As we draw close to the end of yet another chapter in Vipers FC’s short history, the club will look back upon an eventful 12 months and hope that better is in store for them come 2012.
In a true case of mixed fortunes, the Vipers’ senior team clinched their first ever amateur football top flight league crown in the initial half of the year, ousting challengers Gaelic Lions and British Club to the coveted EFL trophy en route to breaking a club record 19 league game unbeaten run.
This was followed by a relatively poor start to the 2011/2012 EFL campaign as the Vipers succumbed to a series of defeats, in the process finding out that being champions just makes it that much harder to play with every opponent wanting to beat you to a pulp.
A case of so-near-yet-so-far ensued in the following months of October to December, as the Vipers first topped the FAS Island Wide League table for three weeks before eventually missing out on qualification to the National Football League in 2012 by goal difference and then suffered a similar fate in the League of Champions to bow out at the group stages – being short of a solitary point from the top two.
In a year of many changes, Vipers Académie Sociale was also borne out of the old Vipers Social core, and the team were given a true baptism of fire on their EFL league bow in the Qualifying Division – suffering numerous losses in the opening months of the season before eventually stabilizing towards the end of 2011 to clock up successive victories and move up the table.
While there were plenty of positives to take out of a year littered with disappointments, Vipers FC will look ahead to 2012 with renewed optimism. A continuous journey which the club will learn from while striving for excellence – one that is fuelled by defeats and disappointments, all of which will prove to be worth the while eventually.