Haugesund started the season on something of a low note after a very poor finish of the previous campaign. But it soon became clear that the team lead by Erik Horneland have done some good work during the off-season and were more defensively drilled and prepared to go the distance than most of the other side.
Quality additions to the squad like Ben Karamoko and David Akintola brought quality and depth to the team and the manager was lucky to have almost no major injury issues throughout the season, which allowed Haugesund to build up rhythm.
They quickly moved towards the top of the table after winning four of the opening seven games and indeed lost just twice in the opening ten games. That handed the whole team a lot of confidence and conviction in themselves and they never really dropped that momentum until the end. The ethos of the team was to work hard, defend well and ground out wins to keep pace at the top end of the table. They were happy to win by the odd goal and nine out of their 15 wins came by a sing-goal margin, with clean sheets always a priority.
The most impressive thing was that Haugesund never really slowed down and entered a slump during the season and even if some regulars got injured, Hornerland kept the team strong and competitive. Indeed, they had no worries at all in getting the fourth spot in the league, courtesy of a storming finish of five wins in seven games, and will be good value for a potential European slot, depending on the outcome of the Cup final.
