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Catania was desperate to take away any points they could as they visited us to open May 2004. They needed at least a draw to preserve their chance of moving out of the bottom playout group. They were buoyed when they took the lead early on in the first half. We responded the same as we have all season- by turning on the pressure and making them pay for their mistakes. Antonio Donati and Mirko Pagliarini scored to leave us in front at halftime. We finished out the 4-1 win with goals from Gaetano Mancino and Giovanni Cioffi and assured Catania of a spot in the playout group.

Like Catania, Messina was also desperate for points- and especially a win- as they hosted us in our final match of the season. They were in 4th place, but even with both 3rd place Torres and 5th place Avellino at 54 points going into match. All 3 clubs were only a point ahead of 6th place Pescara to have a shot at the playoffs. They certainly seemed to want it more, as they went out to a quick 2-0 lead as we made some defensive mistakes. We weren't about to make it easy on them and we rallied in the second half. Donati got us one goal back in the early going. They were desperately trying to stave off our pressure when Giuseppe Del Gaudio pounced on a rebound and put it in for his 1st Crotone goal after a Marco De Santis header had bounced back off the cross bar. That 84th minute equalizer allowed us to salvage a 2-2 draw against them. Fortunately for them, the odd club out in the musical chair shuffle was Avellino- who lost at Lanciano 2-1 to fall out of the playoffs.

We finished the season close to 2 Million in the red, so while the Board was happy to be immediately returning to Serie B, they were also a little put out over the large deficit we ran during the season.

It was disappointing to close out the season with a loss, but we did as we lost to Treviso 2-1 in the Serie C1 Super Cup. We dominated the match, but didn't make the most of our chances. They had scored a fluke goal in the first half to gain the lead, but we had finally drawn even when Antonio Donati scored. They took advantage of a late free kick and Francesco de Francesco boomed home a 25 yard blast for his 10th goal of the season past Gabriele Paoletti to send our fans at Ezio Scida home disappointed.

There was one last celebration for the players. Seven players were selected as starters on the Serie C1B Players Team of the Year- Antonio Donati, Francesco Musumeci, Francesco Spezzano, Cristian Adami, Thomas Manfreddi, Federico Bracci and Gabriele Paoletti. Donati was also selected as Player of the Year for his performance.

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Summer 2004

San Marino finished 19th in Serie B. I won't miss seeing them as we move up and they move down- it still left a bitter taste in my mouth.

Despite the success of Crotone this season- the press wasn't going to give me any credit. They attributed it to the fact that Crotone had just suffered a down year to get relegated- and had bounced back stronger than ever. Never mind the retooling of their roster. I couldn't care less at this point, as the press and I had reached a cold war stage and we were ignoring each other.

I thought long and hard about it- but decided we needed to try and clear some of the debt facing the club. With that in mind, I transfer listed Mirko Pagliarini and Michele Bacis- both top wage earners- and hoped to get something to help. I was stunned when less than a week later it was announced that we now had a new Board. Not only that, but our 2 Million in debt was gone and they were making over 4 Million available in transfer funds. I had to thank somebody above for that kind of gift- now I also had to figure out how to either sooth feelings or follow through on trying to sell players.

We had already released Edoardo Artistico, Marco Pecorari, Carmine Leone, Stefano Negro, Matteo Rossi and Luigi Iaversi- all of whose contracts had run out in June. I didn't expect to miss any of them and had planned on all of them leaving.

With July 1st arriving, we greeted four new Bosman signings. David Baglioni was a familiar face, a DC who had thrived when I was at San Marino, but hadn't been played much after I left. Inicio Pia was a young Brazilian/Italian forward who had been playing sparingly at Atalanta and was willing to come to us for a chance to play regularly. Giuseppe Colucci had been an Under-21 player already, but had lost his starting role at Verona as midfielder and was willing to go to Crotone for a chance at starting. Emiliano Bonazzoli was a mid 20s SC who hadn't been able to crack the starting lineup at Parma and was looking for a chance to do so. The addition of those two forwards made me decide to continue trying to transfer Pagliarini.

