Benevento played their first ever season in the top flight of Italian football and, although it ended with an almost inevitable relegation, it was not without its memorable moments.
Marco Baroni brought the club up from Serie B via the play-offs after a 5th place finish so they were already odds-on favourites to go back down. With a modest transfer budget, the manager was forced to bring in mostly players on loan but the limitations of the squad were immediately evident. After a ninth consecutive defeat and just two goals scored, Baroni was dismissed.
Roberto De Zerbi was drafted in despite a rather disastrous spell at Palermo recently and, perhaps unsurprisingly, he failed to turn Benevento's fortunes around. They set a new and unwanted Serie A record of 14 straight losses from the start of the season.
Benevento finally got their first ever top flight point at the 15th time of trying and it was in truly outrageous fashion. 2-1 down at home to the mighty AC Milan and in the fifth minute of stoppage-time, Alberto Brignoli went forward for a free-kick. The goalkeeper closed his eyes and threw himself at Danilo Cataldi's delivery to plant a stunning header into the back of the net. Remarkable. A first Serie A win was finally achieved at the very end of 2017 but Benevento never looked like getting out of trouble and they remained bottom for the entire season.
Despite their completely hopeless situation, the players never let their heads drop and actually began to play with more freedom towards the end. They went toe-to-toe with some of the big clubs including a brave 4-2 home defeat to Juventus. Cheikh Diabate netted twice against the champions and finished the season as the club's top scorer despite only arriving in January. Supporters were left wondering where they might be had the Malian forward been around longer.
All in all, this was always going to be the likely outcome for Benevento but this experience of top flight football should stand them in good stead if they are ever able to return.
