Shama Deadman’s fourth season in Hungary is underway. Having guided Győr to promotion – and then into Europe – can he now lead a title challenge?
In the 2028/2029 season preview, we met several new signings – including a certain bear-hugging Russian – who Shama hopes will take his Győr team to that next level. We also saw how they got on in their first two qualifying matches for the Europa Conference League (spoiler: not very well).
Today’s chapter will take us through the first half of the new league campaign. Was last season’s incredible 3rd-place finish a fluke… or can ETO defy expectations once again?
JULY & AUGUST 2028
Just like last season, this one kicked off with us beating Fehérvár at home – but it was far from another 4-1 rout. Louie Barry‘s 26th-minute penalty was pushed behind for a corner, but we did break the deadlock barely a minute later, when a Vidi defender slid Norbert László‘s left-wing cross into his own net. After wasting several chances to pull further ahead, we had to settle for a mere 1-0 win.
We were much more clinical at Mezőkövesd. Right-winger János Géringer scored one and assisted one, before a free-kick from left-back Simão Rocha completed a 3-0 win. That said, we also owed a huge debt to our defence – and particularly goalkeeper George Kovács, who was put under plenty of pressure but still pulled off some stunning saves.
Barry then came to life by scoring in our next three games, starting with another narrow home win over Diósgyőr. King Louie wasted another penalty at newly-promoted city rivals Gyirmót, but then kicked off a late surge that got us through. He finally banished his spot-kick demons at the third attempt to defeat the other NB I newcomers Vasas.
Now that’s what you call a start! Five matches, five wins, five clean sheets – and with Ferencváros struggling to turn draws into victories, we were already eight points ahead of the champions!
SEPTEMBER 2028
Luckily for my stomach, my tie would stay uneaten… because we couldn’t stay unbeaten after the winter break. Though right-winger Mario Bratu gave us a fantastic start in Budapest, right-back Attila Szábados conceded a penalty to MTK shortly afterwards. A defence which looked impenetrable then crumbled twice more as we suffered a 3-1 defeat that handed top spot to Újpest.
We took our frustrations out on minnows Hajdúnánás, putting TEN goals past them in our opening Magyar Kupa tie! Winger Csaba Katona (17) and midfielder Vitaly Botvinjev (19) got a brace apiece, but they were upstaged by striker Dániel Juhász (also 17), who came on for the final 20 minutes and scored a hat-trick!
Naturally, just as Botvinjev was starting to settle into the team… our new Russian destroyer immediately did his knee in. He wouldn’t be wrestling anyone for a while.
That was followed by a couple of goalless league draws. While a limp attacking performance saw us lose our 100% home record against Honvéd, I was much happier with a similar result away at Újpest. Szabados made a load of crucial tackles and goalkeeper George Kovács pulled off some even important saves as we withstood everything that last season’s Kupa winners threw at us.
Mind you, after three league games without a win, we were now three points behind Újpest – and only one ahead of Ferencváros. Had we missed a great chance to establish ourselves as title contenders?
OCTOBER 2028
Not a bit of it. While the last international break had disrupted our early momentum, the next one gave us some precious time to refocus and rediscover our scoring form.
First up was a very confident 2-0 home win over Kisvárda. A powerful drive from Géringer and a header from centre-back Eduard Ciubotaru put us comfortably ahead at the break, and victory was never in doubt from that point. I should have been delighted, right?
I wasn’t. Barry tore a thigh muscle in the second half – and just to make matter worse, a few minutes later, Louie’s replacement Juhász went and tore a muscle in his groin! We had THREE senior strikers, and TWO of them were out injured for a month. Fan-bloody-tastic!
But hey… who needs strikers when you have Géringer on the wing? We survived an onslaught from Ferencváros before one of our few counter-attacks ended with László Toman‘s cross picking out János, whose strike gave us a famous 1-0 win over the champions! But the real star of the show was Kovács, who made an incredible TEN saves on his way to a NINTH clean sheet already this season!
Our only fit striker Cyril Nebo wasn’t in such fine form, so we needed our midfielders to fire us to victory in our next Magyar Kupa match. Roland Boros and Gabor Tamás got the goals as we battled past third-division Tiszaúvjáros to reach the third round.
Sadly, we then came unstuck against our perennial nemeses Debrecen. In fairness, they were the more creative team and broke the deadlock after almost an hour. Though Rocha got us back level after a very clever corner routine with Lászlo, our defence switched off in stoppage time and conceded a last-minute winner. Dagnabbit!
That could have cost us a lot of ground in the title race, but Újpest missed the chance to go four points clear after losing 2-0 to Ferencváros. Were the champions about to show their class and ominously power themselves back to the summit… or would we bounce back strongly.
NOVEMBER & DECEMBER 2028
We found the answer to that question at Fehérvár. After exchanging penalties with our opponents in the first half, we cranked up the pressure in the second. With three minutes remaining, Boros’ cross was headed goalwards by winger Nemanja Jović, but it was Nebo who got the final touch as he flicked in the winner!
There was even more reason to celebrate later that evening, when Újpest were upset again – this time losing 1-0 at Debrecen! Improbably, we now found ourselves top of the NB I by two points!
A fortnight later, we consolidated our lead with another away win, this time over Diósgyőr. László headed in the opener, then had a penalty saved, before defender Américo Pereira marked his first league start this season with his first ever top-flight goal!
