Once again we took the lead in these Play Offs and it was only ten minutes before time that man of the match Nick Gillekens, had to turn over for the first time. Regrettably, this match was overshadowed by the serious injury to the just-installed Opoku.

KVC Westerlo

Bart Goor’s 4-4-2 is quietly starting to pay off, even if it does not result in points for the time being. It took some searching in these Play Offs with the new line-up, but the last three games you do see the schwung appearing again in the team. Due to Emin Bayram’s injury, Arthur Piedfort was moved back a row to form the heart of the defence together with Ravil Tagir. Just a side note, both are 39 years old, Jan Vertonghen, the experienced captain of league leader Anderlecht, is 37.  So give those guys a chance to learn and gain experience, trial and error is what they sometimes call this.

Playing fearlessly against Gent should certainly be possible, even if you now know that they are going to win these Play Offs and not leave many points. The aforementioned Nicolas Madsen returns from suspension and Nacer Chadli is also training with the group again. For Emin Bayram, this match will come just too soon. Up to coach Goor and his assistants to decide which team to put on the turf next.

We are now nine games without a win, the last dating from 16 February (2-1 against Standard), in the meantime we recorded 3 draws and 6 defeats. The last away win even dates back to December 2023, when the duo of Bart Goor and Eric Reenaers took over for a while. That night we won the crucial game in Kortrijk 1-2 and was the start of this season’s salvation.

KAA Gent

Hein’s troops were way too strong for us in the first game of these Play Offs. Were they super motivated then? But no anyway, they were/are just a good team that had a down period in a crucial phase of the league (January – February) that made them have to work in this group.

As mentioned a little higher in this piece, they will come out as number 1 in this PO2 on 25 May and will have to play one more match against a “loser” of the PO1 to secure a European ticket.

The results of the last few weeks speak volumes for that. Only in and against Leuven did they fail to get any points. Fourteen goals they managed to produce and they only got four against. Eight of those 14 were scored by 2 players: Tissoudali and Gandelman, both of whom were also at the cannon at the Kuipje.

The next statistic is to put us completely in the underdog role: at 27, we could only win 4 times at the Planet Group Arena, the last three-pointer even dating back to September 2009.

Brent Staessens

The 27-year-old likeable East Fleming, affiliated to VK Tielrode, borough of Temse, will once again take charge of a match of our Kemphans. Again, we say, because we already had him four times before this season:

1.        Westerlo vs Mechelen 2-3

2.        Kortrijk vs Westerlo 1-2

3.        Sint Truiden vs Westerlo 1-0 and 2-0

Rose-coloured results these are not, though, he was our referee during our last win away from home and … Westerlo he prefers to whistle, as we are the team he has already whistled the most (13), of which we stepped off the pitch 7 times victorious.

Text and statistics: Peter Boons