This was the Blues' most convincing win over the Whites in history. The match began on 22 October and finished as many as 20 days later. The players, of course, did not spend that much time on the pitch. Rather, the match was abandoned after an incident in which a Hajduk player attacked the referee, and it was resumed less than three weeks later.

In 1940, Gradjanski were "double" champions. It was the period when the Croatian Sports Concord (Hrvatska sportska sloga) was formed, which resulted in Croatian clubs breaking away from the Yugoslav league. Croatian and Slovenian clubs therefore played a separate league, which in the meantime nevertheless became a qualifying stage for the Yugoslav championship. An agreement with representatives of the JNS (the Yugoslav Football Association) followed, so Croatian and Slovenian clubs also took part in the final stage of the competition for the Yugoslav champion. The three best-placed teams from the Croatian-Slovenian league, in which Gradjanski finished first, joined the three best from the Serbian league. And in that final tournament too, the title was won by the Purgers.

In the first part of the competition, the Croatian-Slovenian League, the Blues were completely dominant. In all 18 rounds they recorded 16 wins, one draw and one defeat, with an almost unreal goal difference of 91-6. Gradjanski thus scored more than five goals per match on average, and conceded one every third game.

The clash between Gradjanski and Hajduk began on 22 October and lasted only until the 8th minute. At that moment, Hajduk's then player Ratko Kacian knocked out the referee, unhappy that he had pointed to the penalty spot for Gradjanski. The match was officiated by the Slovenian referee Lado Macoratti. Kacian hit him on the jaw with his fist, after which the match was abandoned. Paradoxically, immediately after the incident it was decided that the players would stay on the pitch and play anyway, though not a league match but a friendly. Miljenko Batinić came on for Hajduk in place of Kacian. The match was played in an unusual format, with the first half lasting 20 minutes and the second 30. Gradjanski won that friendly 1-0.

Be that as it may, the abandoned league match was initially registered as a 3-0 win for Gradjanski by forfeit, but a new date was subsequently set after all: 12 November. The players gathered again on that date and, of course, Macoratti refereed once more. The match resumed from that 8th minute and the awarded penalty. When the teams came out onto the pitch, they did not start with a kick-off from the centre spot. Instead, they gathered at Hajduk's penalty area, where Gradjanski were to take the penalty. Franjo Mara Wölfl took responsibility and scored from the spot to make it 1-0.

Hajduk, of course, played with ten men because of Kacian's sending-off. Even so, among those ten they had four new players compared with the start of the match three weeks earlier. Moreover, even this continuation did not pass without minor incidents and pressure on the referee, so the match reporter noted that the visiting players were "too temperamental and on edge".

Gradjanski made it 2-0 in the 19th minute after Drago Žalant carried a high ball to the left side and Wölfl headed it in. In the 30th minute, August Jutt sent a through ball into the penalty area, and his namesake Lešnik got to it before the goalkeeper and managed to lob it over him for 3-0.

The Blues shook the net three more times in the second half as well. In the 53rd minute, Žalant served the ball to Milan Antolković, who deftly lifted it over the defence and placed it in the net. Eight minutes later, Lešnik controlled the ball skilfully and, after turning, finished spectacularly for the Blues' fifth goal. Wölfl wrapped up the story in the 69th minute with a powerful strike after being set up by Ivan Oskar Jazbinšek.

(Miroslav Tomašević)