Season in review: 1982-83

There was a change of managers ahead of season 1982-83. Ferenc Molnar was appointed to replace Antal Szentmihalyi. The season did not start too well. Lajos Majer's contract ended on the 31st July and he left Vidi and started to train with Tatabanya despite the contract rules of the Hungarian FA. In the end he returned to the football club. There were no other players leaving during that summer. Players moving to Vidi were Havasi, Vaszil, keeper Janos Koszta among others. Gazdag, Ferenc Horvath and Szoke all moved up from the youth team.

The poorest autumn for a long time

There were several aspects about how the season started so poorly. It appeared that the new manager could not get his message across to the players, and striker Jozsef Szabo only scored 4 goals during a poor autumn. There were some good results like the 3-1 win over Pecs and the 4-0 victory against Nyiregyhaza. MTK were also beaten 6-2 but it ended up being a poor autumn for the team, which also included a 3-1 loss against Ferencvaros. The team went into the winter break with just 13 points from their 6 wins, 1 draw and 8 losses. That gave them an 8th place to head into the spring with.

The bad run continues into the spring

The spring was even less successful for the team and they only just avoided relegation by a whisker. The only positive to come out was the improved performances of forward Jozsef Szabo. He ended up scoring 10 goals in the spring to add to the 4 over the first half of the season. The side mainly stumbled in the first half of spring. Although there was a 4-0 win in the first game of spring at the home of Bekescsaba, there were no wins in the next five league games. The first sign of hope came in the game with Debrecen, which saw Vidi cruise to a 4-0 win with goals coming from Novath, Vadasz, Szabo and Nagy.

The win over Tatabanya was a life saver, which forward Jozsef Szabo described as one of the most important goals of his career: "It was in the 88th minute with the score at 1-1 that I managed to curl a free kick to the near post. We ended up winning 2-1 with that goal. That win and the better goal difference meant that we stayed in the NBI that season."

The league had been a very tight one and that win in the one but last game saw the team avoid the dreaded drop to the second division. There would be 11 wins, 3 draws and 16 defeats in that poor season to end up in a final 13th place. 

Videoton also did badly in the MNK cup. Although Steinmetz were beaten 7-1 and Tamasi 1-0, Volan proved too tough a hurdle and the team failed to make it to the last 16.

(fotó: ismeretlen szerző)