Second division very likely did not differ from its usual state of affairs, except for an irony: as soon as relegation numbers were changed, none of the newcomers was at the bottom – for the first time all newcomers survived and some played rather strong championship.
Kolos (Nikopol) finished 5th.
SKA (Khabarovsk) – 6th, Dinamo (Stavropol) – 7th, Iskra (Smolensk) – 9th, Guria (Lanchkhuti) – 11th, and Buston (Dzhizak) – 19th. Under the old rules, only Buston would have been relegated – and that only because of worse goal-difference – but now even they survived. But as whole the league was unimpressive – three clubs were hopeless outsiders and three clubs fought for 2 promotional spots. One can say 18 clubs just went through the motions, not carrying a bit for anything: their next season was guaranteed early and sedated life continued as always. Newcomers were more or less the only disturbance of the normal: just like those promoted from 2rd division were normally relegated right away, those relegated from first division were favourites and the biggest candidates for promotion. Not this year.
Zarya (Voroshilovgrad) continued their long slump, which led them to second level football – even here they were no good and finished 10th. But their fall was nothing compared to Krylya Sovetov (Kuybishev), who was relegated along with Zarya.
In the last ten years Krylya Sovetov was unable to build meaningful team and contsntly moved between first and second division. But now they just collapsed. 11 wins 16 ties and 19 losses placed them 22nd with 34 points. They lost 4 points on the rules for ties – only 12 gave points, every tie above the limit gave nothing. But even if all their ties counted they were have been still 22nd – and relegated. Shinnik (Yaroslavl), the 21st finisher, had 40 points (also losing 3 points for ties above the limit).
Along with Krylya Sovetov, two other clubs collapsed – Spartak (Nalchik), 23rd with 28 points and Uralsmash (Sverdlovsk), last with 21 points. Both were normally mid-table clubs, Uralmash more so – Spartak (Nalchik) experienced relegation before, but Uralmash appeared to be eternal members of second division, living in sleepy safety. However, the collapse of these three hardly disturbed the league – most clubs watched in glee the sinking clubs: outsiders meant no trouble at all this season, even hypothetical trouble! No trouble and no ambition either – Pamir (Dushanbe) was noticed, and not just this year, as solid and rising team and they finished 4th, 4 poinst ahead of the 5th, Kolos (Nikopol). Yet, they were far behind the top clubs, ending with 5 points less than the 3rd placed. Hardly candidates for promotion.
The battle for promotion was between Ukrainian clubs, further evidence of the superiority of this part of USSR established in the 1970s and seemingly to be continued in the 1980s.
Metallist (Kharkov) finished 3rd with 62 points – best defense and second-best strikers in the league, but apparently not ready yet for real jump to the top league. They lost by a small margin of only 2 points, but it was a telling one: it came from too many ties compared to the winners.
The battle for promotion was won at the last stage of the championship when Dnepr was unbeaten in 13 consecutive matches. At the end, they were second with 62 points and earned promotion for a second time – the first was in 1971. For Dnepr (Dnepropetrovsk) relegation from first division was followed by insignificant season in which they lost fan support. 1980 was played in practically empty stadium, which was unusual even for a second division club. But all ended fine.
Crouching from left: M. Palamarchuk, N. Samoylenko, V. Kutzev, V. Chernykh, O. Kramarenko, S. Motuz, S. Babenko, V. Shevchuk – captain, A. Vasyutich.
Standing: V. Lukashenko – coach, P. Kutuzov, A. Troshkin, S. Diev, A. Usenko, V. Pavlenko, S. Krakovsky, Ya. Balykin – team chief, A. Lysenko, V. Strizhevsky, R. Konafotzky – administrator, E. Danilov – assistant coach.
Although Dnepr earned promotion, there was little praise – even the captain Shevchuk was unable to find good things to say about his teammates and spoke mostly nonsense (how political work was improved, how many factories the team visited to meet workers, how they used every free minute to go to museums and theatres – a required blabber, patently untrue, and having nothing to do with playing). No wonder – Dnepr had not even one famous player. The team was not particularly exciting – it depended on well known second division players, who were good and experienced, but neither great, nor near the level of the top players in first division: Palamarchuk, Kramarenko, Pavlenko. The defensive line was the weaker part of the team, but nobody else was particularly exciting. Of course, Dnepr was between the rock the and the hard place: as a smaller Ukrainian club, they had no chance of recruiting strong players and even developing their own talent was not a great idea, for talent was inevitably grabbed by Dinamo (Kiev): a team of solid, but unimpressive players was safe… and not much on the field. The only talented youngster playing regularly was the goalkeeper Krakovsky. There were two more, coming from the junior system, but so far just a deep reserves – V. Lyuty and G. Litovchenko. Not much for the future… the trio eventually became instrumental for Dnepr’s success in the 1980s, but the inevitable happened anyway: Litovchenko ended in Dinamo (Kiev). Dnepr had to navigate carefully, not attracting undue attention to itself, which meant having so-so team and promotion, as good as it was, was also a headache: how to survive among the best clubs with a team like that?
The problems of Dnepr were familiar to the second division winners, but there was a difference: Tavria (Simferopol) never played in the top league before. Like Dnepr, Tavria had miserable 1979 season. Unlike Dnepr, Tavria was driven by enthusiasm in 1980. Tavria excelled in attack and lost the least number of matches in the second division – the only club with less than 10 losses, and their 9th came in the last round of the championship, when they already won the title amd had nothing to play for. It was the greatest season in the history of the club and rightly they were going up. When the team captain was interviewed at the end of the season, he simply said that the key for success was had work – sometimes too much work. Typically Ukrainian approach.
Brand new champions, promoted to first division for the first time: sitting from left: A. Shudrik, Yu. Zuykov, E. Korol, V. Prichinenko, V. Naumenko, A. Petrov, S. Prichinenko, V. Sinelnik, A. Cheremisin, O. Serebryansky, Yu. Pomogaev – masseur.
Standing: A. Glukhoedov – team chief, A. Polosin – coach, V. Tansky – assistant coach, B. Marintzov, V. Korolev, V. Petrov, V. Yurkovsky, K. Panchik, S. Matukhno, A. Syrovatsky, S. Katalimov, V. Bass – doctor.
Tavria had even lesser known players than Dnepr, but it was younger and hungrier team. And hard work was familiar to some of the boys – V. Sinelnik, O. Serebryansky, V. Yurkovsky, and S. Katalimov were former Dinamo (Kiev) players, used to Lobanovsky’s drills. True, every one of them failed to satisfy Lobanovsky and only Yurkovsky was a regular starter, however, briefly, but for Tavria and second division in general, they had enough class and ambition. Of course, Tavria was not having happy life – like every secondary Ukrainian club, they were easy prey for Dinamo and not only Dinamo, for they were actually tertiary Ukrainian club, ranking well below Dinamo, Shakhter, Chernomoretz, Karpaty, Zarya, Metallist, and even Dnepr, so their fate was clear: hope not to be robbed form key players (V. and S. Prichinenko and Naumenko were possible targets) and depend on hand-outs form the bigger clubs, preferably Dinamo, because whoever was rejected by Lobanovsky hardly interested other clubs. So the team was not very impressive, but it was lively and high scoring. The problem was really the near future: survival in the top league.
Good or not, the newcomers were both Ukrainian clubs – a testimony of the dominance of Ukrainian football at the expense of the Russian.