Rotor kicked the season off with lots of enthusiasm and desire to do well after earning promotion, adding some experienced players in the squad and having a good coach with pedigree like Aleksandr Khatskevich.
Yet, things got off to a rough start for Rotor and they soon got a real dose of reality, losing a few close games and carrying very little attacking threat. They remained winless throughout the first couple of months of the season and looked adrift at the bottom from the start.
There was lots of endeavour in the squad but little in the way of real cutting edge and it seemed like Rotor are losing faith even before the halfway point of the season. But their fortunes suddenly turned when they secured a shocking 2:1 win at Lokomotiv Moscow and that was the harbinger for a stronger run of form towards the end of the year. Indeed, two big wins over direct rivals Ufa and Arsenal Tula right before the winter break gave them a real shot at survival.
However, the team failed to bring the same momentum and energy after the long winter break and performances were back to the level from earlier in the campaign, with little in the way of attacking quality and the team being too soft defensively.
It did cost Khatskevich his job at the end of March and former Yuri Semin assistant Yuir Baturenko took charge. He had a nightmare start, with heavy losses to most of the top sides leaving the team in the bottom two. Yet a big win over Akhmat with a game left gave Rotor a glimmer of a chance and they were indeed close to a miracle when leading away at Rubin Kazan on the last round. But a goal in added time meant that a 1:1 draw resulted in a immediate return to the second flight.
While they will angry and frustrated with the way the last round went, they cannot argue too much about whether they deserved to drop down, given the overall quality and the far too many poor showings.
