6th December Playoff Final: Avispa Fukuoka 1 - 1 Cerezo Osaka

How did we get here? Well we drew the playoff semi-final 0-0 (of course) with FC Ehime which meant that we "won" by virtue of finishing above them in the regular season (can you see where this is going?). So we needed to win the final to go up. I was one of the few (perhaps the only) Cerezo fans (there were almost 30,000) who genuinely wanted us to lose. Why? We have been rubbish all season and I'm pretty sure we'd come straight back down. We finished 15 points behind Fukuoka who had a storming season. We played both these playoff games in our home stadium when it should be played on a neutral ground which annoyed a lot of J. League supporters. At this point Paulo Autuori had resigned and Kiyoshi Okuma was at the helm. I was happy to be in J2 another year, Fukuoka deserve it and at least stand a chance of staying in J1. Hopefully we can learn how to put a run together and finish in the automatic promotion spots next year. 

Our fans have been great all season, unfortunately the team has not, we belong in J2

Plenty of Fukuoka fans happy with the 1-1 victory. All the best in J1!

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4th Oct 2015: Cerezo Osaka 0 - 1 Avispa Fukuoka

Bear in mind Avispa Fukuoka were the team we ended up playing in our home stadium for the J1 promotion playoff final. Wellington had his shooting boots on this particular day despite the worst efforts of the 3 Cerezo players near him. Again we were still averaging very respectable gates, over 13,000 on this day, considering the quality of the football we had to endure.

Again it looks like they didn't bring so many fans but it's a massive stadium in J2!

How do the supporters put up with it?

Avispa Fukuoka 1 - 0 Cerezo Osaka Golden Week Result

I'm pretty sure I went to an away game in Fukuoka a few years ago but have no idea whether that was in J1 or J2 at the time. I was either too happy, disappointed or lazy to blog about it as I can find no record but I do remember having Hakata ramen and the stadium too. Anyway this was certainly in J2, none of our managers ever place any emphasis on defending set-pieces and those chickens have come home to roost...or went away to roost in J2 on this occasion.

Cerezo...back down to planet J-League

We got our first win of the season away to Avispa Fukuoka. Our last game was at Kincho against Yokohama and the referee. Uemoto got sent off for...nothing? We tried our best, Nagai ran his heart out. Inui was missing due to a possible move to the Bundesliga? Next game on Saturday away to Ventforet Kofu. Cerezo fans don't look below:

We only had 10 men

Marinos fans applauding the referee?

But unlike any other J-League team we are in the next round of the ACL facing Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors in September.