American head coach of K Lierse SK, Jamath Shoffner got his first points of the young Challenger League season, while Marlon Fossey and Standard Liege returned to their losing ways in weekend Belgian action.
Lierse 3 – 2 Eupen
After a couple of defeats to open the season against Beveren (2-0) and Kortrijk (1-0) where they failed to light up the score board, the fortunes of head coach Jamath Shoffner changed on Saturday night when his Yellow-Blacks took a commanding first half lead and were able to hold onto the points after the Pandas second half revival.
After 15 minutes Bryan Adinany found the back of the net for the team’s first goal of the season. The Madagascar international then set up Dylan Demuynck 10 minutes later. Just before the half-time whistle the hosts were awarded a penalty and Jenthe Mertens tucked that one away for a 3-0 half time lead that got the home fans thinking that the three points were already in the bag.
Eupen had other ideas however and when Yentl Van Genechten pulled one back, the Herman Vanderpoorten Stadium fell silent. You could hear a pin drop five minutes later when the Pandas pulled another one back. The nerves had set in but Shoffner’s men were able to get the job done and escape with a 3-2 victory.
After finally getting some points, Lierse will look to add more when they go up against Beerschot over the weekend.
Standard Liege 0 – 3 Cercle Brugge
The season just hasn’t gotten off to the greatest start for Marlon Fossey and Standard Liege as they have returned to their losing ways in front of the Sclessin faithful when Cercle made the trip from Brugge to take them on. Captain Fossey played in his usual right back position for the full 90 minutes so got to see his side go down by three goals to none before the half time whistle. That is how the score remained at the final whistle as well.
After just 14 minutes the visitors, who have had problems thus far this season finding the back of the net did just that when Edan Diop hit the cross into the box hard and low, giving the Standard keeper, Matthieu Epolo a save to make. The young Belgian keeper was unable to get down quick enough and so the Frenchman on loan from Monaco got to celebrate his first goal in Belgium. Four minutes later it could have been another for Cercle but Epolo managed to poke the shot away with his foot.
The hosts had a half decent chance just after the half hour mark but Fossey’s bad pass in the final third put an end to that. To be fair, they did have a few more sniffs at goal but when the clock struck 45 minutes played, it was the men in green and black celebrating once again. It was Steve Ngoura this time with his low shot that slipped just under Epolo, who again couldn’t get to ground quickly enough.
To make matters worse for les Rouches, as earlier in the game they left a man unmarked on a corner kick. This time it was Edgaras Utkus who was picked out and nodded it into the back of the net three minutes into stoppage time.
Although their play overall improved after the intermission, the Leigeois just could not get a grip on the game, especially their captain who seemed to have other things on his mind. He had an excellent chance halfway through the second half but doing things in halves the entire game, his half-hearted shot went wide.
The three points dropped leaves them equal on points with Cercle after five games. Saturday night they’ll hit the road to take on OH Leuven, who are not having a good season themselves.
Notes
Bryan Reynolds and Griffin Yow had the weekend off as their visit to Brugge to take on Club was postponed. Club played Glasgow Rangers in Scotland earlier in the week and will have time to recover before the Glaswegians come to Belgium for the second leg of the Champions League qualifier on Wednesday. No re-schedule date has been decided yet, however the Gamecocks will host Royal Antwerp on Saturday night.
With the Challenger League consisting of 17 teams, Devon De Corte and the Anderlecht Futures had the weekend off as well. They’ll head to the German speaking part of Belgium on Saturday to take on Eupen.
