Hoogstraten loses honorably against Patro: “Yet the way remains sour”

The Rooikens were given possession of the ball by the Limburgers on Saturday. “Patro clearly shouldn’t have the ball,” Tilburgs says afterwards. “Which in itself is strange for a team that plays a series higher. On the other hand, it is also recognizable, because that is how Patro presented itself in the competition here last season. Their greatest quality is simply defending by creating a very closed block.” However, Mbaye and substitute Fall came close to the equalizer. “We did indeed have a few moments, but against a team like that you just have to seize them. Moreover, it was just not quite enough a little too often. There was sometimes a lack of ideas to play Patro’s defense out of context. On the other hand, we certainly didn’t play a bad match. For example, the 0-1 came from a corner kick that wasn’t one at all, which left us with a sour feeling.” Hoogstraten doesn’t have much time to dwell on the cup defeat, because Young Reds are already coming to visit on Wednesday. “That match is much more important than the cup match. Hopefully we can pick up the thread from our first two competition games, because we were in a pretty good flow before this weekend. In any case, I had signed for a four out of six.”

Robin Lauwers and Jouk Vermeeren did not emerge unscathed from the battle against Patro Eisden with a broken cheekbone and a broken toe respectively. “That is much worse than the defeat, which was somewhat taken into account,” said coach Frank Belmans. “Moreover, you notice that the accumulation of matches is gradually starting to weigh on some boys. So it is to be hoped that fatigue will not affect us too much on Wednesday.”