Stal after being relegated from the first division and losing their strikers: Helmut Tobollik (he had prematurely ended his football career three months earlier due to a heart defect) and Stefan Gabrysiak (return to Poznan Warta), despite Michał Matyas returning to Mielec as coach, started its sixth ever second league season not well. After four rounds, it had just three points on its account (away 2-3 with Debek Katowice and 1-1 with Slask Wrocław, at home 0-2 with Szombierki Bytom and 2-0 with Polonia Bydgoszcz), while the team from Upper Silesia, always famous for putting up tough conditions, won one point more. The Stalowcy in this meeting played extremely generously and imaginatively, but were unlucky. It was the hosts who enjoyed a goal after just seven minutes (some sources attribute the suicide goal to goalkeeper Mysiak, as the ball bounced off the crossbar and into his hands, only to find itself in the net a moment later), despite the fact that it was our players who were moving the ball from foot to foot, and they fired a hail of shots at Apostel’s goal (including Czylok in the 23rd minute, past the post, and Gazda three minutes later, straight at the local goalkeeper).
After a sharp reprimand from coach Matyas in the changing room at halftime, the Steelmen attacked even more boldly in the second 45 minutes. The blue-and-whites created a lot of actions from which the equaliser could have fallen. First, in the 53rd minute, Kapuscinski missed by a few centimetres, then Płaneta, introduced after the break in place of Kleszcz, fired an atomic shot at the Gliwice goal. For quite a long time, this onslaught of the Mielec players did not bring the expected benefits, and the game itself evened out a bit. Finally came the 86th minute of the game. A rally down the left side was started by Harężlak, who then sent a centre pass to Gazda. The latter flicked the ball over Apostle and Rajmund Kapuscinski, running in from the other side, just in front of the goal line, put the ball into the Piast net. Local journalists covering the second league match in the Silesian press were unanimous in declaring after the match that there had not been such a good game in their region this autumn. Mielec’s defence, led by Opiełka and the highly effective King, did very well on that day.
09.09.1962 – Gliwice, 5th round 2nd League, Piast Gliwice – Stal Mielec 1-1 (1-0)
Referee: Składzień (Krakow) Spectators: 4,000
Piast: Apostel – Chrobok, Urbańczyk, Heller, Mielnik, Majka, Koszera, Janowski, Koronowski, Dera, Stach Coach: H.Skolik
Stal: Mysiak – Opiełka, Król, Rachwał, Budek, Gazda, Czylok, Kleszcz (46 Płaneta), Lupa, Harężlak, Kapuściński Coach: M.Matyas
Goals: Stach 7 – Kapuściński 86 min.
Steel’s league balances against their rival from Gliwice at the two highest levels of the competition look as follows: in the top division the two teams faced each other 7 times (1 win for Stal, 2 draws, 4 defeats; goals: 5-13), in the 2nd division they competed 12 times, including 1 match repeated due to a referee’s error (4 wins for Stal, 3 draws, 5 defeats, goals: 15-17). In the Polish Cup, Stal played against Piast four times (4 defeats, goals: 1-7 / penalties 3-4/).
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