The Northern Second Division was more competitive at cursory glance – more recent first division members played here and some of them were expected to try going up again. The final table suggests so too – the expected ended at the top. Yantra (Gabrovo) was 5th, ZhSK Spartak (Varna) – 4th, Dunav (Rousse) – 3rd. Akademik (Svishtov), just relegated from top flight was second.
Akademik (Svishtov), keeping most of its first division squad looked like contender. They clinched 2nd place on better goal-difference, another hint of tightly contested season. Five possible winners, then… all expected. But it was not really so. The names were there, but not the fight. The winners built even bigger gap between themselves and the closest pursuer than Minyor (Pernik) did in the South. Yes, it was familiar name.
Etar (Veliko Tarnovo) were expected to win promotion every year since their relegation. So far they failed, but at last they came first and with a vengeance. Well, their record tells so – with 54 points, they were 8 points ahead of Akademik (Svishtov) and Dunav (Rousse). However, even this was misleading – having such a lead against stronger opposition says the champions were really strong, yet, Minyor (Pernik) secured their promotion ahead of Etar. Which means that at the end of the season,when little mattered anymore, Minyor took it easy and lost points in the South, but in the North it was mostly the competitors of Etar giving up early, thus helping the champions to build so big a gap.
The squad winning promotion for a second time in the club’s history. Sitting from left: Petar Shabarkov – masseur, Ivan Angelov, Petko Tzanev, Georgy Tzingov, Vassil Daskalov, Krassimir Kalchev, Stefan Pavlov, Stefan Donev – team’s doctor.
Middle row: Atanas Parzhelov – coach, Boyko Dimitrov, Nikolay Kotzev, Nikola Velkov, Georgy Simeonov, Petar Petrov, Stefan Lakhchiev, Georgy Velinov – assistant coach.
Third row: Kadir Belaliev, Iliya Marinov, Ivan Bozhilov, Kiril Ivkov – captain, Ivan Nenchev.
Among all recently relegated clubs, Etar was perhaps the only one which started – and seemingly finished – full rebuilding. Only the goalkeeper Petrov remained from the great squad of the first half of the 1970s, which played in the UEFA Cup. The new team was already made the previous year, consisting mostly of rejected by various first division clubs players and solid or promising second division talent. It sounded impressive for a second league team and included at least one player considered a national team material – the central-defender/midfielder Stefan Lakhchiev. Yet, they failed to win promotion in 1977-78 and there was a bit of suspicion about them: a solid team, but perhaps not very ambitious, since it was made largely of players failing elsewhere. The sense was that Etar needed fine tuning, perhaps a few changes. The age was not right either – the boys were mostly about 25 years old, suggesting that at their prime they greatly lacked ambition. But instead of polishing, the club decided different approach – a new coach, Atanas Parzhelov, one of the best in Bulgaria and the maker of the strong Slavia of the 1970s, and two famous veterans recruited on the suggestion of Parzhelov: Kiril Ivkov and Stefan Pavlov were just released from Levski, after years of great service. Both were 33, too old for their old club, but Etar needed class and leadership. The newcomers did not disappoint – both had strong season, leading their new teammates to victory. Kiril Ivkov was so good in fact, that he was recalled to the national team and played a few more matches a month before his retirement, thus setting a precedent – he may have been the very first second division player included in the national team. In Bulgaria it was almost unthinkable, yet, he was back. Apparently, Parzhelov had only one aim – to win the first place and nothing more. This he did, but the future did not look very bright, because Parzhelov was appointed to coach the national team right after the season, Ivkov retired and joined Parzhelov as his assistant-coach, and none of the ‘flakes’ in the squad was released. It was nice to see the ‘violets’ coming back to first division, yet, they needed a shake-up. They looked much better team than Minyor, but were somewhat ‘tranquil’, a team taking it easy, not driven by ambition. Nobody of this squad became a great player, even Lakhchiev did not fulfilled his great promise. Most of them sunk into obscurity in the next 2-3 years. The sole exception was Nikola Velkov, who eventually went to play for CSKA and was a regular – but not a star – of their strong team of the early 1980s.
The best of the second division once again did not look like strong addition of the top league, but one had to be cautious with that too – in the last few years the newcomers did not look strong, but some of them surprised everybody once among the best: Marek, Chernomoretz Bourgas, Spartak Pleven to a certain point. Still, it was scraping the bottom – with these two clubs gone, there was hardly a single decent second division club. Certainly there was none in the Southern group.