The 2025/2026 season is almost over, and Shama Deadman is once again chasing a first career promotion.
Despite a rough start, our journeyman coach’s first season at Győr has gone pretty well. In Part 24, a fine run of form saw ETO establish themselves as serious contenders to be promoted from the NB II to Hungary’s premier division.
Shama’s previous promotion pushes with Cambrian & Clydach and then Espinho ended in failure, but will things be different this time around? Let’s read on to find out…
APRIL 2026
We begin this chapter with my first youth intake at Győr – and it wasn’t very inspiring. Yeah, you shouldn’t really judge a young footballer’s potential when they’re barely out of school, but there are probably only two who look likely to make the grade with us.
First up, we’ve got Márton Dankó. The 6ft 5in centre-back is very aggressive and likes a robust challenge, but lacks determination and maybe needs some mentoring.
Determination isn’t a problem with Róbert Nagy – a hard-working inverted left-winger who could well make his senior debut before he even turns 16. I would call him Bob for short, but I don’t think we need another B Nagy in this team! [Oh, I’m SURE he’ll become a Bob sooner or later! -Chris]
Back to the main story now, and with nine games left in the NB II, we were just four points off the promotion places. After winning three out of four matches in March, could we continue that excellent form and propel ourselves into that all-important top two?
Sadly not. Our defenders fancied having the month off.
An awkward April began with at mid-table Paks. Star striker Cyril Nebo broke the deadlock after an hour by heading in Simão Rocha‘s free-kick, scoring his 11th goal of the season from the Portuguese left-back’s 11th assist! However, Paks turned the game around in the next seven minutes, and we couldn’t fight back – not even after they had a player sent off with 20 minutes to go.
Three days later, a slow start saw us fall behind to Soroksár after just five minutes. This time, it was our other left-back who inspired a comeback, as Barnábas Nagy thundered in his first Győr goal in the 21st minute before we took control midway through the second half.
Our third goal was particularly special, as centre-back Alex Szabó‘s cross was headed home by midfielder Bálint Szabó. They’re not actually related, but I’m sure their parents were very proud!
We kept up the winning feeling at home to Szentlőrinc. We’d already beaten them 3-0 on the road twice this term, though an early double from Nebo was all we needed this time around. [Also, happy 36th birthday to me! -Chris]
That was our fifth win in seven, and we stayed within four points of Budafok and Debrecen in the promotion places. Our promotion push was still alive and kicking… until we had three defensive disasters in as many games.
Match 33 – Pécs away. 4 shots on target faced, 4 goals conceded.
With Pécs battling relegation, we probably thought this would be a cakewalk, so imagine our shock when they attacked us immediately and tapped the ball home after 40 seconds! It only got worse in the 12th minute, as the hosts scored from a counter-attack after we only left one defender back for an attacking corner. We obviously didn’t learn our lesson, as the same thing happened AGAIN in the second half!
As shocking as our defending was, though, we also had to blame ourselves for wasting several scoring opportunities. Left-winger Milán Tóth did score from a whipped cross by right-winger Janós Géringer in the 17th minute, but that was our only goal.
Match 34 – Kaposvár at home. 3 shots faced, 3 goals conceded.
A Nebo penalty gave us the lead against our promotion rivals in the 10th minute. By the 38th, though, we’d gone 3-1 down to three Kaposvár attacks – and we were so shambolic that I subbed off defender Américo Pereira AND goalkeeper Svetoslav Vutsov immediately!
Tóth pulled it back to 3-2 just before half-time, but despite dominating the attacking stats (we had an xG of 3.24 compared to Kaposvár’s 0.70), we couldn’t complete the comeback. We weren’t “FMed”, as some people might say – we were just complete and utter carp.
Match 35 – Békéscsaba away. 3 shots on target faced, 2 goals conceded.
An improvement, right? Not really. The only shot on target Békéscsaba didn’t score was a penalty, saved by our 35-year-old backup goalie Péter Szappanos. A Rocha free-kick then gave us the lead, which we held onto until Szappanos conceded twice in the 84th and 85th minutes. Despite that, Péter still got a rating of 7.4 (maybe whoever wrote the match report decided to have an early night)!
