marginally better with an eighth place, although the club scored the second highest number of goals in the league, after Halmstads BK, entire 48 goals, but the club also conceded 44 balls. In particular, much needed victories ended up in draws after conceding late goals in most games. The club also lost top scorer Skoog to Malmö FF during the summer break. The 2002 on ended with seventh spot despite the lack of previous years goalscoring. After the season Eyravallen went through renovation as the natural turf was replaced by artificial turf and new stands were built. Another inventory of the club was also waived farewell as keeper Anders Karlsson retired after nearly 20 years with the club. The 2003 season under new coach Stefan Lundin started well for Örebro, but yet again a poor ending of the season saw the team end up in eighth place. Promising goalkeeper John Alvbåge and Danish veteran Lars Larsen introduced themselves and soon became favourites of the Örebro crowd. The 2004 season became one of the darkest years in club history. First, Örebro had to fight hard to avoid relegation. A heroic effort with five straight wins at the end of the season earned a mid table finishing (seventh, later amended to eighth), but in the end effort proved futile. Economic problems had haunted ÖSK for a period of time as the club faced major deficits. Even after yet another heroic attempt by both supporters and sponsors the club was relegated by Elitlicensnämnden (eng: The Elite license board), who ruled that the balance sheet of the club did not comply with the standards of the Swedish Football Association. Örebro SK's appeal failed and the club was forced to play in Superettan. ÖSK managed to keep most of its squad for the first season in Superettan, except for keeper John Alvbåge who left for Viborg, and Patrick Walker who had previously been with the club returned as head coach. It was widely expected that the club would quickly return to the top flight in particular after an inspired pre-season. The home crowd also had big expectations, and in fact booed the team despite a 3–0 win against Bodens IF in the first game of the season. That turned out to be the last win for a while. After a terrible spring ÖSK was for a while struggling against relegation. A better autumn secured a