Quevilly might have been relegated from Ligue 2, but they gave a strong account of themselves in their first season back in France’s second tier for more than 50 years.
Manu Da Costa’s side were promoted as underdogs but assembled a squad that mixed Ligue 2 experience and the team that had won promotion from the Championnat National.
They elected to adopt a rather defensive mindset at the outset of the season. It started reasonably enough, with creditable draws against Lorient and Sochaux, but soon a stream of narrow defeats followed and by November they were cut adrift towards the foot of the standings with Tours.
Only the goals of Mathieu Duhamel had kept them competitive, yet he announced before the year was even out that he was departing in January. However, home wins over Orleans and Tours in November gave QRM an outside chance of survival.
In 2018, they adopted a more attacking attitude that resulted in more success for the team. Seven points in their opening four matches of January breathed fresh life into their campaign, while a must-win encounter in Nancy was claimed 2-1 in February.
January signings Jeff Louis and Lamine Ndao brought fresh life to the offence, which was now being propped up by Marvin Gakpa, although the form of the former would tail away and the latter would sustain an injury problem that was perhaps decisive in casting Quevilly back to the second period.
Three straight losses at the beginning of April were followed by a hammer blow against Tours, against whom they were held 2-2. Quevilly should have won the game, conceding three minutes into stoppage time, and were similarly frustrated against Valenciennes a week later.
By the time they thumped Lorient 3-0 on the final day of the season with perhaps their best performance, it was too late.
Da Costa’s men now need to rebuild. It is not beyond their capabilities but the National 1 is a notoriously tough league. If they can come back, they will do so richer for this experience.
