Belgium

Antwerpen Provincial 1

Sunday 17th November 2019

Kick Off 17.00 Actual 17.01

K. Sport Atletiek Vereniging Sint-Dimpna 1 F.C. Berlaar-Heikant 1, attendance 279

12’ 0-1

64’ 1-1

@ Sultan Stadion

Eikevelden 81

2440 Geel

€8 Admission

Team Sheet, free.

The five mile drive from Beekhoek, via the centre of Geel, took just sixteen minutes, which saw us arrive in plenty of time for the 17.00 start. On entering the ground, we came across a real rarity as far as Belgian grounds go, as there was actually hot food available. Somehow, I don’t think this will catch on. The usual lack of this, plus using a ridiculous token system at most Belgian grounds, is something that is never a problem north of the border in The Netherlands. In fact, even at the lowest levels of Dutch Amateur football getting food is no problem.

As for the game, Sint-Dimpna came into this bottom of the league table with just five points from their opening eleven matches, which includes just one win. Berlaar-Heikant are fourth. When the visitors went ahead early it was going to form, but they were unable to add a second goal. Sint-Dimpna levelled it up at 1-1 just after the hour mark and it was quite a surprise the game actually finished all square, as both sides created chances for a winner, but most efforts seemed to miss the target by a matter of inches, or hit the woodwork, in the visitors case.

Our journey back to The Tunnel was trouble free and we arrived in plenty of time for our 22.20 return. If we had missed this train it would have been a three hour wait for the next one. We left on time and our only delay on the homeward journey was due to the M20 being closed at Junction 6.

Belgium

Antwerpen Provincial 3C

Sunday 17th November 2019

Kick Off 14.30 Actual 14.31

K.F.C. Beekhoek Sport 4 F.C. Gierle 1, attendance 212

36’ 1-0

40’ 2-0

47’ 2-1

74’ 3-1

76’ 4-1

@ Broekstraat

Ten Aard

2440 Geel

€6 Admission

Team Sheet, free.

Game two of the day was a visit to the league leaders Beekhoek Sport versus second from bottom Gierle, who climbed off the bottom of the table with a win last weekend. Beekhoek were well on top, but struggled to break down a very dogged defence. The breakthrough came after 36 minutes and the second followed shortly after. Gierle set things up nicely when they pulled it back to 2-1 a couple of minutes into the second half, but Beekhoek soon regained the upper hand. Two goals in three minutes,as we entered the last quarter of an hour, finished off a resounding win for the hosts, with the fourth goal the pick of the bunch. Following a cut in from the right, a 20 yard shot found its way into the top corner of the net. Beekhoek finished the match with 10 men, having had a defender red carded for a last man foul five minutes from time, but the three points were already in the bag.

The match finished at 16.22, which meant we had plenty of time to reach our third and final match of the day, which was a Provincial 1 game on the other side of Geel.

Belgium

Antwerpen Provincial U17-A

Sunday 17th November 2019

Kick Off 10.00 Actual 10.01

K.F.C. Nijlen U17 6 K.V.C. Houtvenne U17 0, attendance 68

@ Complex K.F.C. Nijlen Jeugdterreinen, Pitch E

Goorstraat

2560 Nijlen

€3 Admission

No Programme.

We had not been too impressed with the last match we saw at this level, but once again it fitted the bill in killing time before our afternoon match. It was a much more even game than the 14-0 thrashing we witnessed at Lommel S.K. the other week, as the two teams here were more evenly matched physically. Nijlen were just too strong and it was easy to see why they are top of the league. They led 5-0 at halftime and added their sixth goal three minutes into the second half.

K.F.C. Nijlen first team will be moving into their new ground at the start of next season. We were surprised to see that the new ground is actually within the current youth complex and is the other side of the clubhouse to the pitch that this mornings match was played on. It all looks ready to go and as far as we could tell, it just appears to lack pitch markings.

Their current ground, Ophoven, which I visited in 2014, is only a couple of hundred yards from the new ground, so we called in on our way to our next match and as the gate was open, it was a good opportunity to have a look around before it disappears and take a few photos.