No big club reached the Cup final. The finalists were curious pair: the penalized for bribery and fielding illegal player teams, Iraklis (Thesaloniki) and AGS Kastoria (Kastoria). If Iraklis, thanks to fixing matches, was solid mid-table club, Kastoria was lowly, fighting to survive in the league. On paper, Iraklis was favourite – they had arguably the greatest star in the country, Hadzipanagis, plus a Polish import, Wawrowski. Kastoria had no famous player at all and entirely Greek squad. Yet, they destroyed Iraklis – 5-2! It did not possible at first – Iraklis scored opening goal from a penalty early in the final. Kastoria managed to equalize near the end of the first half and the second half was entirely theirs. For a second consecuitve year the Cup went to small club – Panionios won it in 1979 and now – Kastoria.
The ‘Gounarades’ (Fur-traders) were small fry by any standard: they were born in 1963 from a merger of three local clubs: Aris, Atromitos, and Orestias. The new club was not much stronger than the former clubs, but eventually gathered some strenght and won promotion to first division in 1973-74. They did not take the league by storm, though – yet, this period is the best in the history of the club: they played in first division from 1974 to 1983. After that they managed just a single season among the best – 1996-97. Winning the Cup was their crown achievement – and their only trophy.
Naturally, the boys were happy and
the fans even more so. This was a great day for small Kastoria. The greatest day!
The Cup winners were nothing much so far – the victory made them famous instantly, but also it was ominous. A small club had no chance of keeping good players… The big clubs immediately took the strongest – Simeoforidis, Papavasiliou, Dintsikos, and Sarganis. The captain of the team, Giorgios Paraschos, was called to the national team, but did not establish himself there – he played only 4 times for Greece. The only real star emerging from the Cup winners was their goalkeeper Nikos Sarganis: he was bought by Olympiakos right after the Cup victory and debuted for the national team. Later he played for Panathinaikos too and between 1980 and 1991 played 58 matches for Greece. During his career he scored 6 goals – in the days when goalkeeper very rarely scored goals. Well, good for the players, but not so for Kastoria, which after the great victory only saw the best players leaving one after another. But a great victory is great victory – the best moment in the history of Kastoria remains in memory.