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| Bad week for Viking as cup run ends |
Viking North Utsire suffered a damaging away loss at Sporting Lisburn on Monday to get the second half of their Division 1a campaign off to a bad start. Having held on for a perhaps unjustified point in the preceding week's reverse fixture, a 1-1 draw in which they were outshot 4-1, Viking briefly looked like pulling off even more of a heist when they again levelled with what proved their only shot of the game at the Drumbo Playing Fields, Knut Hovland crashing in a 72nd-minute freekick just five minutes after the hosts had finally broken the deadlock. However parity lasted just two minutes, before Dede Tadei headed a winner -- no less than Lisburn deserved from a game in which they had 10 shots to 1.
Worse was to follow for VNU on Friday. They had waited eight years till last season to serve up a very cold dish of revenge to Husqvarna for their relegation from Division 5:5 at the end of Season 31, mere weeks after manager VelvetAndroid first took charge. Despite thumping playoff-bound KAIF on the final day a resurgent Viking were relegated by a point in 6th place after already-safe Husqvarna failed to beat 5th-placed BSC Young Boys despite the latter failing to muster a single shot in a 0-0 draw.
Last season the two clubs finally crossed paths again in Division 1a for the first time since a 28-season gap. Despite Viking losing 4-1 at Husqvarna in the antepenultimate round of fixtures, they beat SC Bananas 3-0 a week later then drew 0-0 at Beverley Town on the final day while Husqvarna somehow lost 4-1 at Bananas to slip through the trapdoor instead of Viking on goals-scored.
The Swedes would however take their own revenge after a far, far shorter wait, when the pair collided in the 5th round of the Ultimate League Cup this Friday. It was a closely-fought contest where Karl-Ingvar Revahl fired Husqvarna ahead in the 56th minute and Baldur Hovland equalised just two minutes later, the only two goals of the full 120 minutes. Alas veteran Viking midfield star Johan Kvalvik missed the Norsemen's second penalty kick in the resultant shootout, while Husqvarna were able to put away all five of their attempts to win through 5-3.
All attention now focuses on the remaining half-dozen league fixtures. VNU remain 6th in Div 1a for now, level with Bananas above and RC Celta da Vigo below on points. Next up is a home game with R48 Fotboll, four points better off in 3rd.
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