly was that if their squad was a bit poor, it was not very different from the squads Schalke, Koln, Dortmund, Frankfurt, and Dusseldorf had.

The next 4 teams were way above the lower part of the league, but not title contenders either.

Hamburger SV – 7th with 39 points. Still led by Happel, but a far cry from the team were only a few years earlier. The key stars, starting with Kaltz and Magath, were getting old and very old, but there was not single new name of great talent popping up. HSV was slowly sinking.

Bayer 04 Leverkusen – 6th with 40 points. Frankly, the only up and coming team at this time and that with certain doubts and cautions: yes, it was improving team and it was certain they were not one-time wonder, but it was also a team without remarkable stars. Even their foreigners – the South Korean legend Cha and the Polish national team player Wojtowicz – were second-rate. But ‘the Aspirins’ were also a prime example of the current football – a sturdy collective was a winning one and not one with few great flashy stars. Just look at 1. FC Koln and compare…

VfB Stuttgart – 5th with 41 points. Still strong, but one thing was already clear: Stuttgart did not add to the champion team they built a few years back – what they had was equal or slightly weaker than the team of very recent past. Not a title contender as a result and possibly going down in the future.

Borussia Moenchengladbach – 4th with 42 points. The strongest finisher among those much better than most of the league, but weaker than the leading teams. To see Moenchengladbach among the top teams looked both familiar a reassuring: so impressive was the great team from the 1970s, that for many this season refreshed the memories and hopes for coming back. But there was no coming back… there was no player of caliber similar to Netzer and company. Mill was perhaps the greatest player of the current squad and he was never a regular player of the national team. And it was crystal-clear that Enevoldsen and Herlovsen could be number one players of Europe or transferred to Barcelona and Real Madrid, like the imports in the 1970s Simonsen and Jensen were. May be the most accurate explanation of the good performance is Heynckes – the former great player was rapidly becoming a great coach. And he was a true child of Borussia, knowing perfectly what to do: more with little. But for how long?

The top three teams competed for the title.

Bayer 05 Uerdingen – 3rd with 45 points. Their best season, the closest they came to winning a title, but having lesser team than the competition made them losing a bit of steam and ending third. Well… even at the time of collective anonymity class was prevailing. Ambition, motivation, and soldiering are rarely enough for winning. But it was great season nevertheless.

How was Werder better than Uerdingen? Well, it had higher-class players – Pezzey, Okudera, Ordenewitz, Votava, Burdenski, Sidka, Wolter, and the rapidly becoming a superstar Voller. National team players, champions with other clubs, used to both domestic and international football – that was a big difference. And having top coach was another difference – Rehhagel. Werder was up and down club, true – they even played in Second Division no long ago – but they had occasional bursts leading them to the top and this season was one of those. They run for the title and did not give up for a second – at the end, they lost the title only on goal-difference, what a misfortune. And coming to tiny details as well – compared to Bayern, Werder was older and not deep squad. That affected scoring – yes, they scored a lot, but not as much as their younger rivals. Yes, they lost only 5 games, but they won one less game than Bayern. Tiny details… and second.

This was one of the most difficulty won titles in Bayern’s history – and, frankly, it would have been better if Werder won. But it was Bayern, so never giving up and getting victorious in any possible way. Of course, this was the strongest squad in West Germany – not very exciting and not even as strong as some older versions, but still far stronger than whatever was around. 8 West German national team players plus 1 Danish and 1 Belgian national team stars, and one unfortunate refugee – if he was not East German Junior-national team member in the past, Nachtweih would have been in the West German national team. Lattek was Lattek – a great coach always aiming at victory. Even facing tough opposition and under great pressure, at the end Bayern clinched the title.

One more for the trophy room.

Second Division. Competitive season with surprising outcome – one expects familiar from years in the Bundesliga clubs to go up, but it was different. Upside-down, in a way.

MSV Duisburg was only last, but was hopeless outsider as well, ending with only 15 points. Such sharp decline…

Tennis Borussia (West Berlin) finished 19th with 29 points. Just came back from the regional leagues and relegated right away.

SpVgg Bayreuth – 18th with 31 points and out of second level again.

Hertha BSC (West Berlin) – 17th with 31 points. Another disaster… May be that was the way to build character – a future national team goalkeeper was going to taste regional football. The horrors of the 1960s came back, but this time there was a barrier between regional leagues and Bundesliga: now Hertha had first to try a return to second level.

SC Freiburg survived – 16th with 33 points.

SG Union Solingen – 15th with 34 points.

VfL Osnabruck – 14th with 35 points.

