of bad results, including home defeats against lower positioned teams ES Malley and Etoile Carouge and a 4–0 dubbing away against Yverdon-Sports cost head-coach Urs Siegenthaler his job. The team ended their 22 matches in the Qualifying Phase with 11 victories, five draws and six defeats with 27 points in a disappointing fifth position in the league table. The team scored just 29 goals and conceded 27. Erni Maissen was the team's top scorer in this stage with 10 goals, including a hat-trick, scored within seven minutes, during the away game against Old Boys on 22 September. Basel qualified for the promotion stage and were assigned to group A. Also assigned into this group from the Nationalliga B were Zürich, Yverdon-Sports, Fribourg, Chur and Schaffhausen. These were joined by two teams from the Nationalliga A, Servette and Bellinzona, who were fighting against relegation. Basel started well, winning the first four matches, but could only manage draws at home against both Servette and Zürich. The return matches against these two teams both ended in defeats and thus Basel could only reach third position in the table behind these two rivals and thus missed promotion. Swiss Cup Basel entered into the Swiss Cup in the 2nd principal round. Here they were drawn away against lower tier FC Moutier. The game was won convincingly 8–0 with seven different goal scorers. In the third round they were drawn against lower tier SC Burgdorf and this won easily (3–0) as well. In the round of 32 they were drawn away against Schaffhausen. Despite an early red card for Miodrag Đurđević, the match ended with a 1–0 victory. In the next round Basel had an away game against Bulle and mastered this with a 6–0 victory. Basel advanced through the first four rounds without conceding a single goal and had scored 18, with 11 different goal scorers. However, in the quarterfinals Basels cup season came to an end after a 0–1 defeat away from home in the Hardturm Stadium against higher tier Grasshopper Club. The Grasshoppers went on to win the trophy, for the third season in a row, beating Xamax 2–1 in the final. In fact the Grasshoppers achieved the national double that season. Players Players who left the squad Results Legend Friendly matches Pre-season Winter break and mid-season Nationalliga B Qualifying Phase West League table Promotion/relegation Phase League table Swiss Cup See also History