Tóth saved a draw in the 86th minute – tapping in Rocha’s through-ball for this third goal in as many games – but the damage was still done.
If our defenders had stayed alert instead of gorging on Easter eggs, we could’ve been in 2nd! As it was, our promotion dream was surely dead, barring an absolute miracle in the final three games.
MAY 2026
Of course, we only went and won our final three games, with Nebo scoring five goals. Where was this consistency in April, lads?
The run started at home to Iváncsa, who had won just once all season were already relegated. It took us an hour to get on the scoresheet, but Cyril’s quickfire double ensured that Iváncsa’s one away fan at ETO Park went home disappointed. Sadly, results elsewhere meant victory wasn’t enough to keep our promotion dream alive.
We were much more impressive in our final home game against Dorog, thrashing them 4-1. Ervin Taha‘s first-minute screamer and Pereira’s injury-time header bookended another fine brace from Nebo, though the visitors ruined Vutsov’s hopes of successive clean sheets.
Finally, we went to mid-table Budaörs and pulled another win out of the bag, despite losing both Rocha and captain Norbert Kundrák to injury in the first half. The latter was replaced with 16-year-old attacking midfielder Gábor Novák, who marked his fourth senior game with his first assist – a cross that Géringer headed home for the 10th goal of his breakthrough season.
The only Győr player to outscore Géringer this season was Nebo, who converted a second-half penalty to finish on 19 goals! Budaörs got a goal back in stoppage time, but we still finished the campaign on a high.
Budafok narrowly took the NB II title ahead of Kaposvár, won their final five games to sensationally pip Debrecen to 2nd place. We were just six points behind the runners-up, so if we’d converted just two of our late-season defeats into wins, we would’ve been promoted to the NB I.
That said, 4th was still a big improvement on Győr’s 9th-place finishes in the previous two seasons. This once-proud club was heading back in the right direction.
And look at poor old Siófok, who rejected me last summer before I went to Győr! They are probably regretting that now!
2025/2026 SEASON REVIEW
The board wanted a top-four finish in my first season, and even after that late blip, I still delivered on it. Early suggestions are they’ll expect more of the same next term. After sacking four managers in the previous five years, they seem to be giving me a lot more patience.
I have also stayed way within my £30,000 weekly player wage budget – only using up about £21,000 of it. Our financial situation is pretty healthy, as we haven’t lost much money at all and still have over £2million in the balance.
We failed to reach Round 4 of the Magyar Kupa, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. We coasted through the first two rounds before running into the mighty Újpest in Round 3. Despite putting in a brave defensive display and even coming close to upsetting the giants on the counter, we faded away in extra-time and lost 2-0. There was no shame in that so-called ‘failure’.
| Fans’ Player of the Season | Simão Rocha |
| Young Player of the Season | Svetoslav Vutsov |
| Signing of the Season | Barnabás Nagy |
| Goal of the Season | Janos Géringer (vs Siófok, 28 September) |
| Top Goalscorer | Cyril Nebo (19) |
| Most Assists | Simão Rocha (13) |
| Most Player of the Match Awards | Simão Rocha (5) |
| Highest Average Rating | Simão Rocha (7.39) |
Excuse me? Why the hell is our backup attacking midfielder Roland Hajdú in our Team of the Season? Apart from scoring twice against Ajka in February, I can’t remember Roland doing very much. Captain Kundrák really should be there instead, even though played almost as regularly up front as he did in attacking midfield, with the odd game at left-wing.
Anyway, let’s move on – and talk about a player who absolutely deserves his place in that starting XI.
What a transformation it has been for Rocha. Last year, the Portuguese was a mediocre left-back in an underperforming Espinho team. This year, he’s been the outstanding player in Hungary’s second division – producing 13 assists and a 7.4 average match rating since he followed me to Győr.
While many of those assists came from set-pieces, Simão has also been quite productive from open play. His crossing ability creates plenty of chances for our attackers, and has played a huge part in us outscoring every team in the league except Debrecen.
