Part 8 - Season 2013/14: January, February and March

We had a 18 day break from competitive matches in over the Christmas break, so I arranged a friendly game with D2 Antwerp to keep the players sharp. Although we lost 4-2, two goals from Thibault Hardy meant we gave a reasonable account of ourselves. We were soon back in league action with an away match against Berchem. Gerome Fernandez scored with Liege's only shot of the match, but that was enough for a 1-1 draw.


Our next match was a home game against Hasselt, and our good form continued with a 3-2 win, goals coming from Hardy, Cavalier and another from midfielder Fernandez. This win meant that we were top of the Division with one match in the second period of the season. The complicated way the division worked meant a win in our next game, away at Bornem, would mean we won period 2. This would guarantee a place in the end of season promotion play-offs.

It was a fortuitous win indeed, a very late own goal against the run of play giving us a 1-0 win, securing top spot at the end of the period, and a place in the play-offs.

This achievement didn't have a positive affect on the team however. First of all captain Gaetan Audoor put in a written transfer request, asking to move to a bigger club. Then, we lost consecutive games. The first was a 2-3 home defeat to Dessel in which we twice gave away leads, eventually losing to a calamitous own goal by young defender Debrun. Next we lost 2-0 at St Niklaas. We recovered some momentum with a 3-0 win against Deinze in the next match, with a 3-0 home win through Foulon, Hardy and an own goal, but we also suffered injuries to Fauvel and Guerra and we missed both for the trip to RC Mechelen.

Mechelen inflicted our biggest defeat of the season, 4-0. A game in which we had no shots on target and were well and truly outplayed. As March's fixtures came to and end, things weren't looking as rosy. Only 4 games after sitting pretty on the top of the table we were suddenly 6 the points behind the two league leaders Ronse and 4 points behind second place Torhout. The only consoltation was that we had secured a play-off spot. The other bright spot was that I had recruited some promising youngsters for the Liege youth team. After a series of trial games, we decided to offer youth contracts to 16 local young players. One player in particular, a 15 year old striker called Laurent Godard, seemed to have the potential to be a real find for the club.