A season which started in such well-documented success in the Champions League could, and really should have carried on to end with success at the local level.However, football rarely ever follows logical paths, and that is exactly what happened this season.
For several possible reasons, one of the most probable being the increased amount of games played during the season, performance in the domestic league was, to say the least, a shambles. The traditional opening of the domestic season, the first round of the Maltese Cup saw us bow down to St. Andrew's, who would eventually finish the season last in the bottom league.
This was followed by losses in the first two Premier League Matches, and then by four straight victories, a taster of the inconsistency which would characterize the season to come. Perhaps low morale due to several losses in the Europa League group stage also played their part, as this was clearly a team capable of big things on the local stage, with more and more foreigners interested in plying their trade in Maltese football.
This posed yet another problem however, rather than increase the team's capabilities. These new signings barely seemed to want to gel in with their team-mates, and with the language barrier posing a real hindrance to this process, I had to resort to play as much of my Maltese contingent as possible, after which results gradually started to improve again, although it was then too little too late, and I finished the season third, which meant I missed out on the Champions League, and another great windfall.
The end of the season brought with it, however, some good news. The board announced they would be increasing the stadium capacity by 3200 (at a cost of £2M) and also that they would be improving training facilities (at a cost of £1.4M). Furthermore, they decided to turn professional again.
Mdina Knights obtained quite a good European coefficient for this season, rising up 108 places to 327th in the Club Rankings, whilst the Premier League dropped 75 places to 313th.
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