Stal treated matches against the club from the capital extremely prestigious, and so it was this time too. After six series with an extremely promising line-up, our team had 7 points on their account (7th place), while the opponent had one point less, which gave them 11th place. The Warriors looked better than the Mielec team in the first leg, attacking Stawarz’s goal time and time again. They had the two best opportunities, first in the 36th minute (after a free-kick by Baran, the ball went to Adamczyk, who missed a one-on-one with our goalkeeper), and then five minutes later, when Milewski fatally missed a good opportunity. Not much can be written about the Stalowcy ‘s game in this part of the game, apart from a good defensive performance.
At the break, coach Józef Walczak set the blue and white players to play more offensively. Until the break, the striker pair Janikowski – Łatka, who had been alone in their actions, were finally supported. Ciolek’s accurate play on the ball, Frankowski’s activity and Hnatia’s inexhaustible lungs were the deciding factors. The first goal-scoring action of the match was started in the 62nd minute by stopper Lukasik. He hit a powerful shot from 20 metres at Kazimierski’s goal. The ball, deflected by the sleepy goalkeeper, was easily caught by Andrzej Łatka, who drove around the goalkeeper and put it into the net. After the Mielec players took the lead, the game got tougher and the referee could not keep up with the correct verdicts. The visitors were beaten by Janikowski’s action a minute before the end of the game. He won the duel with Załężny at the back line and accurately passed the ball to Włodzimierz Ciołek, who ran in to complete the formalities. Thus, the 13th consecutive unbeaten match between Mielec and Legia became a fact. After the final whistle, an extremely upset Warsaw coach Kazimierz Górski commented on the final result in Przegląd Sportowy: – If it wasn’t for the poor performance of the goalkeeper and the entire defensive block we could have taken 1 point out of Mielec. The team did not fully implement the tactical assumptions, which was reflected in the game. Stal has a young team, plays well, but on the verge of foul play.
It was also interesting that day both in the stadium during this match and afterwards in the streets of the city, especially in the square in front of the House of Culture. Groups of supporters of both FKS and Legia (around 60 people) clashed repeatedly not for the first and last time in this century (as the 1980s and 1990s showed), and the policemen of the time had a lot of work that day. There was no shortage of arrests and referrals to the college for punishment…
12.09.1981 – Mielec, 7th round of the 1st league, FKS PZL-Stal Mielec – Legia Warszawa 2-0 (0-0)
Referee: Grzesiuk (Ełk) Spectators: 12,000
Stal: Stawarz – Mrowiec, Oratowski, Łukasik, Kubicki, Hnatio, Ciołek, Tyburski, Frankowski (ż), Janikowski, Łatka Coach: J.Walczak
Legia: Kazimierski – Topolski, Janas, Załężny, Milewski (ż), Baran, Miłoszewicz (72 Kakietek), Majewski, W.Sikorski (62 Kwapisz), Adamczyk, Kusto Coach: K.Górski
Goals: Latka 62, Ciołek 89 min.
In summary, the balance of Stali’s first league (ekstraklasa) matches against Legia was 55 (20 wins, 14 draws, 21 defeats, goals: 67-67). 3 matches were played in the Polish Cup (0 wins for Stal, 1 draw, 2 defeats, goals: 4-9. 1 match was played in the 1977 League Cup, which ended in a 1-1 draw.
Leszek Śledziona
Photo: Leszek Śledziona’s archive
