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.
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| Our fans have been great all season, unfortunately the team has not, we belong in J2 |
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| Plenty of Fukuoka fans happy with the 1-1 victory. All the best in J1! |
