Utrecht cup heroes break a good series Hoogeveen, which feels underwhelmed. ‘It was at least a meter offside!’

Hoogeveen was just as good. The team of coach Stef Lamberink maintained the positive margin in the catch-up game against Sparta Nijkerk and won 2-1, and that was the third victory in a row for the blue and white who started the season so slowly.

Safe place in sight

The safe fourteenth place in the third division is now clearly in sight. Staphorst has two more points and had one more match before the start of Hoogeveen-Hercules, but not anymore. Hoogeveen missed the opportunity to play safe for the time being in a mediocre match.

In his familiar line-up, Lamberink also thought so was Hercules, which only collected 5 points more than Hoogeveen and 11 ^e was very difficult to make. In the first half, the Utrecht team, with cup hero Tim Pieters in the starting line-up (two goals against Ajax), played easier.

Veltmaat was one of the best in Hoogeveen

But Hoogeveen had a few nice opportunities. Captain Menno Heerkes nicely put away striker Jeroen Kamphuis, but the Hoogeveen attacker was well defended. On the rebound, Jim Veltmaat, one of the better football players at Hoogeveen, shot into the hands of goalkeeper Pepijn Vonk.

The best Hoogeveen opportunity came shortly before halftime. Veltmaat sent Emil Bijlsma into the depth and he shot just wide of Vonk’s goal.

Penalty in stoppage time

Things went terribly wrong for Hoogeveen during injury time in the first half. Bjorn Klaassens was just too late when Hercules striker Jordi Paulina dangerously entered the penalty area. Referee Maurice Paarhuis pointed to the spot and few Hoogeven residents had great difficulty with it.

Oussama Lahri, who became almost immortal in the following cup match against Cambuur Leeuwarden with two goals, one of which was a nice bicycle kick, scored from eleven meters: 0-1.

Questionable decision

That was an expensive slap on the nose, so close to half time. In the second half, a questionable decision by the Hoogeveen referee trio proved fatal. On the edge of offside, Paulina was now put away and she made no mistake. He pushed well past goalkeeper Stan Meekhof, who had taken his place on goal again: 0-2.

That goal decided the game, as was already clear given the few chances on both sides. They apparently felt that on the Hoogeveen bench too, because it was mainly from there that they got redress from referee Paarhuis.

Yellow and red for the sofa

Paarhuis was not pleased and first gave a yellow card to goalkeeper coach Raimon Benjamins, who had played a few matches earlier this season, and seconds later even a red card to Ally Meekhof, assistant to Lamberink and father of goalkeeper Stan.

Meekhof senior had to laugh about it afterwards. “I didn’t say anything at all, man, he suddenly started throwing cards around.”

The match was indeed over after the 0-2 draw. Hoogeveen had a few more small chances, Hercules substitute Franslyn Nsingi provided the highlight of the second half with an acrobatic feat.

‘Definitely a meter offside’

Afterwards, coach Stef Lamberink was particularly disappointed with the second goal. “That boy was really offside by a meter and that was of course a crucial moment in the match. That penalty was justified, the second goal was not.”

Right back Noah Schuurman was resigned. “They just defended very well. And if you are at 0-2 and have had few chances anyway, then you know it will be difficult.”