Painful evening for failing ACV. Hercules, which plays one division lower, knocks the team from Assen out of the national cup

The interests were not only great from a sporting point of view at the ACV sports park. In addition to a place in the main tournament of the national cup battle, there was also 12,000 euros at stake in the showdown with Hercules. It is the bonus that the KNVB has promised clubs upon qualification for the main tournament. The people of Assen missed out on that amount and that made the cup elimination even more painful.

Trainer Ruud Jalving had changed his team in two positions for the showdown with Hercules compared to the team that kicked off last Saturday in the 1-1 league match against Noordwijk. Goalkeeper Enver Spijodic had to give up his place under the crossbar to Ramon Nijland and Boy Spijkerman relieved Niels Grevink on the left flank.

Goldcrest

“We had already agreed a few weeks ago that Ramon would play goalkeeper against Hercules,” said Jalving. “And Niels is not completely fit and has also been a bit ill. This match came too soon for him after last Saturday’s match against Noordwijk. And Boy is in good form,” he added. Spijkerman was the golden boy against Noordwijk. He scored the equalizer in extra time. He couldn’t make any progress against Hercules. Just like his teammates.

ACV was already hanging in the ropes halfway through. It was already looking at a 4-1 deficit. After only ten minutes, Hercules took the lead through a header from Valentijn Beck. Giovanni Zwikstra quickly equalized, but his effective strike was one of the few achievements of Jalving’s team before the break.

Clumsy foul

Defensively, ACV did nothing at all. The 1-2 by Tim Pieters (loss of ball by Luka Prljic), the 1-3 by Max van Hees (penalty after a clumsy foul by Mohammed Sillah) and the 1-4 by Max Fichtinger (clumsy loss of ball in midfield) were all piece given to Hercules as a gift. The fact that ACV still had eleven men on the field halfway through was due to the weakly leading referee Vos. He failed to give Sillah his second yellow card for the foul that led to the penalty.

With Lars Dijk for Nande Wielink and Bas Aalderink for Sillah, ACV tried to make the best of it in the second half. The game was then a bit better and no more disastrous mistakes were made at the back. But the gap was too big to be cleared. And the Drenthe didn’t play football well enough for that either. Just before the end, the failing team conceded another goal, 1-5. Deveron Fonville was the shooter.

Keep calm

ACV can once again fully focus on the competition in which it will play Kozak Boys in Werkendam on Saturday. Jalving: “We have to keep the peace and now show how we stand as a team. Personal mistakes in the first half broke us up. We’re conceding way too many goals.”