Viktoria Aschaffenburg – 13th with 35 points. May be nothing for other clubs, but for this one – a great season: Hertha and Duisburg relegated and Viktoria safe.

Miserable season for Eintracht Braunschweig – 12th with 36 points.

Rot-Weiss Oberhausen – Bundesliga was clearly out of reach for years already, now avoiding relegation to the regional leagues was prime concern. 11th with 37 points.

SV Darmstadt 98 – 10th with 41 points.

SG Wattenscheid 09 – 9th with 43 points. With them ends – or begins the groups of teams trying to reach promotion. 6 points was the final difference between Wattenscheid and the league champion and they won as many games as the 2nd placed in the final table – 17.

Alemannia Aachen – 8th with 43 points, ahead of Wattenscheid on better goal-difference.

Karlsruher SC – 7th with 43 points.

Stuttgarter Kickers – 6th with 43 points. The best goal-difference among those with 43 points placed them the highest.

KSV Hessen Kassel – 5th with 44 points. There was always something preventing them from getting promotion – coming close, but unable to reach the top.

Arminia Bielefeld – 4th with 45 points. Return to Bundesliga was postponed.

Fortuna Koln – one of the most stable members of Second Division, which seemingly had particularly good period and thus really aiming to get promoted up. Not easy in tough and relatively equal league, but they clinched 3rd place with 46 points. Which was not enough for direct promotion, but for a promotion/relegation play-off against the 16th in the Bundesliga. A good chance.

Now, that was a big surprise – Blau-Weiss 90 (West Berlin) was historically well bellow Hertha and even Tennis Borussia, but those two were relegated and the brave Blau-Weiss, quite a newcomer to second-level football, was suddenly going even higher – 2nd with 47 points. True, it was a bit chancy success, given the tough race, but Blau-Weiss earned its promotion. Going to play in the mighty Bundesliga – what fantastic success!

FC Homburg 08 – winners of the championship with 49 points. 20 wins, 9 ties, 9 losses and 75-42 goal-difference gave them the title. Hardly dominating – rather more determined than the competition – but they won. Not an expected winner, though, and the reason for the success not just of them, but of those immediately bellow them may have been the absence of well-known names in the whole league. Famous players were always few in the second level, but this season was very dry, which made various teams similarly strong or weak. Even for a second division champions, Homburg had quite an anonymous squad – the American Dooley will make his name in the future and that was everything. But it was sweet to win even like that, for after all, the competition was similar and that did not make it easy. After all, it only matters who would finish first – Homburg did it, who could blame them for getting promoted?

After the end of the regular championship Fortuna Koln went to the promotion/relegation play-off against Borussia Dortmund. They won their home leg 2-0, but in Dortmund the hosts came back with 3-1 win and a third match was scheduled. And in it, unfortunately, Fortuna collapsed… they lost 0-8! Too bad.

Thus, only 2 clubs got promoted to the Bundesliga: Blau-Weiss and Homburg. Great for them, but the terrible loss of Fortuna in the play-off was ominous sign… looked like the gap between first and second division teams was too wide at the moment.

West Germany. Dramatic championship – goal-difference decided the title. Decline of some clubs of prominence and relegation to the regional leagues of 2 formative members of the Bundesliga.

Qualifications for promotion to II Division: the champions of the regional leagues went to their final tournament, competing for 4 promotions. 9 teams, divided into 2 groups – Northern and Southern. That was the formula for many, many years now. However, one regional league champion was not permitted to compete for promotion – most likely for financial reasons.

Wormatia (Worms) was not allowed. Top row from left: Alfred Oehrlein, Ralf Karb, Jozef Adamiec, Heinz Lubanski, Jurgen Klotz, Gunther Birkle – assistant coach, Heiner Ueberle – coach. Middle row: Gunter Reinhardt, Walfried Gunther, Gunter Braun, Michael Wolsiffer, Peter Ritzheim, Bernhard Schwank, Stefan Steinmetz, Heinz-Jurgen Schlosser, Dr. Priester. Sitting: Jurgen Fischer, Lutz Hofmann, Georg Muller, Stephan Kuhnert, Ralph Pfirrmann, Martin Simonis, Dieter Gutzler, Helmut Wagner.

Wormatia was replaced by the 2nd-placed ASC Schöppingen.

Gruppe Nord:

1.  FC St.Pauli   8  5  2 1  16:8  12:4

2. Rot-Weiß Essen 8  5  1  2  16:12 11:5

3. SC Charlottenburg  8  3  3  2  16:9  9:7

4.  VfB Oldenburg  8  2  1  5  12:18  5:11

5.  ASC Schöppingen  8  1  1  6  8:21  3:13

ASC Schöppingen clearly was not up to the task, but the former Bundesliga members were:

Rot Weiss (Essen) and

FC St. Pauli (Hamdurg) were promoted to Second Division. This photo of St Pauli may not be correct, but is from that period at least.

