Football Season Guide

Gnistan’s first-ever top flight campaign finished well after a slow start. Struggled in the opening 3 months and looked in serious trouble. The form transformed from late July onward though. Finished the regular season with 4 wins and 2 draws to disperse any relegation worries even before the play-offs began. Solid play-off campaign saw them secure the second spot in Play-off II. Didn’t do much noise in the subsequent Conference League play-off but this was just a bonus appearance for them. Joakim Latonen scored 11 goals last year and he will remain the main hope up front. Vertti Hänninen also impressed in his first-ever top flight campaign. He accumulated 6 goals and 6 assists. Both are happy to stay at the club for another year. Many other changes took place during the off-season though. Let 21 players leave, while 13 new ones were added. This reduced the squad size but hasn’t reduced the quality that much. The arrival of Bashkirov in midfield is seen as a great capture. He will serve as the main anchor-man, allowing Latonen and Hänninen to venture forward even more. Also, after his arrival right before the play-offs last season veteran striker Tim Väyrynen targets a 10+ goal campaign in his first full year at the club. The Belgian goalie Álex Craninx should be the new number one, while the starters in defence won’t change. Changes were made to the supporting cast at the back with some interesting young defenders joining and set to learn from veterans Raitala (36-years-old) and Ojala (35-years-old).