Money in hand, I decided to wait on spending any of it- especially remembering all of last season's problems. With the free transfer of Andre Fiore to Cittadella and the release of Neto, Armando Piccorilli and the Bosman transfer of Giuseppe Geraldi to Rondinella we were making progress on reducing wages and trimming the fat off the roster. I did sign promising forward Alessandro Pellicori on free transfer after he was released by Lecce.

Our last addition before the Italian Cup competition started was the purchase of Andrea Iervasi from Potenza for 85K. Iervasi is an offensive minded left winger who should help provide midfield cover while getting a few starts.

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We hosted Serie A side Bari to open up the Italian Cup play. Despite having played well in our three friendlies- we didn't have a cohesive attack against the stronger club and they wound up taking the 1-0 win on the basis of a late second half goal. We didn't really play poorly, but we can't not be at our best and expect to do well against stronger sides.

Visiting fellow Serie B side Pistoiese, we played a stronger match- but were extremely fortunate to come away with a 1-0 win. Gabriele Paoletti was superb in net and earned his clean sheet bonus in this match. Our only goal came late in the second half when Emiliano Bonnazoli scored in his debut. David Baglioni's addition has helped the backline and he earned MOM honours in this match.

Our Serie B debut on the road at Ascoli was entirely forgettable. They scored early on us and then Francesco Musumeci earned a pair of quick yellow cards to leave us undermanned. They took advantage and scored their 2nd goal on a corner and then just ground it out in the midfield- preventing us from really challenging them as they finished out the 2-0 win.

It was a much better road match for us as we bested Rimini 3-1 in the final match of our Italian Cup Group 1. Though we won 3-1 on goals from Mirko Pagliarini, Giovanni Cioffi and surprisingly his 1st for us from Marco De Santis. The late goal we yielded hurt us as we wound up dead even with Bari on goals for and against (due to their 2-1 loss to Ascoli) and they ended up advancing because of their 1-0 win over us.

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The performance of Mirko Pagliarini finally convinced Cosenza to make a bid on him and I promptly accepted it. His sale for 850K likely ensures we will finish the season in the black now- since his large salary was a big burden on us. If possible, I don't plan to spend much of the funds available- since we are still going to be travelling down the redbrick road with our wages on a monthly basis and I want to finish this season in the black.

Our first match in September 2004 was a trip to visit Vicenza. They scored midway through the first half as we spent our time floundering around again- not making passes and not getting any offensive pressure. Gabriele Paoletti steadied after the first goal and kept us in the match. We broke through in the second half when Antonio Donati scored his 1st goal of the season off a nice pass from Inicio Pia to even things at 1-1. It looked like Pia had given us the lead moments later, but Donati was ruled offside and the goal was disallowed. We had to settle for the 1-1 draw as the final. It was a better performance for us, but we could have used the win.

We surprised favored Sampdoria in our first Serie B match in Ezio Scida. Francesco Pulidori gave us a quick lead with a beautiful move with the ball and a quick shot past Matteo Sereni. They quickly evened the match, but just as quickly we struck back when Alessandro Pellicori scored his 1st goal for us. The second half was a see-saw battle and it seemed we had gained a big advantage when Sereni brought down Giovanni Cioffi in the area. Gaetano Marcino converted the penalty kick to give us a two-goal lead. That lead lasted mere moments as they drew a goal back. We backed off and though they swarmed our net- they couldn't gain the equalizer as we finished out a 3-2 win.

A trip to last place Siena was another match we really wanted to win. Giuseppe Colucci started repaying the signing bonus as he led us to a close 2-0 win over the home side. We were helped in the first half by a Nelson Vivas own goal to get us into the lead, but it was Colucci's superb pass that found Emiliano Bonazzoli for the clinching goal late in the second half. Riccardo Morelli played well in keeping them off the scoreboard in this one.

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Our match at Ezio Scida to open October 2004 was very frustrating as we wound up in a scoreless draw against SPAL. Alessandro Pellicori scored twice in the second half, but he was ruled offsides both times and both goals were disallowed. Add to that the close chance we had at a late penalty kick that was waved off- and it left me feeling a bit poorly toward the referee.

