Top scorer, most appearances, most cards, most assists… First League 2011/12 – we have it all.
198 matches were played during the 33 rounds of the 20th edition of the domestic championship. The fans witnessed 501 goals or 2.53 per match. Home teams scored 310, while away teams added 191 goals. The biggest home win of the season was Metalurg’s 6:0 demolishing of Ohrid, while the biggest away win also occurred against Ohrid, with Renova celebrated a 1:7 shellacking. Interestingly, both of these matches took place in the final game of the first half and second half of the season, respectively. During the 15th matchday, the fans only saw 7 goals in 6 matches, while the last round has the most combined goals with a total of 31.
Vardar’s captain Filip Ivanovski was the top goalscorer in Macedonian First League for the 2011/12 season. He netted 24 goals in 32 matches, which was 7 more goals then second placed Borche Manevski of Rabotnichki. Geshoski, Nacev, Bajrami and Janchevski followed with 13 goals apiece.
Filip Petrov had the most assists during the past season with 10 assists, 9 of which came during the first half of the season. Rabotnichki’s Krste Velkoski followed with 9, while Zharko Simjanoski, Ardjent Gafuri, Goran Zdravkov and Ferhan Hasani each assisted on 8 goals.
As for the most yellow cards, Bregalnica’s Dushko Andonov and Napredok’s Gjore Mihajloski were tied with 11 yellow cards apiece, while Ohrid’s Nemanja Bradonjić received 10. Meanwhile, Nenad Mishkovski, Riste Markoski, Igor Kralevski, Saša Vasov and Toni Gjorgjevski all received 2 red cards during this season.
Horizont Turnovo’s keeper and captain, Stojan Dimovski, held the absolute lead when it came to playing time. He played all 33 matches as a starter and was never substituted. Milan Ilievski was in the Vardar starting lineup for 32 times and was once brought on as a substitute, meaning he appeared in all 33 matches for Vardar. A similar record was held by Sashko Ristov of Renova who appeared in all 33 matches, 32 times as a starter but he was brought off 3 times, while Ardjent Gafuri also played 33 times for Renova, but only 27 as a starter. Also from Renova, Metodija Stepanovski partook in 32 games and all of them in the starting lineup for the eventual domestic cup winner.
39 players featured for both Rabotnichki and Ohrid, which tied the two teams for the most used players. Rabotnichki was there since the club is known to give chances to many of its younger players, while Ohrid, due to its many financial problems, was forced to make many chances and was ultimately relegated to the second division.
Soon, MacedonianFootball.com will name the best player, best young player and best team for the recently concluded 2011/12 First League season.