Ried have established themselves as the smallest Bundesliga club that is impossible to relegate, but have now lost this tag, as they finished the Bundesliga at the bottom of the table and are now set to play second-tier football for the first time since the 2004/05 season.
They started the season with a new manager in Christian Benbennek and, despite losing four of his first five games in charge, it soon seemed looking like Benbennek was growing into the role - Ried were starting to win games and it seemed that it would be more of the usual for the Vikings, who have gotten us used to escaping the drop with a bit of drama over the recent years.
However, things started to get really bad for them in October, as they won only two and lost eight of their final eight autumn season games. This run was not enough to move them to the bottom of the table, so Benbennek remained in charge, but their form did not change one bit after the winter break and the board were forced to react, replacing Benbennek with Lassaad Chabbi, who finally got his big opportunity to coach in the top flight.
The Tunisian manager has caused the Vikings to play some of the best football they have played in years and his men ended the reason reasonably well, as they lost only three of their closing eleven games. With Ried already well behind in the race to escape the drop when Chabbi took over, this run was enough only for his side to take their battle against the drop into the final round. They would have stayed up had they beaten a Mattersburg side that had nothing to play for, but they lost with a 3:2 scoreline and were subsequently relegated.
The relegation obviously represents a devastating blow, but the Vikings can at least draw some optimism from the fact that they now have a manager who knows how to get his sides to play modern attacking football, which is something their fans have not had a chance to see their side play in years.
