Unlikely Lads

FC Emmen  1  VVV Venlo  1

Eredivisie

As we trundled away from Liege I was increasingly struck by the ‘Frenchness’ of it all.

I very rarely visit France, the last time being back in 2007 when Derry played at Paris St Germain, so my opportunities to take advantage of the five years of GCSE French have been somewhat limited.

I did manage to slip a few words and phrases out during the course of the previous day, but being honest, my languages education was a bit of a disaster, culminating in an incident during a Fifth Year lesson, lead by the great speaker of the Gallic tongue, Jimmy Ward.

You see, Jimmy was a great teacher, but he also had a sense of humour, however what that did do was create an atmosphere whereby students could possibly, at times, take advantage of the situation. It was on one particular day, I was sat next to Claire Croson (who was top of the class – it didn’t help me one bit though!), and as Jimmy was marching round the room speaking in silky tones and asking us to repeat, I chose a different path, I decided that it would create humour by interjecting various swear words in a subtle fashion during the oratories.

Around me one or two were chuckling, Claire was elbowing me, but Jimmy was out of earshot, or at least I thought he was! The next thing I knew was the ‘Tricolore’ text book came crashing down on the top of my head. Jimmy didn’t say a word and simply carried on, those around me chuckled and even I saw the funny side!

Nowadays, I’d tell my Mum and Dad, they’d complain, Jimmy would probably be suspended, then investigated, and probably disciplined. I would be the innocent victim and then my Mum and Dad would probably try and claim compensation for the psychological trauma it caused!

The Next Stop

But this was 1989, it was how schools worked, and while I’m not advocating kids should be whacked over the head with textbooks, not all the time anyway, we are in a nanny state of the highest order nowadays.

Digression aside, that train of thought was with me as we drove back over the border from Belgium to Holland for our first port of call for the day, Maastricht.

Maastricht first came to the fore in our World in 1992, when on the 7^th of February the Maastricht Treaty was signed and the pillars of what is now known as the European Union were put in place and consequently the single currency. Anyway, nearly twenty seven years down the line……….

But what a beautiful City! We parked in the centre and had a wander into the market place where a hearty Croque Madame was consumed, and then beyond that it was a wander down to the river to get some fresh air and take in the scenery. We could easily have spent a day exploring, eating and drinking, but the Football Weekend had to continue so we then jumped back into the car and headed North.

Offices

A brief pit stop was taken at Duiven before we set off on a journey that would take just over an hour and a half to the North of the Country where newly promoted FC Emmen were taking on VVV Venlo.

Talk about unlikely lads, if someone had said to anyone who understands Dutch football that Emmen would be promoted to the Eredivise at the end of last season, you would have laughed at them.

Never in the running for the championship, they finished the season in seventh place and qualified for the Play Offs, and a couple of two legged victories over NEC Nijmegen and Sparta Rotterdam suddenly saw them propelled to the top flight.

So, what this meant was  an 700% increase in attendances, and the securing of tickets far from straightforward as one of the town’s known for being the most boring in Holland, sought solace from their miserableness via the football.

But a couple of online registrations and some fast work meant we’d secured the all important paperwork, and with it came the journey that took us via Apeldoorn and Zwolle, before arriving in the town that sits very close to the German border.

Warming Up

Emmen is a town located in the province of (Royston) Drenthe, and is essentially a Dutch version of a new town. It was primarily built after the Second World War, consequently there is very little in the way of historical landmarks to be seen. Emmen’s notable or indeed only highlights include the Women’s Chess Olympics in 1957, and, wait for it, the opening of a zoo. So, you can see why the football team winning promotion was such a big deal.

We didn’t go into the town, funnily enough, settling for Goodfellas Steak House which was just a two minute walk from the De Oude Meerdijk stadium of FC Emmen. The food was quite superb, and set us up very nicely for the game.

You get two types of football grounds in Holland outside of the bigger names. You get the version that looks like Scunthorpe United, which has typically been built from the early Nineties onwards, then you get the versions that are slightly older than that which essentially are four stands of a similar design, albeit different sizes, on each side of the ground, and that was Emmen!

The main stand was slightly bigger with the offices contained within a building to the rear, while opposite was a full length seated version raised up from the pitch level. Behind both goals were seated stands, with the away fans occupying a section in the North stand.

Great Pylon

It did have proper floodlight pylons in each corner though, something I feel very passionately about, and the more ironwork the better. I like a football ground to resemble a railway shunting yard when it comes to pylons, carrying a real health and safety risk with the temptation for individuals to climb them!

The game wasn’t great to be honest, Emmen have won a couple of games this season but none at home, whereas Venlo have had a better season by their standards and sat in the top half of the table.

Venlo took the lead in 15th minute when Peniel Mlapa finished a straightforward chance, but they gave themselves a problem within four minutes of the goal when Roel Jannsen earned himself a second yellow card for a challenge that was probably more clumsy than late or dangerous.

Venlo changed their style and went defensive, relying on the break, but their resistance was broken in the 65^th minute when Stef Gronsveld equalised. Emmen had a lot of possession thereafter but didn’t have any quality in attack to find the winning goal, whereas the visitors were happy to take a point. 

Take a point they did, but they had to battle for it as Emmen did use the space well and moved the ball around, but organisation, discipline and determination got them the draw in the end.

Escape From Boredom

The Emmen fans went back to their mundane existence in Legoland, while we hit the road. By the time we’d landed back in Duiven I’d driven 360 miles in a day, the longest I’ve ever done. Put into perspective, that was just eight miles more than the journey from Duiven back home to Belper!

Still time for a trip to the pub afterwards though and a well earned pint or two for the driver, the likely lads were back in their natural environment.

The unlikely lads of Emmen need to enjoy it while it lasts, the zoo every other weekend sounds like a very inferior alternative!