A lot of our problems came out in the Lecce match as they embarrassed us 4-1 in front of our home fans. Aldo Osorio completely overpowered Federico Bracci on the backline, as he earned a hat-trick in the match. Gabriele Paoletti had his worst match for us and the free kick that he allowed late in the match just capped a poor performance. Our only goal came from Gaetano Mancino. The lack of heart on the players out there disappointed me and I made several lineup adjustments based on that.

The Board was very unhappy with our effort as we lost to rival Reggiana 1-0. The only reason the match was that close was that Paoletti had gotten himself together and played a superb match in net for us this time. We just can't get our offense rolling now- and we are missing the good chances that we generate. It was another disappointing effort and this entire month has been a frustration so far.

Our match against Napoli at Ezio Scida started on a bad note as Antonio Donati went down with leg injury in the opening moments (only missed 2 weeks fortunately). Giovanni Cioffi filled in well though and we came close to scoring three times after he subbed on. Napoli then scored on their first shot of the match as Roberto Stellone fired home his 5th of the season. They came close to breaking the match wide open with pressure to start the second half, but then it was our turn. Cioffi and Emiliano Bonazzoli scored within four minutes of each other and we made those goals stand up with a surprise 2-1 win over the 4th placed visitors.

In our trip to Verona, we finally showed a good glimpse of the excellent club we had been last season. They rattled the post in the early going, but Paoletti came up big and saved several chances to keep us even in the opening moments. Our quick strike offense showed up finally and we moved ahead 2-0 on goals from Bonazzoli and the 1st goal for Maurizio Costa. They drew one back, but Costa scored his 2nd of the match to make sure we led at half 3-1. We clinched the match late in the second half as Cioffi scored to give us a final winning margin of 4-1.

We wasted a chance to earn all three points for a win when we let visiting Cittadella score late in the match to bring them back to a 2-2 draw. They had scored first in the match, but we had rallied for goals by Bonazzoli and Mancino to move ahead in the second half. Stefano Trinchera couldn't cover Giorgio Gorgone and he raced in to score the equalizer on a rebound after Riccardo Morelli had parried away a blast from Sandro Gianni. With the draw we were in 8th place- but only 4 points out of 4th in the pack of trailing clubs for the promotion spots.

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Alex Brunner was better than Gabriele Paoletti in the televised battle of the keepers as we lost at home to Cosenza 1-0 to begin November 2004. It was disappointing, but we gave a good effort in the match. Antonio Donati continues to be the player most troubling me. After leading our club in scoring (and leading San Marino in scoring twice as well), he is having an off season so far- with only 1 goal so far. We lost Giuseppe Colucci before the match to a training injury and we missed him in midfield. Alessandro Pellicori went off with a strained ankle and we won't see him playing again for another month.

Cagliari outshot us 20-9 (including 14-5 in the first half alone) and we couldn't contain Fabrizio Cammarata as he scored a hat-trick in leading them to a 3-2 win over us at Sant'Elia. Our goals came from Donati and Bonazzoli, but it wasn't enough as our backline had little luck in marking Cammarata and he took full advantage of their failure.

We hosted Perugia desperate for a win to get us back on track. When they scored in the openining moments on a beautiful cross that was headed past Paoletti, you could almost hear our fans saying 'not again'. This match was different though as we turned up the pressure on them and Francesco Musumeci got us back to 1-1 midway through the first half. Donati scored after a brilliant run to give us the lead and Musumeci deflected a Donati corner in to move us ahead 3-1 at half. We put them away when Gaetano Mancino scored to make it 4-1 and they lost a lot of their heart. The win was a very big one, as we had slid to 14th in the standings, but the win boosted us back to 9th in the fluid table.

Despite outshooting Palermo 18-6, we fell them on Sicily by a 2-0 score. They scored an early goal on Riccardo Morelli and then added a late goal. We generated lots of chances, especially Antonio Donati, but we could not solve Vincenzo Sicignano in this one as he maintained a clean sheet and earned MOM honours for his efforts.

Since the beginning of October we had 3 wins, 2 draws and 5 losses- it was a bad string for us, yet we hadn't played all that bad. Of the five losses- three were by one goal. If we could just get a bit of offensive improvement, I was hoping our fortunes might change.

