First Promotion Challenge (08/11/2013 14:03)

Until Season 107 Hindustan Warriors had never thought about promotion to Div 1, partly because they never thought they could acheive it with their low Q and partly because of the fear of coming back straight down relegated. However that all changed after a great performance in Season 106 finishing 4th after a great race for a play-off place. I decided we can do it this time even with our sort of Q with the right tactics. Yes, we could come down again to Div 2 next season as we stood no chance against the big guns of Div 1, but that was in no way demotivating us from putting up a serious promotion challenge.

The team had an average Q of 81 at the start of the season. Looking at the Qs of the top teams in the department, any hopes of winning it seemed far and wide. But we were contend to even fight for a play-off spot and taking up the challenge was more important for us than fulfilling it. The prospect of playing in the top division of Indian league kept us motivated.

There were 7 teams in the department with higher Q than us, but seeing half of those managers were not very active gave us great hope. The plan was to heavily beat the lower Q teams and use that gain in morale to our advantage against bigger teams. The squad depth needed to be addressed however, and we brought in three youth players to do that and also as an investment for the future.

The start wasn't that great with a draw with Chalakkudi Gadies and loss against KKR FC, but all went well and as planned after that. And after round 14, we were placed 3rd in the table, a feat that some believed unacheivable initially. And then came the toughest matches of the season. League match against the mighty Colossus Warriors and a Dept Cup against the same team that followed in the next round. We managed to draw the league match in a very tight game. We almost got through to the semi-finals of the Dept Cup as well with a solid perfomance against the biggest team in the department. But lady luck was not in our favour and we crashed out in penalties after a 3-3 draw at the end of extra time.

Those two matches gave us great boost to our morale. But unfortunate injuries to to two of our main players saw us dropping points in rounds 16 and 17 of the league. We also crashed our of the League Cup in a match we should have won otherways, but anyways we are close to acheiving our goal this season and are determined to fight till the last match.

As I am writing this, I am eagerly awaiting the 19th league game of Season 107. Placed 5th in the league table 5 points behind the league leaders, we know it is going to be a really tight race for the play-off spot. But we hope the determination and committment of our players would surely help us go up this season. It should be easy opposition in the next 5 games in the league, our performance in those matches will surely seal our fate.