Billy Whizz's Wonderboys have secured their status in Division 5 for Season 23, after comfortably seeing off young guns at Shitters Palace. A crowd of 12,907 saw the Whizzers complete a 5-2 victory, with goals coming from Jones, Konz (2), Fribo and Groves.
"It's a magnificant achievement" said manager Billy Whizz. "We started off pretty terribly, but our season has been on a constant rise after the first few games I think. Once we got some confidence around the place again, I never truly thought we would get relegated; in the end I think we deserve some credit for securing survival as early as we did - it definitely looked at one stage as though it would go down to the wire"
With 3 games to play, the Wonderboys are 9 points clear of esaf, who sit in 13th place, but face the inactive Wazcar United B team, thus making it impossible for them to finish in the bottom six. Whizz hopes next season can be a different affair, with his side looking at the opposite side of the table:
"I haven't sat down with the chairman yet to discuss next season formally, but I identified about 8-10 points I feel we should have got but didn't this season, and we are only 12 off 2nd at the minute - it just shows that if it wasn't for that poor start, it could have been a totally different ball game this year."
"A top half finish would be great next year. We think we're about 3 players off a promotion side, and obviously we're not going to be able to afford to get 3 quality players before the start of next season, but we're hoping to get a solid centre half, and maybe a left back too. You just have to look at the league table to realise that it's our defence that has failed us this year - while we're been scoring plenty, we've let in far too many at the other end"
Whizz also revealed that Mohammed Al-Owairan and Al Teymat were to retire at the end of the season, at 34 and 35 respectively.
Next week we will discuss the likely team for Season 23, as the Whizzers prepare for their 3rd season in Division 5. How many new players will be signed? How many youngsters can break through? We'll make our predictions.