It was extremely amusing to see that Gianfraca Zola had jumped ship from San Marino to take over the Siena job. All those problems seem long past to me now, and even most of the press seems willing to now accept me as a genuine manager- but the bitter humour of all the tribulations at my starting point occasionally wash over me.

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Our first match in December 2004 was hosting the club immediately above us in the standings- Treviso. That made it an important match and we responded well. When their keeper- Marco Fortin- was redcarded for pulling Emiliano Bonazzoli down in the area at 14 minutes, we took full advantage. Gaetano Mancino converted the penalty kick to give us the lead. Antonio Donati and Bonazzoli also scored first half goals as we cruised home to a 3-0 win over the undermanned visitors.

It was a close match in our trip to Brescia, but we fell behind when towering Luca Toni proved too much for our defense to handle as he scored twice in the first half. We adjusted in the second half and Donati scored his 5th goal, but Federico Agliardi had the hot hand and we couldn't manage to get the equalizer past him- despite intense pressure and we lost 2-1.

Salernitana was aiming for a win when they visited us at Ezio Scida. Trailing us by a couple points in the standings, it was an important match for both clubs. After a scoreless first half we finally took the lead when Bonazzoli drove a hard, low shot for his 5th goal of the season. They promptly answered by converting a corner into a header past Gabriele Paoletti. Bonazzoli then scored the match winning goal midway through the second half. We had to survive a furious last minute rally from the visitors for the 2-1 win.

The day after the Salernitana match, I received an offer on Inacio Pia that I could not refuse. Kashima Antlers bid his minimum fee release of 1.2 Million and they offered him a rich contract compared to what we had with him- so he was on his way to Japan. Though I thought he had a lot of potential, he didn't seem to be adapting to our attacking system, so the loss wasn't too great to the club in overall terms.

With the loss of Pia and the impending loss of backup defender Michele Bacsis- I felt we had to get a little more cover. We signed off a pair of 21 yr old players off the free transfer list to help out. Antonio Setaro was an SC from the Roma youth program and Stefano Lanzellotto was a DLC out of the Modena youth system. I also released Alfredo Cardinale after his spending close to a year on the free transfer list without any takers.

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January 2005 brought the opening of the player transfer window again and Bacis left for Cosenza for 210K. I also let Francesco Spezzano go on free transfer to Messina. Spezzano hadn't been playing much this season and was close to declaring leaving on Bosman. I didn't want to pay his salary for the remainder of the season so free listed him to try and move him now.

It was a frustrating start to the New Year as we lost while visiting fellow promotees Lanciano. Gerardo Mattera, their young keeper, had a terrific match and though we had taken the lead early on an Antonio Donati goal- that was all we could manage despite a barrage of shots. Gabriele Paoletti wasn't quite as sharp in our net and they came from behind with a pair of second half goals to beat us 2-1.

Last place Pistoiese found us very poor hosts as we were still stung from the loss to Lanciano and took it out on them. By the fifteen minute mark we were ahead of our visitors 3-0 on goals from Alessandro Della Vella (1st at Crotone), Eros Schiavon and Giovanni Cioffi. Schiavon added his 2nd of the match before we allowed them a late consolation goal in our 4-1 win. With the win we reached the midpoint of our Serie B season in 10th place overall (27 pts.- 4th place Verona had 35, 17th place Lanciano had 16) and muddling along in the middle of the pack.

Our match against Ascoli was one of the wilder ones that I can remember. We were behind in the opening moments when Paoletti was yellow carded for taking down Saimon Crodino in the area and Salvatore Bruno converted the penalty kick. Minutes later we were up 2-1 after Gaetano Mancino and Giuseppe Colucci struck for goals less than three minutes apart. Colucci's had come on a free kick after Djiby Tagherset was redcarded for a tackle from behind. With only 10 men, they allowed Mancino to get free and he scored his 2nd goal to make it 3-1, but the referee gave that one back moments later when Thomas Manfredi was called for pushing Bruno in the area and Bruno converted his 2nd penalty kick to bring it back to 3-2. Donati blasted a low shot into the corner of the net to give us a 4-2 halftime lead. In the early moments of the second half Vittorio Pinciarelli pushed Federico Bracci in the air on a corner and Mancino converted the penalty kick for his hat-trick and a 5-2 lead. Ascoli wasn't done yet and got a goal back when they deflected a free kick past Paoletti. We kept the scoring quiet after that to finish out a 5-3 win that featured 3 penalty kicks, 9 yellow cards, and a host of bad feelings from Ascoli to the referee.

