After yesterday’s catch-up on the state of the women’s third division, I now bring you something similar for the men’s Fifth Division – the only other to have concluded it’s play for the month before the 31st. Another of my favourites to follow in 2023, this campaign has followed quite a different pattern but is still at the high end for entertainment and surprise factor.
No split here, and July ends with a couple of teams holding a game in hand, while in the month itself the teams played between three and five games each. Here’s how the table looks going into August, with the changes since the end of June shown in red:
Ýmir start and end July as the league leaders despite a fairly underwhelming performance seeing as they dropped points against a pair of mid-table teams and only narrowly beat the bottom of the league side a couple of days ago thanks to a stoppage time winning goal. Their best game of the month saw them score 7 times, and goals have not really eluded the HK-affiliate all year, as they just about lead the division in scoring and have Arian Ari Morina leading all players with 14 goals.
Only 4 teams in the division have scored fewer goals than Tindastóll, but the Sauðárkrókur side make up for that with the best defensive record in 4kk by a significant margin, conceding an average of once per game. They also definitely had the best July of any team, as the only one to improve their standing and had 5 wins from 5 games, including beating Skallagrímur twice in four days and banishing their previous scoring woes with 4 goals in each of the other games.
Árborg were the pre-season favourites to win the division but got off to a torrid start including a loss to rivals Hamar. Revenge was had in the return fixture this month though, and they’ve also now leapfrogged the Hveragerði side in the table after another pair of wins and a draw. If not for Tindastóll doing so well we would be saying the southerners were the best performers of July instead, but even so they are well in the fight for promotion.
The only team to drop places is Hamar, and only Skallgrímur lost more games in July too. After providing RB with their second win of the season and the aforementioned derby defeat, Hamar were drubbed 4-0 by Tindastóll before a partial salvaging of their month with a win in Borgarnes.
KH, Kría and KÁ represent a midtable that already seem significantly off the pace of the top 4 but also probably safe from relegation unless 2 of the bottom 3 have a remarkable turnaround. With 5 games to go, KH are virtually on pace to repeat their record from 2023 of 8 wins, 2 draws and 8 losses. Kría have more room for optimism as a promoted side seemingly establishing themselves at their new heights, but July was an awful month for them defensively as they conceded 22 times in 4 outings. KÁ are one of only 3 teams in 4kk to have gone undefeated this month but are also one of only 2 that were winless. That trend of drawing games started before July and now stands as 5 in a row, or 6 in 7 games.
Similar to in 2kvk, one relegated side (Ýmir) is fighting at the head of the table while the other is languishing. KFS are at serious risk of consecutive relegations and are probably only teetering above the drop zone because Skallagrímur and RB have been so poor. I mentioned before that Skallagrímur had the most losses in July, but that came after embarrassing RB towards the end of june in a 10-1 win. Reykjanes has outperformed Borgarnes since then though, as RB subsequently beat KFS and Hamar and Skalla’s only point came against our resident draw-merchants. Each of the bottom 3 will face 2 of the top 4 among their final 5 or 6 games, and RB plays both of the other 2 with them hosting KFS in the season finale at Nettóhöllin.
So while the 3 midtable teams seem to be playing for vacuum-based objectives, the head and tail of the table is set for and exciting finish. Below are all the results from the division in July:
