As one of the most famous Macedonian clubs, Pelister still dreams of the first league title. It surely won’t happen this season as despite having a strong start to the season, a 77-day winless streak complicated their position in the table, after which the Bitola based club found itself in a fight for avoiding relegation.

photo by FK Pelister Bitola: Milan Stojanoski

The managerial change gave results: with the arrival of Milan Stojanoski things normalized and the Green-whites continued to win points and present themselves in a better light, and were close to winning away at Arsimi in the last round of the autumn season.

“The fight for avoiding relegation will be fought between several quality teams. We missed out on a win against Arsimi in the last round, although we could have secured a sure win on two occasions when we had the lead. Those mistakes came back to us like a boomerang and Arsimi equalized and could have even made a turnaround. I am satisfied with the match, I congratulated the players, but at the end of the season I lack two points for a peaceful sleep. We also had other missed chances, especially with Makedonija GjP, but there are enough matches in the spring season where we can show what we know and are capable of. I have a high opinion of our rivals like Tikvesh and Brera, so I hope that the better ones will stay in the league.” – said Stojanoski in a interview for FFM.

Commenting on what lies ahead, Stojanoski believes they have a solid plan that will allow them to achieve good results after the winter break

“In the break between the two parts of the season we must think and fix the weak points that we noticed this fall. For various reasons, the club was not in the desired position at the start of the season, but now I think we have the complete picture and we will gather strength to get out of the crisis. We will try to bring in several reinforcements, at least four players for four positions, and then carry out quality preparations, in order to be ready for the second part. We will have the first meeting right after the Christmas holidays, and in the second half of January we will continue to Antalya, where in addition to preparations we will also have several friendly matches.” – commented the coach born in Serbia, but represented Macedonia making a total of 27 appearances and scoring one goal.

He also has advice on raising the quality of play in championship matches.

“We were unable to show our best game mainly due to the poor pitches during this period of the year. I think the audience is deprived of watchable and more interesting football due to the pitches that have lost quality after the heavy rains. The mere shortening of the league will not provide quality if the pitches are not improved.” – points out the head of Pelister’s coaching staff.

Pelister will open the second half season by hosting Rabotnichki on 6/7 February in Bitola.