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The team picked up plenty of international experience from the friendly games. The side finished a whisker away from a third place finish.
The playing squad did not experience too many changes ahead of the 1973-74 season. Defender Lajos Garamvolgyi moved to the club and forward Attila Bogati. Youth team Laszlo Kuti made the step up to the first team squad during the autumn. Meanwhile Karoly Szabo had to call it a day due to injury.
The first barrier is difficult to get over
There were three friendly games with foreign teams during pre-season. Rapid Bucharest were beaten 4-1 in Fehervar, while Wiener Neustadt won 2-1. There was also an away friendly game in Bucharest that produced a 1-0 win.
The league campaign started with mixed results and two defeats. MTK 0-3 and SZEOL 1-3 were followed by 2 draws matches with Salgotarjan 0-0 and Tatabanya 2-2. Things improved with 3 wins as the team moved up the league table. A Karsai goal was enough to beat ZTE at home. Two goals from Wollek earned a 2-1 win away in Szombathely and Karasi and Burka hit a goal each in the 2-0 win over Dorog. There was also a 1-1 draw with Pecs in between.
Things improved even more in the second half of autumn. The next seven matches saw the side lose two. There was a draw and several wins including a Wollek hatrick in the 3-2 win over Ujpest Dozsa. The final game of autumn was against Raba ETO. Tieber (2) and Nagy scored the goals in the 3-0 win. Autumn ended with the team picking up 18 points to sit in 5th place in the league table. They were just 2 points behind first in the table Ujpest Dozsa. The 15 games produced 7 wins, 4 draws and 4 defeats.
No luck in the Mitropa cup
Videoton were drawn in Group B together with ZVL Zilina and FC Sarajevo. There were two games during autumn with a 3-1 defeat away in Sarajevo. Zilina were beaten 3-1 in Fehervar with the goals coming from Kovacs, Nagy and Bogati. The return matches over the spring resulted in a 3-1 win over Sarajevo and a 5-1 defeat away in Zilina. That meant a second place finish for Videoton FC.
Great performances and a whisker away from the top three
There were three games with foreign opponents during the winter pre-season. There were wins over Wien 3-0 and Hutteldorf 6-0 while the match with FC Rot Weissel finished 0-0.
The spring season kicked off in a good tempo with good matches. There was a2-0 defeat to Győri ETO. However things improved dramatically with the side remaining unbeaten in the next 6 games. There was a 3-1 win over Honved, Haladas 1-0, Pecs and Dorog also ended in 1-0 successes. The big game with Ferencvaros finished in a 0-0 draw. There were three defeats sandwiched in between as the side ended the season in 4th place. There were just 1 point from the team finishing in 3rd and 2 points from 2nd place but it was a good season for the club.
(Fotó: ismeretlen szerzők)
Author: David Rechnitzer