Meanwhile, Kovács produced yet another sublime shutout, making EIGHT saves on his way to an 8.2 rating! Then, with impeccable Deadman’s law timing, George suffered a back strain in training, which meant Patrik Demjén would have to replace him in goal for the next two fixtures.
We ended 2028 with three straight home matches, but the first against Mezőkövesd didn’t exactly go smoothly. After a tense and goalless first period, Demjén was beaten early in the second, and it looked like we’d lose at ETO Park for the first time this season. But then our star strikers saved the day, as a fit-again Barry hammered in a 20-yarder before a header from a resurgent Nebo completed the fightback.
Barry was back in business, as he showed with a decisive brace against Gyirmót. Some lazy defending in the closing stages allowed our neighbours to pinch one goal back, but that was all.
And finally, we kept the hot streak going by battling past MTK. Kovács came back to keep another clean sheet, but it was a second injury returnee – the fragile but fantastic Juhász – who won the day with a cool rebound finish in the 73rd minute after Jović’s header hit the post. That was just as well, because Barry had missed his THIRD penalty of the season just a couple of minutes earlier!
That puts us on another five-game winning run. Yes, only one of those victories has been by more than a single goal, but we’ve become masters at doing only what we needed to! And no Győr fans are complaining about our unflashy football when they look at the league table!
Unbelievable! Újpest had another wobble, so we will go into 2029 with a five-point championship lead! And what’s more, Ferencváros have drawn several more games and are now 11 points adrift! After a decade of total dominance, is this the season that Fradi’s monopoly of the Hungarian league comes to an end? Is this the season that Győr take over?
HALF-TIME REPORT
To finish off this chapter, I thought I’d write in a bit more depth about the highs and lows of our season so far. Firstly, let’s look at why we’ve become so much more stable defensively.
Captain Balázs Hirman and his regular centre-back partner Ciubotaru have become more consistent, and Hirman in particular is winning more headers, which was his big weakness last season. Playing a deeper defensive line has probably helped them a lot, but you could also argue that the arrival of covering defender Siniša Tanjga – who has started his Győr career very strongly – has motivated them to up their games.
There is, though, a much bigger factor behind our improved defensive record. George Kovács has been sensational in goal!
By George, he’s got it! Just look at those league stats!
14 matches, 11 clean sheets, only SIX goals conceded! In fact, Kovács has the league’s highest average match rating (7.41) and has only rated below 7.0 in two matches, which shows just how consistent the young Romanian is. He also has an incredible save ratio of 91% (10% higher than the next-best keeper), and even his ball distribution is very impressive for a goalie.
All this has seen George’s transfer value shoot up, and he’s attracted interest from several bigger clubs. This is a problem… because he has a £1.1million release clause in his contract. If we can’t agree a new contract to increase or even remove that clause, we may struggle to keep hold of him in January.
Losing Kovács would obviously put a lot more pressure on our defence… but it would also heap greater demands on our players further upfield. While our attacking record has been pretty decent, I feel like it could still be improved.
We are in the ‘Aggressive & Clinical’ sector of the Attacking Efficiency chart, but it doesn’t usually feel like it. While only Ferencváros and Újpest have more shots per game on average than us, our 41% shots on target ratio is actually among the lowest in the league.
We play at a pretty high tempo much of the time, and we often rush into shots that are either blocked by a defender or sail off target. Quick counter-attacks form a large part of our gameplan, but it might make sense to slow things down a bit, so we can take our time to string together some higher-quality chances, even if it gives opposing defenders more time to regroup.
And here’s another cause for concern: we’re picking up more injuries. They’ve mainly been minor ones at worst, but over recent months, we’ve been picking up more moderate injuries that have put some of our best players (including Barry, Ciubotaru and even Kovács) out for several matches.
I’ve already made changes to try and improve this situation. I’ve reduced the number of weekly training sessions and the intensity of those sessions. I’ve given days off to players at higher risk of injuries. I’ve even appointed a new Head of Sports Science, who earns a higher wage than my assistant manager!
It’ll be interesting to see how much impact these changes make after the winter break. Another long cup run would leave us with a very packed schedule from January to March, so we can’t really afford to lose our best players for extended periods. That is how unlikely title challenges often fall apart.
On the whole, though, it feels like we’re on the cusp of achieving something very special here at Győr. It would take a very attractive offer to even make me think about leaving ETO Park.
Ah, there’s an intriguing offer! Osijek are perennial challengers for the Croatian Prva Liga title and were champions in 2023 and 2026. Despite being just a few points off leaders Dinamo Zagreb, the Bijelo-plavi recently had a takeover, and the new president decided to make a fresh start by sacking the manager.
Osijek are financially secure, have some impressive talent in midfield (including Tiago Dantas and Volodymyr Shepelev) and played in the Europa League Group Stage earlier this year. I was flattered that a club of their stature was interested in me, and I would’ve had a very tough decision to make if they’d offered me the job.
Sadly, it wasn’t my decision to make in the end, as they went for a different manager instead. Incidentally, Alanyaspor also offered me an interview, but I had no desire to leave a title race for a mid-table scrap in Turkey.
No-siree. I’m seeing this title challenge out until the end. Even if it all falls apart in the new year, I don’t want to have any regrets about what could have happened…
So, Győr have a clear lead as they go into the second half of the season. Please come back next Monday to find out if ETO can keep the good form going – as they seek a first Hungarian championship since 2013!
Thanks for reading!
Fuller FM 
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