Benevento's last twelve months were a fairy tale...one year ago for the first time in their history they reached Serie B (to say it all in year 1945/46 they were promoted to Serie B but waived participation for economic problems), the following June were promoted in the top flight! A result that went beyond all expectations, they ended the regular season in 5th position (with the same number of points as Perugia but with worse results in the head-to-head games) despite 1 point deduction inflicted at the beginning of the campaign due to some administrative irregularities. In the playoffs the giallorossi eliminated Spezia in the preliminary round, Perugia in the semifinals and knocked out Carpi in the final. The main architect of this great achievement was coach Marco Baroni, (definitively one of the best coaches of Serie B in recent years), who in summer took the place of Gaetano Auteri that surprisingly resigned just after having conquered promotion. The Tuscan coach fielded the team always with the 4-2-3-1, definitively the best system of play considering the characteristics of the men at his disposal. During the summer transfer market the club acted wisely, without radically changing the group of players that led them to Serie B, made purchases aimed at filling in gaps and adding experience and quality to the squad. First of all the Campanians took on loan from Cagliari an excellent goalkeeper like Italian Under 21 international Alessio Cragno, then a very experienced striker like former Ternana Fabio Ceravolo. Moreover, they took on loan from different Serie A teams some interesting youngsters. After a short period of adaptation to the new category and to the tactics of the new coach, the Campanians soon entered the playoffs area and never left it. They had a very constant trend till spring-time when, just after a series of consecutive victories that led them extremely close to the top of the table, they fell into a crisis of results, lost four games in a row and dangerously slipped on the edge of the playoff zone. At this point many thought that they had given everything and had no more energy...totally wrong, they recovered and in the penultimate round also defeated Frosinone with one goal in the injury time, a crucial goal as with a draw the canaries would have had a 10-point advantage on the fourth and therefore the playoffs would have not be played. As for the performance of individual players, many of them have been outstanding, beginning with Cragno who proved to be a top flight goalkeeper, passing by forward Ceravolo who scored 20 goals, and captain Fabio Lucioni who alongside Michele Camporese composed a duo of centre-backs almost unbeatable. Perhaps the greatest surprise was fantasista Amato Ciciretti who, at his first experience at this level, showed so much quality that Giampiero Ventura, coach of the Italian team, called him for some stages.
