Big progress not enough for Svelta Millesel, who starts the season with a point: ‘Sad start to competition’ (Beveren-Waas)

Svelta Melsele did not start the season with the hoped-for triple indicator. Blue White was sitting on the roses an hour later in Mariakerke. The 0-3 lead seemed to pave the way for a big victory. “Honestly, I have to say that the home team already had some good chances at the time and that we could have had more chances as well, if we used the space better,” says Svelta coach Matthias Smit. “We went into the first half 0-2 and although the home team showed a more intense look after the break, we were able to go ahead with a penalty kick. Then I thought we had the sheep on dry land.”

However, the opposite turned out to be true. The home team returned to 2-3. “Then you know it’s going to be tough, despite the fact that we still have enough room to pop between the lines and threaten ourselves as well.” In the end, Mariakirk got a penalty. They missed that opportunity to equalise. This way we can still hope to crawl through the eye of the needle. Until the equalizer came in the 94th minute. Another stage that could be avoided after the free kick that we could not escape and which was kicked on the rebound. Anyway, this is a bad start for us in the competition.”

Do not pressure the young group

Contrary to what many of his teammates believe, Melcel’s coach does not consider his team to be his absolute favourite. “Our goal is to finish a quiet season. If we can get a place in the top five we won’t miss it, but we’re not deliberately setting the bar too high. We have one of the youngest cores in the series. It wouldn’t be smart to press that young group now.” So what colleagues say doesn’t really affect me. I also have no idea about the strengths of other teams, but logically a team like the Ardennes looks like a team that should aspire to the top.”