Gruppe Süd:

1.  SSV Ulm 1846  6  3  2  1  11:7  8:4

2. FSV Salmrohr  6  3  2  1  10:7  8:4

3. Kickers Offenbach  6  1  5  0  11:8  7:5

4. 1860 München  6  0  1  5  4:14  1:11

Different story here – the former Bundesliga members failed.

TSV Munchen 1860 was particularly bad and had to return to Bayernliga for at least one more season. How to measure the relative strength of the teams playing in the regional league? Netolicka not long ago played for the national team of Czechoslovakia…

FSV Salmrohr had no well-known players, but achieved great success and was going to debut in the Second Division.

SSV Ulm 1846 won the qualification group and was promoted – great success for them. Top row from left: Thomas Schmidt, Hannes Schuler, Harald Hage, Wolfgang Neipp, Peter Steck, Dieter Simon. Middle row: Kneer – masseur, Gunnar Weiss, Peter Assion, Robert Birner, Peter Kempa, Marcus Kohnle, Werner Nickel – coach. Front row: Hildebrandt, Wolfgang Riecker, Raimund Muller, Frank Ahrens, Christoph Weber, Thomas Richter, Kurt Kalchschmidt, Gunter Berti, Joachim Zeller, Walter Kubanczyk – assistant coach.

SSV Ulm returning to familiar grounds.

Good luck to the winners in the next season.

The Cup final opposed Barcelona to Real Zaragoza. Naturally, Barcelona was seen as the obvious favourite and even playing the final in Madrid was not going to be big problem – at least in imagination. In reality, the tough final produced one goal only – Sosa scored it in the 35th minute and he was not playing for Barcelona. At the end, Real Zaragoza lifted the Cup.

For another club finishing 2nd in championship and playing 2 cup finals – one domestic and one European – would be a great season. For Barcelona was a disaster… ending a season empty-handed, beaten in every tournament and it was hard to tell which loss was the worst. Perhaps the realization that once again Real Madrid superior squad – Barcelona’s somewhat did not measure when compared to the new Real. It was thinner, somewhat older, and there were problems – Venables was somewhat not right and his English inclinations did not work. Schuster was becoming more of a problem than a valuable contributor, Archibald clearly was not going to be a superstar. Relatively small things, but things making sturdy enough squad like Zaragoza not just able to hold its ground, but even prevail.

May be Real Zaragoza would have been satisfied even if they lost the final – they were still the underdog, although having great season. It was a triumph of the working man in a sense, because Real had no famous stars and perhaps was even wise enough to build relatively anonymous squad instead to hire some big names and thus attract the unhealthy interest of Real Madrid and Barcelona. Winning the Cup was fantastic – and even better: the team remained relatively uninteresting and no players were going to the big clubs. Positive final of the season in every aspect, the future was secured. And winning a trophy was priceless: this was the first trophy they won since 1966 in the first final they played since 1976. Altogether, their 3rd Cup.

Primera Division. The real thing. Real Zaragoza had uncharacteristic strong season, but Real Madrid’s comeback was something else – they made new incredibly strong squad and dominated the championship by far. At the bottom – one weak outsider. Thus, the drama was somewhat secondary – fights for escaping relegation and winning 2nd place.

Celta was very weak and settled at the bottom early. Last and out with 14 points.

Hercules fought as they could, but was relegated at the end – 17th with 22 points. Mario Kempes was with them this season, but he was already a pale shadow of the great player he was less than 10 years ago.

Ironically, the club which went to the top with Kempes at his prime, went down with him – Valencia was 16th with 25 points. Who would believe it a few years back – Valencia going to Second Division. But somewhat Valencia was unable to maintain strong team when they were successful. Wrong decisions led to gradual weakening and eventual free fall into relegation.

Cadiz, normally a prime candidate for relegation, managed to survive – 15th with 26 points.

Osasuna was also relieved at the end – 14th with 27 points.

Las Palmas also escaped relegation – 13th with 27 points, ahead of Osasuna on better head-to-head record.

Racing Santander – 12th with 31 points.

Espanol – 11th with 31 points.

Real Valladolid – 10th with 32 points.

Sevilla – still a mid-table club. 9th with 34 points. Standing from left: Alvarez, Manolo Zambrano, Serna, Jimenez, Sanabria, Francisco. Crouching: Buyo, Nimo, Estella, Jose Luis Ruda, Carlos Amaro Nadal.

