Time running out for Mattersburg

Two seasons ago SV Mattersburg were dreaming of European football, now a place in the Austrian top flight is the extent of their ambition as they look to end a run which has seen them win just once in 23 games.

High hopes
With six matches remaining, Mattersburg are joint-bottom of the Bundesliga alongside SCR Altach with 20 points from 30 games following their 2-0 defeat at FC Salzburg on Saturday. Mattersburg came into this season with big ambitions following two successful campaigns; the reality has been very different. They reached the Austrian Cup final in 2006 and 2007, losing both times to FK Austria Wien, and earned a shot at the UEFA Cup in 2006/07 only to lose 2-1 on aggregate to Wisla Kraków in the second qualifying round.

Decent start
This term coach Franz Lederer was hoping his youthful team – nine players at the start of the season were 20 years or younger – could establish itself in the upper echelons of the Bundesliga. "Places three to five are a realistic goal for us," Lederer said before the campaign. It was not to be. After making a decent start Mattersburg were sixth in the league seven games into the campaign. Since then they have won just once in 23 league matches.

Disappointment
Prior to beating fellow strugglers Altach 5-4 on 10 April Mattersburg had gone 21 games without a win, a sequence that revealed just how badly they were missing retired playmaker Dietmar Kühbauer and Christian Fuchs, who had joined German club VfL Bochum 1848. Ledar's youngsters seemed rudderless without their former team-mates to guide them. "We're in a situation where we can't really swap any players so we just have to do the best with what we have," said club president Martin Pucher, who is staying loyal to Lederer. "We may have played some horrible games in the autumn and we looked powerless, but our coach Franz Lederer is from Mattersburg and he has celebrated a lot of success with the club. He has the energy we need to keep us from being relegated."

Time running out
Lederer has been with the club since 2001 and was assistant coach from 2002 to 2004 before taking over as head coach on 1 November 2004. He is also convinced Mattersburg will stay up despite the precarious situation they find themselves in. "If we play focused football until the final day of the season and don't sit back and relax, then we will not be relegated," he said. Lederer has six games to ensure that happens.