The battle between new and old was not decisive. Malmo FF reached the Cup final, which turned out to be a challenge between the ‘losers’ of the championship – IK Brage was the other finalist. Attendance was low, so fans just missed the fun: the final ended 3-3 and went to penalty shoot-out. In it Malmo FF won 4-3.
Unfortunately for IK Brage, they were just a tiny bit bellow the other strong clubs this year. Fortunately for Malmo, the team was still strong enough and transition perhaps was going to end well – the season was not lost at all, they still won a trophy.
Winning the cup was perhaps vastly important for Malmo, because the moment was crucial: this was no longer the old great team. Their already legendary coach Bob Houghton returned to England. Gone were stars of the 1970s – Bo Larsson, Staffan Tapper, Jan Moller. As most often happens with strong teams, the sign of coming decline is when the least significant members of the old great squad becomes the defining star of the moment – Ingemar Erlandsson here. The newcomers were a bit alarming: another English coach was hired to replace Houghton. But when Houghton arrived, he was at least young and promissing coach – with his development the team developed. Keith Blunt was not young and so far not successful – he came from Sutton United, a club not even a member of the professional leagues. His arrival suggested stagnation, not development. He also brought two English players with him: Tim Parkin, b. 1957, formerly of Blackburn Rovers, and Paul McKinnon, b. 1958, who played for Blunt in Sutton United. Young players, but… when unknown players from low leagues are imported, that means trouble: Malmo apparently had no strong players left and the general quality was so low, that unknown imports were the only solution. So it looked like… and may be so it was, and the club needed to jump over difficult hurdle – if winning something this year, they had a good chance of avoiding crisis. If not – it was going down all the way. It is familiar story. Malmo FF won the Cup. They also had rapidly rising new star – Robert Prytz.