02-04-2025: Unbeaten in 100 league games

A routine 4-0 win over Sliema Wanderers has marked Mdina Knights' 100 unbeaten league game, a run starting on the 2nd October 2021, and still going strong 3 and a half season later, on the 2nd April 2025.

With the Maltese Premier League rising up the rankings, it is quite probable that this rise will slow down until the rest of the Maltese clubs catch up with the standard that we have set, having also just confirmed that we will be champions for the sixth consecutive year.

 

However, this season was all about the Champions League, but that's a story for the end-of-season blog.

2023-24: European dumps, Domestic perfection

If last year's European campaign seemed uninspiring and disappointing, this season's was infinitely more so. Although things looked bright after emphatically disposing of Faroese side HB 10-1 on aggregate, a tough draw against Croatia's Zagreb followed. Going to Croatia leading 2-1 on aggregate, we needed just a draw to qualify. However, it was not to be, as we went down to a harsh deflection and a penalty.

However, not all was lost, as there was the safety net that is the Europa League. But fate did not smile down on us, as we were drawn against Turkey's Besiktas, who, depite all our efforts, beat us quite comfortably 1-4 on aggregate.

Although it did not really make up for this disappointment in the end, our domestic form was perfect. In 28 league matches, and 5 cup ties, we won all 33 (thus winning a 5th consecutive Premier League and FA Trophy double), scoring a massive 126 goals, and conceding just 9. The two major happenings of note here being a whooping 11-0 victory against bottom club Zurrieq, and a 1-0 away win at Msida, despite having two men sent off before the hour mark with the score still 0-0.

In the rankings, the Premier League moved up 26 places, meaning it now occupies the 62nd position, while Mdina Knights only moved up 3 places (obviously due to the poor campaign) to 161st.
The youth academy is proving to be a massive flop, with absolutely no talent at all, and with the board telling me that my youth recruitment network is the best a club of our standing can have, my hopes of producing some world class Maltese talent are somewhat diminishing.
However, I'll just focus on my first target of winning the Champions League for now. See you next season :)

2022-23: A Learning Curve

In contrast to the previous season, where we had a relatively untroubled route to the Champions League group stage, and even almost made it to the Europa League knockout stages via a third-placed finish, this season was a totally different story.

Even as early as the Second Qualifying round, we struggled against FC Zürich of Switzerland, going through on penalties after drawing both legs 1-1. In the next round against Slovan Liberec, we again drew on aggregate, winning 1-0 in Rabat, before losing 3-2 in the Czech Republic, thus going through on the away goals rule. The playoff stage, however, proved too tough yet again, losing 0-1 at home to Belgian side RSC Anderlecht, and then only managing a 1-1 draw away.


In the Europa League Group stage, we were faced with familiar opposition in the form of Atletico Madrid, with the group's two other members being Metalurg Zp from Ukraine, and Dinamo Moscow. After losing the first match 0-3 home to Atletico Madrid, hope was restored with a 0-1 away win against Metalurg Zp. A 2-3 home loss to Dinamo Moscow was quickly redeemed by another 2-3 scoreline, this time in our favour, to exact revenge at their own back yard. There was still hope, even after losing again 2-0 away to Atletico Madrid, however, it was quickly extinguished with a poor 1-2 defeat at home to Metalurg Zp.

After a tough Qualifying campaign, and some mixed fortunes in the Group stage, we again bowed out of Europe in the Group stage.


The domestic tradition of a Premier League and FA Trophy double was successfully extended, with the only incident of note being the amount of goals scored, thumping in a massive 94 goals, compared to our previous record of 78. The season was again ended unbeaten, with the current unbeaten League run currently reading 51 games.


Meanwhile, the Maltese Premier League has continued on its impressive climb up the rankings, moving another 19 places up the ladder, to 88th position. Mdina Knights, on the other hand, also rose, by 20 places to 164th in the European Club Rankings.


On a final note, the Mdina Knights Stadium has been further expanded, and now houses over 20,000 spectators, while the youth academy has been thoroughly disappointing in its first two seasons, with no local prospect of note cropping up in the youth squad.