Real Betis – 8th with 35 points. Not a bad season – they reached the Copa de la Liga final and this is the team which faced Barcelona at it. Standing from left: Cervantes, Diego, Calderon, Quico, Alex, Ortega. Front: Parra, Hadzibegic, Gabino, Medina, Romo.

Real Sociedad – their great years ended and slowly going down the scale. 7th with 37 points.

Sporting Gijon – still running strong: 6th with 41 points.

Atletico Madrid – clinched UEFA Cup spot: 5th with 42 points. Overall, good season for a relatively weakened squad – reached the Cup Winners Cup final, but lost it. Not playing larger role in the Spanish championship was another blow – from fan’s perspective. On the other hand… they lost Hugo Sanchez and still managed to stay in the upper part of the league.

Real Zaragoza – 4th with 42 points. Strong and successful season, a revival of a kind after years of relative obscurity.

Athletic Bilbao – strong, but good only for 3rd place with 43 points.

Barcelona – distant 2nd behind the champions with 45 points. Once again, it was slightly weaker team compared to the squad of the arch-enemy.

It is pointless to count Real’s title – more important was their comeback to dominance with new formidable squad, the ‘vulture squadron’. Incredible talent, which garnished domestic success with winning again the UEFA Cup. Real hopes were growing – for coming back to international dominance. The championship strongly nourished such hopes: Barcelona was left 11 points behind and there was not even a point of mentioning other rivals. 26 wins, 4 ties, just 4 lost games, 83-33 scoring record. Outscoring by far all others and also having third-best defensive record, but that mattered little – the main point was that the team was playing attacking football and scored plenty of goals: that was the true Real’s way to the purists.

Segunda Division. The usual 20-team league, but seemingly going to be reduced to 18 – 4 teams relegated and only 2 promoted from third level. The top 3 were promoted to First Division, the second teams of the big clubs were not permitted to go up, of course, but were free to go down. As it happened, there was no B-team among the best, but Atletico Madrilleno (Atletico Madrid B) finished last and was relegated.

The other relegated were CD Tenerife – 19th, Deportivo Aragon – 18th, and

Albacete Balompie – 17th.

CD Logrones survived – 16th with 33 points. 2 points ahead of Albacete and curiously for so lowly team, with positive goal-difference.

Up the table, it was dog-fight as usual – practically 8 teams fought to the end for 2 promotional spots, yet, without really challenging the leading club of the season. As for B teams, they were not concerned with promotion – their role was only to develop possible young players for the prime squad, but their names were a bit confusing, for by this time they appeared with slightly changed names of the the mother club, but not in every source. Barcelona Athletic (Barcelona B) was 13th, Castilla CF (Real Madrid B) – 12th, Bilbao Athletic (Athletic Bilbao B) – 7th. The rest of the league played as they could at the moment.

CD Malaga finished 11th with 37 points. Nothing to brag about.

Sestao, perhaps the least known club in the league, finished 10th with 39 points and had something to brag about: for such small club, they had wonderful season in Second Division, ending in the middle of it and right behind the teams fighting for promotion.

Ahead of Sestao was compact group of teams entertaining hopes for promotion to various degrees, but to the end. Well, all except Bilbao Athletic, which even if winning the league could not be promoted. 4 points divided 2nd from 9th at the end of the season.

Recreativo Huelva was 9th with 42 points.

Real Oviedo – 8th with 44 points.

Above them – Bilbao Athletic also with 44 points.

Deportivo La Coruna – 6th with 45 points.

CD Castellon – 5th with 45 points. Recognizable names started to appear in the upper part of the league – Botubot and the Hungarian Dunai were in this squad, for instance.

Elche CF – 4th with 45 points, ahead of Castellon thanks to better head-to-head record, but still missing the targeted promotion.

RCD Mallorca clinched 3rd place with 46 points and was very happy at the end of the season – they were going up to the top league.

CE Sabadell FC also finished with 46 points and took second place, but what really mattered was not that much coming ahead of Mallorca, but getting promoted. It was prevailing in the dog-fight what mattered and they did it.

One team was so strong this season, it was hardly concerned with the dog-fight bellow – Real Murcia was really dominant, finishing 6 points ahead of the other candidates for promotion. Comfortable champions of Second Division with 52 points from 22 wins, 8 ties, and 8 losses. Their dominance perhaps shows best in their scoring record: 66-30. Best strikers, best defenders, astonishing for doggy Spanish second level +36 goal-difference.

Real Murcia really deserves a second picture – here they are the 1985-86 champions of Segunda Division A.