Albania. Memorable season – at least for those few following closely this country’s football. Interesting battle in the Second Division – Apollonia (Fier) lost the battle for the 1st place, the only promotional spot, by a single points. However, they were the highest scorers and ended with the best goal-difference in the all three Albanian divisions: 42-13.
KS Beselidhja (Lezhe) clinched the first place and got promoted – they were relegated from the top league the previous year, but bounced back immediately.
In the First Division the opposite happened: KS 31 Korriku (Burrel) which was just promoted finished last and dropped back to Second Division after a single season. But what happened at the very top was the big deal. None of the big – for this country anyway – clubs from Tirana managed to win the title.
Partizani, for instance, ended 3rd and played no real part in the race for the title.
17 Nentori was more competitive, yet, settled for 2nd place 3 points behind the champions.
The new champion of Albania was really new: a club which never won the championship before.
Labinoti (Elbasan) had splendid season in which they won 15 games, tied 7, and lost 4. 26-14 goal-difference was nothing to brag about, except that the low numbers suggested tied defensive approach, but even this does not much the other numbers – Labinoti was the only team winning more than 50% of the championship games and the next best record was 10 wins. As for ties, only one team had fewer than them – 17 Nentori, in fact, was more defensively minded squad with their 14 ties, the most in the league. Anyway, Labinoti finished 3 points ahead of 17 Nentori, meaning they were really strong, minded business, and achieved their goal before the actual end of the championship. It was wonderful victory, their first title ever. In fact, so far Labinoti had only one trophy – the Albanian Cup, which they won in 1975. Now – the title.
What made the season significant was not just the first Labinoti’s first title – for the first time since 1946 provincial clubs won two consecutive titles: Vllaznia the previous year, now Labinoti.
What was left was the Cup – and it was almost complete rerun of the previous year final: same finalists, same winner, almost the same result. 17 Nentori (Tirana) and Flamurtari (Vlore) met again. In 1983 17 Nentori prevailed 1-0. This time it was 2-1 at the final whistle.
Flamurtari lost second consecutive final. Too bad. They were close, though.
17 Nentori won second consecutive Cup, making their grand total 5 Cups. A title could be better, but still they got a trophy and their rivals Partizani and Dinamo got nothing again (Dinamo, in fact, was in dark period and struggled terribly – they were 11th this year).