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| Promotion for Viking after penalty drama |
Div 4g runners-up Viking North Utsire have rather fallen backwards into promotion to Division 3 this afternoon by scraping through their playoff with Buraca FC of Div 4b on penalties at pitch 360 of the Xpert Arena after coming from behind twice in a 2-2 draw, despite manager Velvet Android fielding a youthful developmental side including junior goalkeeper Terrence Lisbie, and with 2/3 of his defence composed of midfielders as eldest defenders Ewan Sturrock and Albert Braun are both presently nursing injuries. Twice Buraca took the lead, once just prior to half-time and once with twenty minutes of the ninety to play, but each time Viking were able to hit back within minutes through Ilie Colibã and then substitute Kent-Arne Fridholm to restore parity. Admittedly 21-year-old keeper Lisbie had let in the only two shots Buraca took prior to the 108th minute, the only thing not finding the net being a near own goal, but he somehow stopped midfielder Ramiro Balba's penalty on their fourth (as, as it turned out, last) kick before the club's first ever native Utsiran academy product Toralf Austrheim, now 22 years old, surprised everyone by stepping up for his side's fifth kick ahead of Clive Whittingham and burying it to send the North Sea Raiders up to Division 3 for the first time in their history.
An ever so slightly ambivalent Android spoke to the waiting press corps after he had recovered from being given the bumps by his jubilant players:
"It's so odd watching a game like that, simultaneously thinking 'please don't let us win, it's too soon for Division 3' yet also 'please let us win, I hate losing games'," he observed, "especially since I've never lost a playoff as a manager. Despite my best efforts to remain phlegmatic, since it was really a win/win situation as staying in Division 4 another season would probably be better for us, it's very hard to actually hope for a defeat in the heat of the moment! The best thing in a way was that plenty of our younger players were able to get experience in this kind of pressure-cooker situation, and in some cases having played the full 120 minutes plus the shoot-out. Given we've currently got the youngest and second-weakest squad in our Division 3 table, though, I can't see there being a happy ending one tier up next time round, but for now at least we can celebrate a third promotion in five seasons since I took over."
The win in fact means the Raiders maintain their record of having achieved a promotion every other season in that time, having finished 1st in their Division 6 league, 3rd then 1st in Div 5:26, and now 3rd in Div 4l followed by 2nd in 4g couple with today's playoff success. Their position in this season's table was assured prior to Monday's clash with leaders Ciricarii, where the Utsiran players were able to give a guard of honour to the newly-crowned champions on the way out and share a mutual round of applause with the Scots after the trophy had been awarded at the end of the game, since Viking were themselves guaranteed second spot. The match itself was still a moderately-keenly contested affair although both sides gave plenty of game time to some younger members of their squads; though Ciricarii led for some three-quarters of an hour following Lennox Rutherglen's early strike, Lars Rushfeldt equalised for Viking just before the hour mark and stalwart midfielder Willi Teichman secured the division's top points-scorer award for the season when he headed home Austrheim's cross six minutes later. The result also meant that in the three months since the Raiders lost the reverse fixture on opening day, their only two defeats have been the faintly inexplicable 4-1 thrashing at subsequently relegated Andrinos, and a 2-0 Cup exit to Ultimate League giants Lusitanian Warriors, which is no shame at all.
Viking begin their preseason preparations with scarcely a pause this Friday, entertaining former league champions and more recent division-mates Cesaro Hyperforce to a friendly at Dogger Bank. The club shop is in the process of being feverishly restocked ahead of the game, as the forthcoming season's new kits will be debuted, featuring a freshly-redesigned club badge that will for the first time incorporate the flag of Utsira to better honour the team's commitment to their tiny, windswept, but increasingly footballing-mad North Sea island home.
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