First Division. Surprise champion, that was the season in nutshell.
Inter (Bratislava) finished last with 23 points and Bratislava’s derby was going to be played again in the next season, but in Second Division.
Lokomotiva (Kosice) – 15th with 24 points and relegated. Well, the other Slovak derby in the city of Kosice was also going to be played in Second Division.
Dynamo (Ceske Budejpovice) survived – 14th with 24 points.
ZVL Zilina – 13th with 26 points.
Tatran (Presov) – 12th with 26 points.
DAC (Dunajska Streda), absolute debutantes, did well – 11th with 27 points. Top row from left: Šoltés, Pavlík, Kašpar, Hesek, Fieber, Mucha, Liba, Šimonič (masseur), N. Szabó.
Middle row: MUDr. Stadtrucker (doctor), J. Kapko, F. Németh, Kosňovský, Veselý, J. Medgyes, Vahala, Šrámek, Ravasz, Kalmár, Reisz (technical).
Front row: Hodúr, Krištof, Bartoš, Pecze (coach), Ing. Šanta (president of football club), Abrahám (assistant trainer), Audi, Majoros, Michalec.
Like most clubs in Czechoslovakia, the team from the town near the Hungarian border, where Hungarian was spoken at least as much as Slovak, was old, but so far did not play any significant role. Reaching the top league was their highest achievement and managing to stay there was great.
Spartak (Trnava) – 10th with 27 points.
Dukla (Banska Bystrica) – 9th with 28 points.
Banik (Ostrava) – 8th with 30 points.
Ruda Hvezda (Cheb) – 7th with 31 points.
Slavia (Prague) – 6th with 34 points.
Bohemians (Prague) – 5th with 34 points.
Sigma (Olomouc) – 4th with 34 points.
Dukla (Prague) – clinched 3rd place on better goal-difference, for they too finished with 34 points.
Sparta (Prague) – 2nd with 37 points.
TJ Vitkovice – brand new champions with 40 points from 14 wins, 12 ties, 4 losses. 48-32 goal-difference. Quite a surprise.
TJ Vitkovice practically came from nowehere – not one of the traditional powers and a team more often played second level than top league, they represented wonderful victory of the underdog. It was not an easy win, but Dukla was stuck and Sparta perhaps took its victory for granted and underperformed, and Vitkovice took advantage of the situation.
The squad was not bad, but hardly exceptional, but they squireled points and kept good form, fueled by increasing eathusiasm to the end. It was rather defensive team – Sparta outscored them by 27 goals, for example – but they made sure to not lose a game. Wonderful success, but it was quite clear that it was one-time wonder, not to be repeated. So, the victory had to be enjoyed in the fullest possible way.