Novara earned promotion to Serie A for the first time in 55 years with a win over ten man Padova at the weekend, with Padova making it easy when defender Cesar got himself sent off after just 14 minutes. Novara joins Atalanta and Siena as the new kids on the Serie A block (well, new from last season, anyway) although Novara was the only team that had to fight their way through via the playoffs. Bari, Brescia and Sampdoria will replace the three in Serie B next season.
Attilio Tesse, coach of Novara, confessed that his goal for this season couldn't have been further from Serie A: just to simply avoid getting relegated. Considering the team were in Lega Pro two seasons ago, just staying up would have been an achievement on its own, but instead they managed two consecutive promotions.
Now if the English-speaking world could just figure out the Novara nickname...