Belgium

West Vlaanderen Provincial Cup

1/8 Final

Thursday 1st November 2018

Kick Off 14.00 Actual 14.02

S.K. Staden 1 S.K. Nieuwkerke 1 (2-4 pens),  attendance 116

50’ 0-1

75’ 1-1

@ Sportcentrum De Wankaarde

Bruggestraat 41

8840 Staden

€5 Admission (€6 for league matches)

Team Sheet, free.

1st November is celebrated in Belgium as All Saints’ Day and taken as a Bank Holiday. Quite a few of the provinces play a round of their Provincial Cup matches on this day and even better for us is that most are played in the afternoon, so perfect for a day trip.

We were on the 09.20 Tunnel from Folkestone, although this was retimed to 09.24, then still left a minute late, but we were in Calais just after eleven, then it was only a 1 hour 20 minute drive to Staden.  On arrival at the ground we were greeted by two very friendly locals who were taking the admission money and later in the day we were all given a club scarf as a souvenir of our visit here today, which was a nice gesture.

The clubs women’s team were playing a cup match on the main pitch when we arrived, having kicked off at noon (they won 5-2), but that finished just over ten minutes before our game was due to start, so it wasn’t a problem, especially as the players had done their warm ups on a back pitch. We had already eaten in the town before the match, but unusually for a game in Belgium, hot food was available inside the ground, with hot dogs and burgers on offer, so we wouldn’t have gone hungry !

Staden are in sixth place in the league table of Provincial 3A (they were relegated from Provincial 2 at the end of last season), with Nieuwkerke being eighth in Provincial 2B. The first half had very few clear cut chances, but the visitors broke the deadlock with a bit of a scuffed effort early in the second half, before Staden levelled it up with a header fifteen minutes from the end. They nearly won it, when the move of the match culminated in a left footed volley being tipped over the crossbar by the visiting ‘keeper.

With no extra time, we went straight to penalties to decide a winner. Nieuwkerke went first and scored their first three kicks, before missing their fourth. Staden had missed their opener, as well as their fourth, so the visitors scored their next one to win it 2-4, although there was little celebration from them, which seemed strange.

We were back at The Tunnel and through check-in by 17.15 (I had received a text message from Eurotunnel warning of problems at check- in which was obviously not true ?) and through Passport Control less than ten minutes later. Then the fun began……

The schedule was totally messed up. We were booked on the 18.50, which was due out an hour and a half late, caused by delays at Border Control, according to Eurotunnel, which again was not true. As time went on, we were pushed back to a 21.20 departure, which we were actually loaded on, but we then sat there due to a ‘technical’ fault, eventually leaving at 21.54, some 3 hours 4 minutes late !!!!!

Yet again, Eurotunnel showed a total disregard towards their customers. I will once again be sending an e-mail voicing our dissatisfaction with their now ‘normal’ incompetence, once again failing to run to any sort of timetable. The best we can hope for, is a refund on this leg of our journey, which will be £30 in this case. I hate to think what it will be like after Brexit…….