Four seasons ago, Viking North Utsire were playing their fourth consecutive campaign down in Division 3, a modern-day nadir for a club who'd last blitzed through that level 30 seasons ago in the middle of consecutive promotions from Division 4 to Division 2. Back in Season 40, that second promotion was followed by four straight goes around in Div 2b, before two more back-to-back elevations saw VNU win Div 1a at their maiden attempt at the second tier to charge directly into the Ultimate League top flight for the first time -- 12 seasons after boss VelvetAndroid's first full campaign in charge began with a newly-relegated side in Division 6 for Season 32.
Neither that first crack at the top tier, nor a second three seasons later, nor a third three seasons after that, resulted in the Norsemen successfully staying up at the highest level. They did however achieve a run of 12 successive campaigns in the top two tiers, and after demotion back to Div 2b in Season 61 and 62 followed with another two back in Div 1a. Yet this time the Utsirans struggled to rise above midtable and another relegation was followed by two more seasons in 2b... and the downwards trend continued as on this occasion their exit from that division was downwards, dumping them back into Division 3 after 23 seasons away.
Stability followed, however, with three consecutive 3rd-place finishes in Divs 3d and 3c, before a return to 3d for Season 66 brought a first fourth-tier title since Season 40. And this was promptly -- if unexpectedly -- parlayed into a Div 2b title the very next season, before an even more unexpected assault on promotion to the top flight saw the Utsirans produce a magnificent 10-2-2, 30-7 campaign in Div 1a to only narrowly miss out behind Partizan Belgretna and record their best season (and only their second double-digit wins haul) since going 13-0-1 down in Div 5:26 back in S34.
Then, however, Android ruined all his team's hard work by totally forgetting about the top-flight playoff against the Div 1b runners-up 48 hours later, leaving his rudderless side to lose and condemning them to another go around in the second tier. The following season they performed not nearly as well, going only 6-5-3, 16-11 in the same group -- yet somehow stumbled into 2nd spot once more. And, would you know it, 48 hours later... er, Android forgot about the playoff. Again.
And so this past season saw Viking have yet another crack at Div 1a -- and, after a slowish start in a competitive group, they hit their stride at the halfway point and rather surprisingly accelerated clear by winning six matches on the spin after the midseason turnaround. Last Monday saw them come within touching distance of making it seven out of seven, after Noralf Austrheim's penalty had them ahead half an hour in at 2nd-placed Gloria Bistrita. But the hosts, with two other clubs to fend off in the battle for the playoff slot, went up a gear after the hour mark and striker Rune Danelius scored twice in five minutes to turn the result on its head.
In the end, it didn't make a difference. VNU just failed to match their record of two seasons earlier, but still won the division by 2 points, as top scorers and with the tightest defence. They will return to the Ultimate League after 18 seasons away. More remarkably, 28-year-old midfielder Noralf, who had rationed out a mere 18 career goals across 166 games in 9 seasons as a professional previously, enjoyed an astonishing breakout season with 14 goals, 9 of them coming in the league to earn him a utterly unforeseen Golden Boot as 1a's top scorer.
Further good news was to follow, as lead striker Conrad Austrheim elected not to announce his retirement despite suffering a horrible crocking late in the penultimate fixture and turning 37 this week. Having had a relatively quite campaign one season earlier ( a mere 12 goals, 4 of them in the league, after hitting 34 in 27 games (12 in 14 in the league) the term before that, he bounced back in style in the Ultimate League Cup in particular, racking up 21 in as many total appearances for his third highest haul of his career. And despite the fact time is now evidently going to be very rapidly catching up with him, Austrheim's desire to make at least one dent in the elite means he is going to hang around for two seasons or more yet before he hangs his boots up.
After the retirement this week of veteran goalkeeper Clemens Kvalvik, Conrad is one of just three current Viking players ever to have represented the club at the topmost level. The only other survivors from the squad who last played in the UL are 35-year-old defender Eberhard Hovland, who was a 17-year-old rookie in Season 53 and like Conrad appeared just twice, and his cousin the 37-year-old midfield general Baldur Hovland -- who with 7 outings that season represents the lion's share of the mere 11 total top-division appearances made by the entire current Utsiran squad.
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