Last year’s poor run in the league meant that changes were needed. The plan was based on… Iberian logic. It was extremely ambitious, but there was also a huge slice of rusk involved. And in the end, after a woeful first half of the season, the plan was abandoned.

Borja Jimenez, the young and ambitious Spanish technician, failed to produce the goods in his first big professional project, the team did not get the results he wanted, and the style of play was not pretty. Because of all of this, the 34-year-old Spaniard was jettisoned in early December.

The club’s board of directors decided to switch to a more experienced and proven solution. Milan Rastavac was appointed and essentially try to salvage what is left of the season and keep the club in the top flight. The Serbian technician moved to Arcadia, having shown plenty of promise and good results at Xanthi. He has taken on the challenge with relish, and has already began producing good work and results from day one.

Asteras has looked in much better shape than it has been all season, has managed to improve the team’s style of play, and the team is gradually forming the kind of identity that the new coach wants to being out of the players. All the club has to do now is find consistency and get a string of positive results together in order to move away from the lower echelons of the table.

The roster has plenty of quality. Geronimo Barrales, Mark Fernandez and Luis Fernandes stand out in the midfield, with the former leading the club’s scoring charts with eight goals, while Adrian Riera and Eneko Capilla are the top creators in the team with four and three assists respectively.

The Arcadians currently lie 12th in the standings with 18 points after collecting five wins, three draws and 10 defeats, scoring 24 times and conceding 27 goals in the process.

Rastavac is without Capilla for the match at the Toumba after he suffered an ACL injury early in the season, but both Barrales and captain Juan Munafo are also out of action with injuries.