Trnava

The 2003–04 season is the one that still gets mentioned first: promotion out of the Slovak 2. Liga, secured with the title, remains the club's only silverware of note. The Extraliga has stayed out of reach, and so has the Slovak Cup, but the second-tier crown gave the club its current level, the 1. Liga, where it has settled into the role of a side that finishes third rather than first — a spot it has taken five times, most recently in 2013–14, without pushing on from there.

Before that climb, the club went by other names. It started life in 1957 as Dukla Trnava, became Spartak Trnava in 1986, and has played as HK Trnava since 1995, with Gladiátori — Gladiators — as the name supporters actually use. The red, white and black kit has carried that nickname through all three eras.

Games are played in front of 3,800 at most, and the away trips that matter are the short ones, to Dubnica nad Váhom and to Skalica, both clubs from the same region and the closest thing the team has to a settled rivalry.

No player is tied to the club more closely than Miroslav Šatan, who turned out for the side — then playing as Harvard Trnava — in the 1998–99 season and helped it to the 1. Liga title that year.