It was the most surprising result of the last snow weekend: leader FC Lewenborg, which can pretty much schedule the championship festivities, was beaten at home by PJC (3-4). The secret of the Pekelders: routine and feeling for the ball, it turns out.
A completely justified result, says Bob Pontjodikromo, the celebrated trainer of FC Lewenborg, who, even after the first league defeat of the season in the third division C on Sunday, still has a street length ahead of pursuers Engelbert and Muntendam. ,,PJC played offensively, and we may not have expected it that way. Nope, nothing stolen. A well deserved win for PJC.”
Six points in a week
PJC trainer Loek Swarts celebrated a small party with his men afterwards. Because it can’t finish this week. The Nieuwpekelders gathered 4 meager points until last week, from behind the green table in Zeist 3 were added because of the stopped match against MOVV, which was converted into a regular victory for PJC due to Midwolmer’s guilt.
And now also the unexpected victory at the unbeatable leader. ,,Oh well”, smiles Swarts, sober as always, ,,we can also play football quite well, especially on artificial turf. We have a technically skilled team. I already saw it when warming up: those rondos went very smoothly. Our boys like artificial grass.”
The White Socrates and the Man of Glass
But PJC has more guns in the fire than technical skill. Since the winter break, two important strongholds have returned, the strikers Jur Bontjer (24) and Tom van der Schuur (21). The first, nicknamed the White Socrates or The Messiah, did an internship in Valencia, Spain, for six months. And Van der Schuur, alias the Man van Glas, is often injured, just like his nickname, but fortunately well employable in recent weeks. Bontjer scored two goals at Lewenborg, Van der Schuur forced the important and justified penalty, which was promoted to the winning goal by last man Jeroen Jager: 3-4.
,,The two in addition, that saves a sip on a drink”, says Swarts. “You can see that in the score. Until the winter break we had scored 6 goals, now we are at 19.” But, the experienced trainer hastens to say: don’t forget the rest of the team either. “We have a nice mix of young and old.”
Weekly 3 (or 4 or 5) over-40s in the base
And by the latter, Swarts means: even quite old by amateur football standards. The base of PJC has at least three, and often even 4 or 5, people over forty every week. Central defender Henk Blaauw and midfielders Bert Meijer and Wouter Valeton participated against Lewenborg. All three are 41 years old. In addition to that trio, Valeton’s buddy Gert Nieboer (41) and Alexander Norder (40) are also important to Swarts’ team. The latter two are currently injured.
Valeton will succeed Swarts as head coach at PJC next year. The former WVV star is not yet sure whether he will continue to play football. ,,Maybe as a kind of pinchhitter, that I will use myself if it really doesn’t work out. But in principle I want to develop myself as a trainer.”
Energy
Valeton grew up in Winschoten, where he still lives, and played for many years at a high level with Nieboer at WVV, but also made trips to the big league, with PKC’83. Three years after he returned to WVV in 2012, he was seriously injured: a pinched nerve.
,,I was operated on a few times and thought: that won’t be playing football anymore. But suddenly it was possible again. In 2019 Gert, my best friend, said: we are going to PJC. And that is very good. We are still very fit, have a good selection, and as long as we are complete we can really play football. You see what it does to us when those guys in the front are there again. Jur takes the entire team in tow with his energy. So I hope we can now make a nice final sprint and play ourselves safe.”
Bert Meijer played in the youth academy of FC Groningen with, among others, Jordi Hoogstrate and Gregoor van Dijk, and later at BV Veendam with Armand MacAndrew, Roy hendriksen, Marnix Kolder and Erwin Buurmeijer. He is satisfied in the Pekelder midfield. ,,Is not it nice? We play smart at our age, of course, but we are still quite fit. And we have good footballers, especially in the ashes. Once things get going with us, like with Lewenborg, we can show beautiful things. But we still have to do something to stay in the third division, we know that too.”
Henk Blaauw played the first 6 years for WVV, then nine seasons at Bellingwolde and is now in his seventh year in Nieuwe Pekela. ,,This unexpected win certainly gives a boost and is good for the atmosphere”, says the central defender. ,,We are regularly better than the opponent, but the heads often droop when a goal is conceded. Hopefully things are going better now.”
The relegation cracker at LEO in Loon is on the roll on Sunday. Apple and egg, after the victory at the leader? ,,Haha, no man”, Swarts laughs, ,,what do you think? That is being put back on. But if we are complete, we can still provide more surprises in the coming weeks.”