Second Division. 22 teams, the top 2 promoted, the last 3 relegated. Long season, but without much intrigue, as usual. There was battle for survival at the bottom to the end, but no drama at the top. Chernomoretz (Odessa) domineered the championship, leading from start to end. Second place was also settled rather early and the usual suspects had their usual sedate championship, playing well enough for mid-table position, secure to stay in the league, satisfied with that, and not looking up.
Krylya Sovetov (Kuybishev) ended last with 32 points. They were just promoted and relegated right away. The club was ailing for quite some time and the persistent policy of hiring players from elsewhere was blamed for that. So… going again to dreadful third level.
Torpedo (Kutaisi) – 21st with 34 points and out. Only recently they played top league football, but now were going to third level. They differed from Krylya Sovetov, though: the reason for their decline was the general decline of Georgian football. Georgia was small and if there were not 50-60 quality players at hand, even two classy squads were problematic – but now not only there was weaker new generation, but there were 5 clubs dipping into small pool (Dinamo Tbilisi, Guria Lanchkhuti, Dinamo Batoumi, Lokomotiv Samtredia, and Torpedo) and inevitably someone would get weaker as a result: Torpedo, on this occasion.
Fakel (Voronezh) – 20th with 34 points. Like Krylya Sovetov and Torpedo, former First Division member, now going down to third level.
Dinamo (Batoumi) – 19th with 35 points. Escaping relegation was success in itself for them, but also was the strange story of ‘the battle for survival’: it was based largely on hopes that the opposition will lose their games. Dinamo lost their last two matches, and if Fakel and Torpedo got one more point each, than Dinamo most likely would have gone down. But Torpedo lost their last games and Fakel won one and tied the other, so they were unable to reach 35 points too. Meantime Krylya Sovetov lost their last game at home to the other team in danger of relegation, Spartak (Ordzhonikidze) and went down, helping Dinamo as well. A matter of luck, that was it.
Spartak (Ordzhonikidze) – 18th with 36 points. Escaped relegation in the very last round of the championship and in direct battle with equally endangered Krylya Sovetov. It was a matter of life and death, Spartak came out alive.
Rotor (Volgograd) – 17th with 36 points. They also lost their last two games, but had more points than the other teams in danger and had much better chance for survival. However, given this season it was absolutely unbelievable that Rotor would soon come to fame and success.
Zarya (Voroshilovgrad) – 16th with 38 points. Faded away long time ago and plummeting down to third level, so now they were just happy to avoid relegation and stay in Second Division. Revival was seemingly impossible.
Dinamo (Stavropol) – 15th with 38 points. Modest club modestly performing.
Shinnik (Yaroslavl) – 14th with 38 points. Perhaps weaker season than their usual, but Shinnik was one of the ‘eternal’ teams in the league: too strong to be relegated, too weak or disinterested to go for promotion. A bit up, a bit down… no matter.
Kotaik (Abovian) – 13th with 38 points. A pleasant surprise really, for the tiny Armenian club was not expected to last in the second level. They did, but may be largely on enthusiasm. For how long, though?
Geolog (Tyumen) – like Kotaik, the team from the deep North was newcomer not expected to last. Their very geographical position was against them… but even in the absence of summer, they did well: 12th with 39 points.
SKA (Rostov) – one of the many in recent years former top league clubs in sharp decline. 11th with 39 points.
Rostselmash (Rostov) – not really better than their city rivals, but unlike SKA they were not winners of the Soviet Union Cup and never played First Division football. From this perspective, coming ahead of their city rivals was sweet: 10th with 40 points.
Metallurg (Zaporozhye) – 9th with 40 points.
Kolos (Nikopol) – 8th with 40 points. May be becoming ‘eternal’ mid-table team.
Pakhtakor (Tashkent) – 7th with 44 points. The aircrash killing their whole team in 1979 had long-term consequences: Pakhtakor had to build anew and so far was not really successful.
Kuzbass (Kemerovo) – 6th with 44 points. One of the ‘eternals’, so nothing new or unusual.
SKA Karpaty (Lvov) – 5th with 46 points. Not as strong, as it was imagined when the city brass decided to amalgamate Karpaty with SKA.
Pamir (Dushanbe) – 4th with 46 points. By now, the club most criticized for their lack of ambition. Club and players denied the accusations, of course, but the full record of Pamir was rather strong evidence: they were practically always good, but not running for promotion.
Daugava (Riga) – 3rd with 50 points. Hard to tell.. on one hand, they were the big pleasant surprise of the season, looking like going for promotion. Then they dropped out from the race quite suddenly… Was it deliberate or was it just that they were not all that good? They still finished way ahead of the clubs bellow them, but they also ended far behind the second-placed team, which did not even play seriously their last games.
Lokomotiv (Moscow) – 2nd with 58 points. Strange season… in the first half of it they did not look like candidates for promotion, but gradually they squirreled points, climbed up to second place, and even looked like they may try to run for the top place. But as soon as it was sure they secured promotion… they took it easy: their last two games were at home and Lokomotiv got only 1 point from weak opposition from the lower half of the table. The squad, however, had some bone and perhaps with few additional players… but that was for the future. Presently, they were going back to First Division.
Sitting from left: Igor Konyaev, Oleg Tabunov, Evgeny Drozhzhin, Renat Ataulin, Evgeny Mileshkin, Khabib Ilyaletdinov, Valery Abramzon, Dmitry Gorkov, Vladimir Pachko.
Middle row: Rashid Gallagberov, Valery Gladilin, Yury Vasilkov – doctor, Yury Semin – coach, Aleksandr Petrashevsky – assistant coach, Vitaly Shevchenko – team chief, Nikolay Larin – masseur, Boris Udovenko – administrator, Aleksandr Kalashnikov.
Top row: Andrey Shiryaev, Sergey Gorlukovich, Aleksandr Dozmorov, Igor Terenin, Andrey Kalaychev, Sergey Bazulev, Yury Gavrilov, Vitaly Karmi, Sergey Baburin, Igor Makarov.
Chernomoretz (Odessa) – they led during the whole championship and naturally finished 1st. Won 25 games, tied 12, lost 5. 68-31 goal-difference, 62 points. Their recent relegation looked like short-term tremor, not a deep crisis – they practically got promoted right away and in domineering manner.
Thus, Chernomoretz (Odessa) and Lokomotiv (Moscow) earned promotions and returned to top flight.