For the second year in a row Sirius defied the negative expectations and managed to preserve their top-flight status, but in 2018 this happened much harder, with Blue and Blacks spending 10 weeks of the season in last place and looking in major trouble up until July.
The main issue with the early displays was the defending, Sirius conceded 3 goals or more in 7 of the first 12 rounds, which saw them earning just 5 points between April and July and spending the summer break in last place. The fact that the main goalkeeper Wicks got suspended for a year for failing a doping test after just 2 games also didn’t help and 3 different goalies were changing between the posts for the rest of the campaign.
Probably the turning point of the season were the four weeks between mid-July and mid-August when a run of four consecutive wins, all of them against direct rivals for survival, not only lifted Sirius off last place, but saw them exiting the relegation zone altogether.
However, a mixture of injuries and suspensions to at least 3-4 players for pretty much every game between August and October saw Sirius suffering through a seven-game winless run between rounds 17 and 24, which saw Blue and Blacks again collapsing to last place ahead of their home game vs. Elfsborg. Pumped up for this round 25 clash Sirius won 4:2 to set up a three-game winning streak and their 4:2 success vs. Brommapojkarna in round 27 was enough to confirm the team’s safety with 3 games to spare.
Coach Bergstrand deserves praise for the survival as his decision to start using his main playmaker Haglund as a centre forward past the summer break worked really well, with the experienced and versatile player by far the most important member of the squad in 2018. The gaffer also made 3 successful new signings in the summer and all of Ahman-Persson, Saeid and Lindberg established as crucial first-team members, with Sirius definitely knowing how to score goals all season, even if they had problems defensively almost constantly.
