Belgium

Oost Vlaanderen Provincial 1

Saturday 16th November 2019

Kick Off 20.00. On Time !

Herleving Red Star Haasdonk 2 K.V. Eendracht Aalter 3, attendance 116

30’ 0-1

41’ 0-2

45’ 1-2 (pen)

73’ 2-2

77’ 2-3

@ Poerdam 7

9120 Haasdonk

€7 Admission

Team Sheet, free.

Our route from Vlissingen, east across the border into Belgium, was going to take a little over an hour, if we took the Liefkenshoek Tunnel ( €6 toll) rather than the longer and slower route to the east of Antwerp, so we opted for the former, as it gave us plenty of time to book into our overnight hotel in Sint-Niklaas, as well as grabbing food before the evening match.

There was a club formed before the Second World War called Red Star Haasdonk. In 2000 they reached the Belgian Fourth Division for the first time in their history and achieved promotion to the a Third Division at the first attempt. Their stadium had become too small for them to progress any further, so they moved to the Puyenbeke Stadium, recently vacated by SK Saint-Niklaas, and they changed their name to KV Red Star Waasland (who would in turn merge with, then move into the ground of, SK Beveren, to form the club now playing in the top division of Belgian football). In 2009 it was decided that a new club would be formed in Haasdonk, and Herleving (meaning revival in English) Red Star Haasdonk were born, starting off life in Oost Vlaanderen Provincial 4 and this season sees them play in Provincial 1 for the first time.

Following promotion, Haasdonk have struggled this season and they are currently propping up the league table, having won just one game so far and managing just five points from their opening eleven matches. The visitors from Aalter were lying in fifth place coming into this and looked by far the better team during the early exchanges. They went in front after half an hour, when the ball was squeezed in at the far post and were 0-2 up through a free kick that the ‘keeper got a hand to, but couldn’t prevent going into the top corner of the net. Right on halftime Haasdonk were given a lifeline, when they pulled it back to 1-2 from the penalty spot. A much improved second half performance saw Red Star pull it back to 2-2 on 73 minutes, but just four minutes later Aalter netted the winner, when a one-two was slotted past the ‘keeper from 6 yards.

Netherlands

Zuid I, District Cup 2nd Round

Saturday 16th November 2019

Kick Off 14.30 Actual 14.33

G.P.C. Vlissingen 0 V.V. Serooskerke 7, attendance 87

2’ 0-1

18’ 0-2

26’ 0-3

36’ 0-4

45’ + 1, 0-5

77’ 0-6

88’ 0-7

@ G.P.C. Sportpark

Bosweg 2

4383 TV

Vlissingen

No Admission or Programme.

We headed out on the 08.20 Eurotunnel, which left a minute late, bound for a 4 or 5 match weekend which would start off with a game in the Zuid I District Cup in The Netherlands. Vlissingen is a port on the Southwest coast of Zeeland, so it was to be a drive of just under two and a half hours from Calais, which would include going through the Terneuzen Tunnel, which had a €5 toll.

G.P.C. (Gemeente-Post Combinatie, originally formed as the postal workers team) play in 3 Klasse A and are third bottom in the league table, whilst Serooskerke are one level higher, currently in fourth place of 2 Klasse E. We expected an away win, but not quite as one sided as it turned out.

An own goal after just two minutes set the tone for the match, when a back pass hit a bobble on the pitch, which meant the ‘keeper miss kicked and the ball trickled over the line. It was one way traffic from here and Serooskerke were five goals up by the interval. It could have easily been double figures, but they eased up during the second half, adding two late goals to round off a very comfortable 0-7 win.