Stromsgodset can toast a great escape well executed as they ended up safely in 11th place in the end. They looked dead and buried in the first half of the season under Bjorn Petter Ingebretsen, but once Henrik Pedersen took the mantle and sorted out the squad he managed to get them to safety in the end. The board need a bit of credit for not making any kneejerk changes, because it definitely took Pedersen a long time to get into the groove. The players he brought in took time to adjust, and it was looking bleaker and bleaker by the week at one point.
But the belief soon started to grow in the squad, and it was in the penultimate game against Brann where they finally let rip and hit six past their visitors to secure safety. They followed that up with a fine 2-1 away win at Kristiansund to really secure their safety although it was just two points separating them from the relegated sides in the end.
Stromsgodset will want to learn their lessons from this campaign and make sure that next year is not such a photo finish. The days where they will be challenging at the top of the table look long gone for now, and it's a case of starting from scratch at Marienlyst. But Pedersen has done a good job stabilising them and, if he can nail down his plans for the upcoming season as soon as possible, then Stromsgodset will have every chance of a more comfortable mid-table existence in 2020.
