St.Polten are coming from their first-ever Bundesliga season and, given that they will also be playing top flight football next time around, have to be happy with the season they have had.
The newcomers badly struggled to adapt to the demands of top flight football initially, as they managed to win only one of their opening thirteen league games, with the win coming in a derby game against Admira in a game in which their regional rivals were reduced to ten men. With the side struggling and rooted to the bottom of the table, the board made the difficult decision to part ways with Karl Daxbachler, who led them into the top flight and had plenty of top flight experience under his belt.
Those thinking that a managerial change would not solve the Wolf Pack's problems could have been forgiven for doing so, given that St.Polten simply looked out of their depth, but caretaker manager Jochen Fallman did a brilliant work and it soon became apparent that St.Polten are actually not as bad a side as it seemed early in the season.
Fallman's good work resulted in St.Polten ending the first half of the season four points clear of bottom side Mattersburg and resulted in him getting their managerial role on a permanent basis. He conducted a mini squad clear-out during the summer, with several players leaving and many others joining, with Babar Diallo in particular having a huge impact, as he helped shore things up at the back, with St.Polten, who failed to keep a single clean sheet in the autumn season, keeping two in the spring season and rarely conceding more than one goal.
With Mattersburg and Ried also improving, the Wolf Pack had to fear for their survival until the very last round of the season and would have actually gone down had Ried beaten Mattersburg, given that they lost their game against Rapid. However, the Burgerlanders did them a huge favour by beating Ried, allowing them another season of Bundesliga football.
Of course, St.Polten are a small club and every additional Bundesliga season for them is an achievement, so it is hard to see them for aiming for anything more than survival next time around.
