Paços de Ferreira was one of the teams that had three managers in the whole season, and, as obviously, that is a sign of a trouble season. The worst sign, however, is when the very first manager was the one who actually had the best results, as things only got worse after Vasco Seabra left. In the end, an away defeat against the newly promoted Portimonense sealed Paços return to second division after 13 consecutive seasons playing at top flight.
Paços de Ferreira soon knew the season wouldn’t be easy after not being able to pick any wins in their first five games, despite playing with some of the traditional weaker teams on Portuguese league. Two wins on rounds 6 and 8 were not enough to avoid the sacking of Vasco Seabra, who left the club with 9 points collected in 9 games. It seemed a low record, but things got significantly worst with the second coach of the season. Petit arrived at Paços to play the 10th round, and it even went well, at that time, as Paços grabbed a win over Estoril at Mata Real. But it would be downhill from there, as the next six matches brought nothing but a point to ‘Castores’. Petit even resisted until the last match of the first half of the season, but a 1-1 draw against newly promoted Portimonense was the decisive factor for the board to make the second sacking in the season with only half season played.
After one match with interim Filipe Anunciação at the helm, João Henriques got his debut on first league, and started flying with two consecutive wins. However, things quickly came back at the “original” pace, as Paços was dragging on the league for 5 consecutive rounds having defeats. A surprising home win over the leaders Porto, who shook things at the top of the table, was a little energy and morale boost for ‘Castores’, that went on in a good, yet small sequence of results. 7 points out of possible 9 was a promising sign for better times at Mata Real. But it was only an illusion. The very last 6 games were tragic for Paços, as they picked only two points out of two inconsequent home draws.
A season that ends with relegation is rarely a good one for individual performances as well. And that was quite truth about Paços, this season, as there was not much to pick up from their group of players. Rúben Micael and Rafael Assis were highly important players as soon as they arrived at Mata Real, but not only they missed the whole first half of the season, they also were not that brilliant to make their half season deserve that much credits. Striker Bruno Moreira had a decent start, but gradually became shier in his performances; Welthon was promising to pick a great season, but picked an injury instead, around the round 14, and eventually left to join Guimarães in January. All things together, it was the midfielder Pedrinho to have the most regular season amongst Castores, always providing his good technical skills and positional awareness into the benefit of his team.