The action switches to the OTP league on Saturday with the visit of bottom placed Haladas.
Szombathely Haladas have picked up 10 points in their 21 games so far this season. That means that they are 10 points adrift of the team above them and 14 from 10th place, which would mean avoiding relegation. Since the new system came into operation for the 2015-16 season, 32, 37, 37 and most recently 36 points were needed for a team to stay in the division. Putting it simply: Haladas would virtually need to win all of their remaining 12 games to stay up. One form of help could be the signing of Galin Ivanov, who has one Bulgarian cap to his name. He signed towards the end of the transfer window and made his debut in the 2-1 defeat to Mezokovesd. Another arrival was Rui Pedro from Ferencvaros, Gergo Holdampf from Honved and Kornel Salata from Slovan Bratislava. David Mohl (Ujpest) and Oleg Holodiuk (Karpaty Lviv) are two more who have yet to pull on the shirt of Haladas in the league. Patrik Nyari moved up from the youth team to the first tem squad. He has already made his debut in the NB I. Among those leaving the club were Barnabas Racz and Lorant Kovacs, who both moved to Ujpest. Czech defender Vit Benes and Miroslav Grumic were others to depart. Current top goalscorer with 4 to his name is Tamas Priskin, but he looks likely to sit out for a few weeks with an injury. Balint Gaal has scored 3 times this season. The Canadian table places young Nigerian Bamgboye and Karol Meszaros behind Priskin with 4 points each. Right back Habovdae (1665) and Mark Jagodics (1526) have played the most minutes so far while Karol Meszaros is on 1442. Bosnjak is battling with an injury and has yet to play a game in the spring. Peter Halmosi is currently not a member of the first team squad, which all helps to make manager Ferenc Horvath’s job even more difficult.
Author: David Rechnitzer