Lecce had all the answers as they hosted us in our next match. We didn't play badly, and had plenty of chances to score, but their keeper Antonio Chimenti played very well and they took advantage of their chances against Riccardo Morelli as they defeated us 2-0.

It was just a pile of frustrating events as we wound up in a 1-1 draw against Vicenza at Ezio Scida. Early in the match Gabriele Paoletti went down with a leg injury which will keep him out for the next month. Macino put us into the lead shortly after that, but it could have been 2-0 had Francesco Pulidori's goal not been lost to an offside call on Mancino. They evened the match just before half when Riccardo Morelli could not handle a low, skipping shot and it trickled past him. We pounded away the entire second half and wound up outshooting them 18-8, but we couldn't gain the go ahead goal and had to split the points.

Sampdoria had an easy time dumping us by a 2-0 margin at Genova. They outshot us 18-4 and only the fine play of Riccardo Morelli in net kept us in the match. We showed very little offensively and played an entirely forgettable match as they handled us with very little trouble.

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February 2005 started better for us than January ended as we hosted struggling Siena. For Zola, this was out of the frying pan at San Marino and into the fire- because they will likely be seeing San Marino in Serie C1A thanks to their struggles which have them in 18th place. It took a long hard match for us, but Antonio Donati contributed two second half goals and Eros Schiavon subbed on include his goal in the 3-0 win over Siena.

Our trip to Ferrara netted us nothing but a last minute 2-2 draw against last place SPAL. We took the first half lead on a goal from Donati, but they roared back with two goals in a five minute span to take the lead. Alessandro Pellicori salvaged the draw for us when he scored for the first time in months in second half injury time.

We gave a much stronger effort as we capitalized by two goals in a five minute stretch in the first half to edge Reggina 2-0. Donati and Giovanni Cioffi both scored on volleyed shots off good passes to provide the margin in the match. Our backline played a very strong match in support of Morelli's clean sheet.

At the 26 match mark (2/3 of the way through), we were currently 9th place in Serie B. We were 10 points adrift of 4th place Verona and 15 points ahead of 17th place Treviso and seemed well locked into a midtable finish- which was much better than the previous Serie B campaigns for Crotone as they had been in relegation battles.

Napoli was going to be tough to stay with 11 men, but Francesco Musumeci's early redcard put us in a bad way against them. We managed to survive a scoreless first half, but the roof fell in when we tired in the second half and we fell them by a 3-1 score. Our only goal was a consolation goal scored by Emiliano Bonazzoli late in the match.

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March 2005 began with a dazzling performance from Antonio Donati as he almost singlehandedly keyed an impressive 3-1 win over Verona. Donati's first half goal had given us the lead, but they evened with a free kick past Gabriele Paoletti just before half. Paoletti, who had a splendid match in his return from injury, made no more mistakes and was ably supported by our backline. Donati's pass sprung Giuseppe Colucci to score the go ahead goal and then we got a late header from Alessandro Pellicori to finish off the important 3-1 win.

We had to fight back in our trip to Cittadella. An unlucky first half (or poor shooting depending on your viewpoint) saw us hit the crossbar three times. They finally scored the first goal of the match midway through the second half when they knocked a rebound back past Paoletti. Thomas Manfredi picked a nice time to score his 1st goal of the season as he scored off a nice run with the match just moving to second half injury time and we were able to salvage the 1-1 draw.

Donati had given us a slender lead in our match at Cosenza, but we frittered that away with a bad play that gave them a penalty kick (converted) and poor coverage that led to another goal off a corner that left us trailing in the second half. Giuseppe Sculli finally chipped in with his 1st goal of the season and we forged another road draw as we finished out with a 2-2 final score.

It was a lost chance when we squandered a 1-0 lead in a close match hosting Cagliari. They scored a late equalizer and it was another draw for us- this time of the 1-1 variety. Sculli had scored our only goal earlier in the second half, but it was another match that saw several missed chances for us.