The fourth place finish in the Autumn is followed by an overall 7th place in the league.
There were the usual changes over the summer months. The club had a new name from the 20th June and were known as Videoton Waltham FC. President became Dr Otto Bravacz, with the stadium being handed over the club. There were no changes on the manager's bench with Gyozo Burcsa taking charge for the season ahead.
Hopeful youngsters and sensitive defeats
Four talented youngsters were promoted from the youth set up. Gabor Kutasi, Zsolt Csoka, Janos Salacz and Erno Varga made the step up. Ferenc Horvath arrived from Kispest and 21 year old midfielder Paul Levente joined from Olimpia Satu Mare. Another new arrival was Teplice forward Jaroslav Hausner.
Departures over the summer included Bela Szekely, defender Csaba Muller and forward Laszlo Babai. Defender Gabor Horvath moved to Austrian fourth division side Enzesfel Hirtenberg. Midfielder Gabor Halmai switched to Ujpest while Zsolt Muzsnay made the move to Belgium club Royal Antwerp. Finally Zsolt Mariasi headed over to Siofok.
The club targeted a top 8 finish
The campaign began with defeat at home to Pecs. Another loss took place in the second game of the season at Győr as the team went down 3-0. Eight goals were shared in the 4-4 draw with Veszprem while 10,000 were present for the home game with Ferencvaros, which also ended with both teams taking a point each.
The supporters had to wait two and a half months for the first win! That came against Diosgyőr and a 3-0 win with the goals coming from Salloi, Horvath and Takacs. The team remained unbeaten in the final six games and also came away with a point from top of the table Vac. The autumn season ended with a 2-1 win over Honved with goals from Nemeth and Takacs. It was a good half season with 6 wins, 7 draws and 4 defeats to sit in 4th place in the league table.
Training camp within Hungary after a month's rest
The squad started pre-season training in the first few days of January. The redevelopment of the Sostoi stadium also began. That included work to the dressing room and also the scoreboard. The political situation in Yugoslavia put paid to the plans to spend pre-season training there. A 10 day trip to Hajduszoboszlo followed instead.
Team fail to hold on to 4th place
There was not too much change to the playing squad. Paul Levente returned to his earlier club in Romania and Zoltan Csucsanszky was loaned out to Vac FC until the summer. The spring season kicked off with 2 draws against Pecs 0-0 and Raba ETO 1-1. The biggest surprise of the season came in week for of the spring with a visit to Ujpest. Kuttor scored twice and further goals from Dubecz and Salloi gave Vidi a good 4-1 win in Budapest.
Sadly the good run would not continue as Jozsef Verebes' MTK came out 3-1 winners. There would be just 3 more wins from the remaining 11 league games. The highlight was the 5-0 win over Veszprem thanks to goals from Salloi (3) and Takacs (2). The final game of the season was a trip to Kispest. Vidi played the better football but several mistakes in the second half cost dearly. Honved won 4-1 to collect the points.
The team ended in 7th place with 32 points and 10 wins, 12 draws and 8 defeats.
Hungarian cup - a place in the final 8
Vidi had the chance to make it into the last 8 of the cup. They had to negotiate their way past Nagykanizsa. However, the division 2 side caused a surprise and a cup shock by winning 3-2. Horvath and Salloi scored Vidi's goals that day.
(fotó: vidi.hu/archív)
Author: David Rechnitzer