The visitors were the first to attack, and in the 19th minute, after Iwanicki’s free kick, Świątek’s header was inaccurate and Wojdyga kicked the ball into the area. A few dozen seconds later, Stal retaliated with an angular strike from Filipczak, which was deflected into the corner by Bolesta. Literally five minutes passed and the Mielec stands exploded. It was then that Marek Lizończyk, who returned to our team after six months of injury treatment (the same happened to Bogusław Skiba), finished off a team action by the Mielec team. The decisive event, as it turned out later, was started by the conductor of the blue-and-white eleven – Krzysztof Tochel. He played to the hosts’ best player on the day, Maciej Śliwowski, who hit the ball into the Lodz goal. In turn, the ball was knocked out by Widzów defender Przybyby again under the feet of Sliwka, who, after running a few metres, played the ball back to Lizończyk, who entered the scoring list.

The second half was marked by an optical advantage of the RTS players. Our team focused on playing from the counter, also excelled in defensive tasks, not allowing the rival to develop shooting opportunities. The Steelers, on the other hand, created two opportunities to increase the score. First, in the 66th minute, Skiba wasted a good opportunity in the penalty area. Then, 11 minutes later, Lizończyk received a perfect pass from Tyburski and, being one-on-one with the visitors’ goalkeeper, sent the ball past the post. Widzew retaliated in this period of the game with a strong but off-target strike from behind the penalty area line by Iwanicki. That was as much as Widzew could afford that day.

After the match, opponents’ coach Lenczyk criticised his players – It is difficult to play even with four strikers when you cannot shoot accurately. This win against Widzew in the final analysis of the whole season gave the FKS players little. Despite the 3-1 victory, in the last round in an away match against Olimpia in Poznań, a decision by PZPN deducted points and goals from Stala for …seemingly setting up that match. Another relegation to the 2nd division, the third in history, became a fact.

08.03.1987 – Mielec, 16th round 1st league, FKS PZL-Stal Mielec – Widzew Łódź 1-0 (1-0)

Referee: Grzesiuk (Ełk) Spectators: 3.000

Stal: Wojdyga – Skiba, Duchnowski, Łukasik, Bedryj, Tyburski, Tochel (84 Porębny), Czachowski (75 Urbanek), Śliwowski, Lizończyk, Filipczak Coach: W.Jakubowski

Widzew: Bolesta – Cisek (46 Wraga), Dziuba, L.Iwanicki, Kajrys, Kamiński, Leszczyk (80 Szulc), Młynarczyk, Przybyś, Putek, Świątek Coach: O.Lenczyk

Goal: Lizończyk 26 min.

In summary, the balance of only extra-class matches between Stali and Widzew was 37 matches (6 wins for Stali, 15 draws, 16 defeats, goals: 38-51). One meeting was played in the Polish Cup, a 0-2 defeat for Stali. 3 matches were played in the League Cup in 1977 and 1978 (unofficial) (1 win, 2 defeats; goals: 2-3).

Leszek Śledziona

Photo: Leszek Śledziona’s archives