Heracles Almelo conquered the championship in the Kitchen Champion Division, the second competition of Dutch football, on Friday evening after an exciting denouement. The team of coach John Lammers won 2-0 against Jong Ajax at home. Competitor PEC Zwolle also took three points on Friday evening, but finished second on the basis of a slightly worse goal difference.
The two teams from Overijssel ended the competition with exactly the same results: 27 wins and 4 draws, so 85 points. Both clubs were already certain of promotion to the Eredivisie. For Heracles, which, like PEC Zwolle, relegated from the Eredivisie last year, it is the fourth title in (predecessors of) the Kitchen Champion Division. The club also won in 1962, 1985 and in 2005.
Samuel Armenteros and Lucas Schoofs scored in the match between Heracles and Jong Ajax, which was briefly halted in the second half because celebrating spectators threw cups on the field. PEC Zwolle took the lead at Helmond Sport through a header from Lennart Thy, after which the home team came alongside thanks to two goals from attacker Martijn Kaars. PEC top scorer Thy then put his club on the same level with his 23rd goal of the season and Sven Zitman even gave the team the win in extra time.
After the match in Helmond, the PEC supporters waited tensely for the result in Almelo, where they still had to play for more than ten minutes. But Heracles did not give away the title anymore. The team from Almelo finished the Kitchen Champion Division with a positive goal difference of 61. PEC Zwolle did slightly less with a goal difference of 56.