Steenbakkers receive a lesson in efficiency from Sporting Hasselt: “Four goals and a prize each time” (Boom)

On a visit to Sporting Hasselt, Rupel Boom suffered a dry 4-1 on Saturday. The Steenbakkers were certainly the equal of the Limburgers at times, but were given a lesson in efficiency. Due to the defeat, Sam Vermeylen’s troops are still waiting for their first away win.

“We were Hasselt’s equal in the game,” opens coach Sam Vermeylen. “That may sound strange when you lose 4-1, but it is true. They were just deadly efficient. They have been at our goal four times and it was a prize every time.”

Rupel Boom’s away numbers this season are nothing to write home about. “We barely get two out of eighteen, a stark contrast to the nice eleven out of fifteen for our own people. It is not that we always play poorly away from home, but somehow it goes wrong every time.”

Doesn’t that bother the players? Before you realize it, you are left with an away complex. “I don’t have that feeling,” Vermeylen refutes. “But it is a statistic that we urgently need to turn around, otherwise we will continue to struggle for an entire season. We have not lost at home yet and we are on schedule in terms of points harvest. But if you have ambitions, you should of course also be able to win away from home. We always start with the best intentions, but too often end up empty-handed at the end. We only got a point in Diegem and Londerzeel.”

The good feeling after the home match against Tongeren is gone again. That seemed like a reference match, but after the recent zero out of six, no one talks about that anymore. “I also thought we left after that strong match. The reality is that you now have 13 out of 33. That’s just not enough. And so you go to that match against Wezel with a certain pressure, because it absolutely must be won. I don’t want to look at it too negatively either. Hasselt, for example, was really no better than us in the game. But we have to be more efficient in the box. Not only in the opponent’s, but also at the back. Four chances against and four goals, that is not allowed. So there is work to be done.”