Last-minute goal keeps Ardagger in Regionalliga

Fans and club board of SCU Ardagger were pardoned in the penultimate championship round before the execution to an extra time on the torture rack: In the last quarter of an hour, the Mostviertel eleven turned the game against the Young Violets on their own turf in front of the dying home crowd, Ferdinand Unterbuchschachner scored the 2-1 winning goal in the 90th minute – just in time before the lights went out in the Regionalliga Ost.

Coach Peter Zeitlhofer can now turn things around at the last minute after his predecessor Michael Unterberger announced that he would be leaving the club in the summer and was promptly replaced. The lesson that can be learned from the 2-1 home victory over the Viennese is that SCU Ardagger’s chance of staying in the league was not going to be killed, it is still alive somehow.

The fact that fellow relegation candidate FC Mauerbach (the Viennese club that was once called FC Karabakh under the backer Orxan Valiyev from Azerbaijan) and the merger club of the Werkselfen of the Viennese tram and gas workers, TWL Elektra, split 1:1 played into the hands of the Mostviertel team. SCU Ardagger must win away against TWL Elektra on Friday, the margin of victory is irrelevant, only three points are needed. Then FC Mauerbach, which also rose to the Regionalliga Ost via the Viennese league, must not win against Neusiedl am See for anything in the world, a draw would save the Mostviertel team, assuming of course that they won their game. The final kicks off at 7.30 p.m. for SCU Ardagger. Only a few weeks ago, remaining in the league already seemed hopeless. On Friday evening, the cell phones and live tickers will be glowing.

There will be no derby in the regional league against SCU Amstetten: The Ertl-Glas team will remain in the Bundesliga after other clubs had their licenses revoked.