Probably the most interesting of all third leagues went on a winter break with former giants Kozhuf and Borec fighting for promotion, something that many fans are eager to finally see.

The third league South this season features 14 teams that so far played 13 rounds, ending the half-season on December 4. The winter in these south parts of Macedonia is not as harsh as in the north-west area, so the teams were able not to hurry by playing midweek rounds. One team, 11 Oktomvri, quit participating due to financial problems but remained on table as they played half on the half-season matches, 7 to be more precise. Their remaining matches were awarded 3:0 to the opponents.

Half-season winners – Kozhuf is the autumn champion ending at the top with 36 points, with 1 defeat, no draw and 12 wins. They were only defeated in the road game in Veles by Prevalec with 1:0. In the 13 games they managed to score 38 goals and concede only 7.

Second-place – Half-season runners-up is the team of Pobeda from the small town of Valandovo. Many expected to see Borec here, but Pobeda collected 2 points more. They are 5 points behind Kozhuf with a score of 10 wins, 1 draw and 2 defeats. They lost 3:1 by the leaders away in Gevgelija, but beat Borec on the road with 1:0.

Promotion – Together with the East and the Southwest, this league will be very interesting when it comes to promotion. At this moment Kozhuf enjoys a decent lead on the top and stands huge chance to win direct promotion. As we have previously mentioned, the winners of the East and South will be promoted directly to the new second league East that will feature 10 teams. The places from 2 to 4 from both East and South may (but not necessarily) also get promoted depending on which teams will get relegated from the upper leagues. But that will be known after the season ends and the first two leagues will be concluded. So, the battle for this places will also be strong. Pobeda, Borec and Napredok seem determined to end in the top 4, but we can never rule out the tough team of Prevalec who at the moment is 6 points away from the fourth place.

Regelation – Due to the problem with the expanding second league, it is unclear how many teams will be relegated or even if any team will face relegation. Of course, expect teams that quit the league, like 11 Oktomvri did.

Underperformers – 11 Oktomvri is definitely the biggest disappointment so far. The team 6 seasons ago played its debut season in the top flight, while 4 seasons ago played in the second league. Now they came to point when they couldn’t even finish a season in the third league and probably in the first time since the Macedonian independence they will play in the 4th league (we do not have their record only for the first three seasons). In the few games they featured they even failed to win any points.

Surprise – Newly promoted team Napredok from the village of Krusheani is the biggest surprise. A team that until the 2014/15 season played in the 5th league, Napredok managed to gain promotion after winning the 4.MFL Prilep and later eliminating Babuna on penalties in the play-offs. It wasn’t expected for this team to be ranked this high, actually almost everyone predicted a very low place for them. But, Napredok showed some outstanding performances winning 9 games and losing only 2. Their start wasn’t good, with a 7:0 defeat by Borec in the Round 2, but then they had a 5 games run without defeat and in the last round even beat Pobeda in Valandovo.

Goalscorers – Borec is the team with most goals scored, 42, but Kozhuf and Pobeda were also very efficient with 38 each. Three players, one from each of these three teams, are tied at the goal scoring table.

Top 5 scorers:
10
Gjorgji Gjorgjiev (Borec)
Daniel Lazarovski (Kozhuf)
Oliver Marinkovikj (Pobeda)
9
Nikola Kostadinov (Pobeda)
Marjan Kostadinov (Mladost)

Own goals – Five own goals were scored by 5 different players, all from different clubs.

1
Bojan Kasnioski (Golemo Konjari)
Trajche Kitanovski (Zorbas-Pobeda)
Martin Mitev (Borec)
Nikolche Neshkoski (Napredok)
Pepi Trajkov (Mladost)

Discipline – 276 yellow and 12 red cards were shown in the 85 matches. Zorbas-Pobeda received only 10 yellow cards, while Mladost leads with 29. Nearly half of teams, 6, did not got a red card.

Yellow cards (by club):
29 – Mladost
28 – Rosoman 83
26 – Partizan
25 – Napredok
24 – Prevalec
21 – Borec, Pitu Guli
19 – Kozhuf, Pobeda
15 – Golemo Konjari
13 – 11 Oktomvri, Dojransko Ezero, Gemidjii
10 – Zorbas-Pobeda

Red cards (by club):
2 – Golemo Konjari, Napredok, Pitu Guli, Zorbas-Pobeda
1 – 11 Oktomvri, Borec, Mladost, Rosoman 83

Yellow cards (by player):
4
Vlado Zdravkov (Gemidjii)
Mihail Panev (Kozhuf)
Milan Atanasov (Mladost)
Hristijan Kukeski (Partizan)
Vasil Petkov (Pobeda)
Toshe Arsov (Rosoman 83)

Players – 18 players were 100% regular this half-season. They played the whole 90 minutes in each round their team played and were never substituted. With 11 Oktomvri forfeiting 6 of their games, some players do not have the maximum of 13 games. Even 3 players from the problematic team made the list.

Most regular players:
13/13 Jordan Jovanovski, Kristijan Kolevski (Dojransko Ezero)
13/13 Oliver Marinkovikj, Vasil Petkov (Pobeda)
13/13 Gjorgji Iliev, Mile Micev (Zorbas-Pobeda)
13/13 Kiril Ivanovski, Blagoj Levkov (Borec)
13/13 Kristijan Taleski (Napredok)
13/13 Jani Pazhikj (Pitu Guli)
12/12 Stefche Ilievski, Marjan Trpkov, Gjore Crnushev, Antonio Chokov (Prevalec)
12/12 Pavle Petrov (Gemidjii)
7/7 Vladimir Beshovski, Dejan Nasteski, Kire Trajkoski (11 Oktomvri)

Biggest wins – Borec are the holders of the highest win this half-season, actually two games with the same score involving them. They managed to score 8 goals past the teams of Dojransko Ezero in the opening round and Golemo Konjari in the Round 4. They even hold the second highest win of 7:0.

Borec – Dojransko Ezero 8:0, Borec – Golemo Konjari 8:0
Borec – Napredok 7:0
Pobeda – Golemo Konjari 6:1
11 Oktomvri – Pobeda 0:5

Highest scoring games – Two games with the exact result of 7:4 are the highest scoring games. The fans in Nov Dojran and Veles enjoyed 7:4 home wins.

11 at Dojransko Ezero – Golemo Konjari 7:4, Gemidjii – Partizan 7:4
9 at Mladost – Borec 3:6
8 at Borec – Dojransko Ezero 8:0, Borec – Golemo Konjari 8:0
7 at Borec – Napredok 7:0, Pobeda – Golemo Konjari 6:1,
Gemidjii – Mladost 5:2 and Napredok – Mladost 4:3
6 at Mladost – Kozhuf 1:5, Mladost – Rosoman 83 5:1, Partizan – Golemo Konjari 4:2
and Dojransko Ezero – Zorbas-Pobeda 4:2

Now there is a long winter break as the second half-season will begin in March next year.