A crucial phase of the season began on Saturday afternoon: in Round 26 of the Merkantil Bank Liga we visited Mezőkövesd Zsóry FC, who are also chasing promotion. The hosts went into the match nine points behind us and essentially had to win. Tamás Feczkó returned to the bench after serving his suspension, while Kevin Kállai was back on the pitch after four competitive matches, going straight into the starting XI after his own suspension, as did our streetwise defender Branko Pauljevic. Our head coach, however, was still unable to call on Ákos Baki and Ádám Szamosi because of injury.
The first chance came in the sixth minute when Ujváry played a ball in behind the defenders for Zuigeber, who shot from a tight angle. Winter got down to the ball and, although he could not hold it, the home defenders reacted quickest to the rebound. Six minutes later Vidnyánszky threatened from distance, but Tujvel produced a fine save to push away the shot heading towards the bottom-left corner.
In the 20th minute Vörös found himself one-on-one with our experienced goalkeeper, whose huge save once again showed how much we can rely on him. In the 40th minute a cross from the left fell to Varjas in a clear shooting position, but he failed to connect and Tujvel collected the ball comfortably. After the restart we took the lead with our first chance: in the 49th minute Csontos stood over a free kick and, surprising everyone, played it not into the crowd but to Zuigeber, who raced down the left and centred for the perfectly arriving Nyers. Our academy graduate made no mistake, scoring his second goal of the season and giving the goalkeeper no chance (0–1). In the 56th minute we launched an excellent counterattack that ended with Medgyes curling the ball against the left post. In the 69th minute, after a cross from the left, our defence failed to clear and Zoltán Varjas reacted fastest to the loose ball, levelling with a first-time finish (1–1). In the 88th minute we produced a beautiful move: Alex Szabó exchanged a one-two with Gyurcsó, whose excellent pass released our defender, and Winter could only stop Szabó illegally inside the penalty area, so Katona pointed to the spot. Csontos stepped up and, although Winter guessed the direction, he confidently blasted into the bottom-left corner (1–2). Even in the closing stages play remained around the Mezőkövesd goal, with Winter denying substitute Erik Kovács. The victory increased our lead over Mezőkövesd and Kecskemét to 12 points and moved us to within one point of leaders Vasas. Those latter two teams have played one match fewer in the league.
MERKANTIL BANK LIGA, 2025/26, ROUND 26
Mezőkövesd Zsóry FC–BUDAPEST HONVÉD FC 1–2 (0–0)
Mezőkövesd, Municipal Stadium, 800 spectators. Referee: Balázs Katona (Szabin Topálszki, Kristóf Bán).
Mezőkövesd: Winter – Ternován, Csörgő, Keresztes B., Vajda S. (Larcsik, 76.) – Vörös, Vidnyánszky (Pintér Á., 73.), Zachán, Bertus (Lőrinczy, 76.) – Varjas (Kiss L., 73.), Merényi. Head coach: Csertői Aurél
HONVÉD: Tujvel – Pauljevic, Szabó A., Csontos – Ujváry, Pekár (Szabó T., 73.), Kállai (Kesztyűs, 82.), Hangya – Medgyes (Pinte, 64.), Nyers (Kovács E., 82.), Zuigeber (Gyurcsó, 64.). Head coach: Tamás Feczkó
Goal: Varjas (69.); Nyers (49.), Csontos (89. – penalty).
Aurél Csertői:
We tried to fire the lads up – I feel we managed to do that, and the team deserves praise; they showed excellent sporting character. We played well, but it is no use creating big chances if we do not take them. We opened up late on, Honvéd countered us and scored the winning goal. We know how big the difference is between the two clubs, but that was what showed least on the pitch.
Tamás Feczkó:
In the first fifteen minutes we got in behind the opposition defence three times, but kept choosing the wrong option, then the hosts had two big chances. After our opening goal we conceded territory and Mezőkövesd deservedly equalised, after which a different match began. The substitutes came on well, and the fact that in the 87th minute our centre-back can make a run like that shows both his creativity and the strength of the team. This is a very valuable win!