Mind you, our ‘reserve’ left-back is also pretty handy. Barnabás Nagy actually had our second-highest average rating and made five assists across his 21 appearances. I didn’t expect as much productivity from my right-backs but was still very happy with Attila Szabados‘ consistency and defensive stability. Sadly, his backup Bence Nagy had an injury-ravaged loan spell from Debrecen and only got to make 12 appearances.
I should also give credit to our regular centre-back partnering of Pereira and Alex Szabó, who were often rock-solid together. They provide strong protection for goalkeeper Vutsov, who kept 13 clean sheets in 26 games but lost his way late in the campaign. I hope it’s just a blip in the young Bulgarian’s career.
Holding midfielder Ivan Kalyuzhnyi set up six goals, making him our joint second-highest assister alongside Géringer. József Windecker started the season off as an excellent ball-winner, but the 33-year-old’s form has dipped since he hurt his ankle in February. If this is the start of a rapid decline, Windecker might have to settle for being a backup option moving forward.
Let’s move further forward now, and look at our top scorers. At just 18 years young, Géringer has established himself as our right-winger with 10 goals and six assists. He’s still physically slight (especially for someone who’s 6ft 4in tall) and is still trying to find consistency. Once he beefs up and becomes more reliable, I reckon we’ll have an excellent attacker on our hands.
And then there’s Nebo, who after a very shaky first half to the season was almost unstoppable in the second! Since changing his role from a Target Man to an Advanced Forward at the start of February, the 26-year-old Nigerian has scored 15 goals in just 16 matches! That impressive run propelled him to 3rd place on the NB II’s goal charts, and it bodes well for another high-scoring campaign next time!
Here’s another reason for optimism – we finished 1st in terms of ‘expected points’ with 73 points. That’s three more than we actually picked up, but it shows that we are creating plenty of chances while not giving many opportunities to our opponents.
Our problem this season hasn’t been with converting chances. Our 45% shots-on-target is pretty mid-table, as is an 11% conversion rate, but we’ve still scored 70 goals from an xG of 62.74.
On the other hand, despite having an xGA of 28.60 (the second-lowest in the division), we’ve still conceded 41 goals. We are very deep into the ‘Quiet, Leaky’ section of the defensive efficiency chart, and that has to change. That could mean giving some extra protection to the back four, or even asking our left-backs to take a bit more defensive responsibility, though I must also be careful not to stifle the huge attacking potential in this team.
PLAYER-BY-PLAYER STATISTICS
STAYING ON
After completing my first season in Hungary, I could have been tempted to move on to another challenge… but there was never any doubt I’d sign a new contract at Győr.
The board have been quietly pleased with our progress, and they actually offered me a new two-year contract back at the start of April. I postponed talks until the end of the season, which was quite a gamble seeing how bad our form got over the next few weeks!
Fortunately, they were still happy to renew my contract when the time did come. I would’ve liked a slightly bigger pay rise than £100 per week, but I do now have the incentive of an extra 15% raise if we do get promoted next term.
So there we have it: two more seasons at Győr! Two more seasons to get promoted and bring top-division football back to ETO Park. No more excuses.
I’ve even told my players that I expect at least a serious top-two challenge in 2026/2027. Many of them are sceptical, but I’m sure I’ll win them over with some new signings to strengthen our depth. There’s no doubt that Győr are in much better shape for promotion now than Cambrian & Clydach or Espinho ever were when I was managing them.
If you’re wondering where my old clubs are now, Espinho have found form again and have just finished 8th in the Portuguese Terceira Liga. This was also a good season for Cambrian & Clydach, who were runners-up in the Cymru South but were still well adrift of runaway champions Haverfordwest.
And so yet another promotion dream fades away. That has been the story of Shama’s career so far… but surely next season will be the one for him?
I’ll be back on Monday for the next chapter, in which Shama builds up to the 2026/2027 season and looks to turn a very good Győr side into major contenders.
Thanks for reading!
Fuller FM 
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