Several talented youngsters were given the chance in the first team for the season ahead. They included forward Jozsed Ress, Gyorgy Novath and Tibor Nagy. Midfielders Sandor Olajos and Lajos Florian and defender Gabor Horvath and Csaba Brettner.

Defender Karoly Czeczeli left Vidi during April and Jozsef Szabo, Ferenc Csongradi and Lajos Majer were all called up for military service. 

Good start followed by big slide

The team took part in the Intertoto cup before the season, which included matches against French, Dutch and Belgium opponents. 

Videoton – La Louviere 6-1, 0-1
Videoton – FC Utrecht 0-1, 3-3
Videoton – Laval 2-1, 2-1

The season kicked off with a 1-1 draw away in Csepel instead of the regular defeat. Salgotarjan were beaten 2-1 as were MAV Elore by a 3-0 scoreline. There was a 1-1 draw with Tatabanya to see the team into 3rd place. The team then suffered a bad loss of form and nose dived down the league. The remaining 13 games saw just 3 wins and 6 defeats.

The first floodlit match also came during autumn at the Sostoi stadium. That was on the 18th November 1978 in a match against Budapest Honved. The new scoreboard also saw its first game in action and a goal from Novath gave Vidi a 1-0 win. That was the youngsters first goal in the NBI.

Many considered the 8th place target as unbelievable taking into consideration the high finish of the season before. The autumn season would confirm what the management of the club had thought. The team did in patches perform very well and ended the first half of the season in 10th place with 5 wins, 6 draws and 6 defeats with 16 points on the board.

Pre-season in Egypt

The team flew out to Egypt in January to take place in a tournament. There were three loan players from Ujpest that linked up in the form of Andrass Toth, Andras Torocsik and Laszlo Fazekas. There were 1-1 draws with National Egypt and the Alexandria best XI. Videoton were given a fine welcome during their stay in the country.

A slightly better spring

The soldiers returned from duty with Jozsef Szabo, Ferenc Csongradi and Lajos Majer all coming back for the second half of the season. That started with a 0-0 draw with Csepel. 

Videoton were slightly better over the spring season with several good matches including a 2-0 win over Ferencvaros, 3-1 against MTK and a 2-0 home win over Raba ETO with goals coming from Szabo and Burcsa. The final game of the season saw a 3-2 win over Dunaujvaros with defender Gabor Horvath making his debut in that match. He would go on to become a key player for the club over several seasons. Vidi won that match 3-2 to secure 34 points coming from the 12 wins, 10 draws and 12 defeats. It was a fall back from the season before as the team ended 1978-79 in 9th place.

The top 5 teams pulled away from the rest of the other teams and there the three teams ahead of Vidi all ended with 35 points to their name.

(fotó: ismeretlen szerző)