It was only a year ago that Novara had put themselves back on the calcio map once again. Having finished 8th in Serie A in 1952 success for the piedmont based club has been quite hard to come by. Indeed, the club had spent years rotting in Serie C2 until winning that division in the 2002-2003 campaign. However, last year saw them play Milan in the Coppa Italia. The occasion didn't mean much to the Rossoneri but for the Novara it meant everything to play at one of the cathedral's of European football and it seemed as if ther whole of their fanbase had come along as they packed the lower tier of the Curva Nord. This day in the sun ended in a 2-1 defeat, but promotion to Serie B, for the first time in 33 years, put the icing on the cake of a fine season and put Novara back on the map. However, it seems this smattering of success has not ended here. Back into Serie B Novara are running away with the Championship and and sit three points clear of Atalanta and five points clear of Siena, both of which were in Serie A last season. Along with Siena they have the best home record in the division, 8 wins and 2 draws, but they've also won four games on the road as well as their campaign approaches the half way stage.
Looking at Novara's squad it's hard not to notice the name of the once Inter Milan forward Nicola Ventola on their books, a player who was in their promotion campaign from Serie C1 last season. Nonetheless, Forwards Cristian Bertani and Argentine Pablo Gonzalez have both scored 11 goals a piece this season forming the most deadly partnership in the division. It's statistics like this that point towards a promotion this campaign and not one of survival which surely would have been the target at the start of the season.
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