Netherlands: Push Wint Eindelijk Weer: ‘Nooit Angst Voor Degradatie Gehad’

A wave of relief swept over the field in Breda on Sunday afternoon: the Push women had finally scored another victory in the Promotion League. At home, the team had beaten Groningen 3-1, a much needed victory in a season that was much more difficult than in previous years. Still, the team remained combative. ‘Fear of relegation we never had.’

After a difficult first half of the season, Push logically ended up at the bottom of the Promotion League. Last week, the team even dropped to 11th place, the position that leads to relegation at the end of the season. This was in stark contrast to the same time last year, when the Breda women battled Rotterdam in the playoffs for a spot in the big league. The season before that, Push finished in fourth place as a promoter, just one point behind the number three.

On paper at least, Push has not deteriorated in terms of composition. It did lose routines like Pien Holleman and Meke van Heesch, but Bieke Wijnmaalen, among others, brought back big league experience. Furthermore, the team, just like Wijnmaalen and Elshout themselves, consists largely of players from their own youth. The staff is also identical to that of past seasons. So that’s not the reason. The atmosphere is also still good. We realize that we have to stick together. Point out what is going well and what is not. Keep involving each other. Then the atmosphere in the group just stays positive. Everyone is still very nice to each other.

According to Elshout, the 4-2 defeat against promoted Were Di a week earlier caused extra sharpness. ‘We unnecessarily gave away a lead there. Somehow that loss pushed a button. We may have been on top the last two years and feel we belong in this league: it doesn’t happen by itself. As a result, we trained one more tooth than usual.’

Keep on fighting

That sharpness was rewarded, even though Groningen had every chance of winning the game. Push took the lead, but Groningen hit back in the third quarter and made it 1-1 from a penalty corner. Meanwhile, it was raining corners for the visitors, but each one was defused by Lauren Logush’s fine goalkeeping.

Groningen player Evaline Janssens tries to take the ball away from Fabiënne Elshout. Photo: Rob Römer

Only in the last quarter did the Breda women draw the game to themselves by scoring twice in quick succession. First, the just-18-year-old Sam Heeren put her team back on top after a stopping error in the Groningen defense. The same Heeren broke through again a few minutes later to serve Maartje Pierik. The striker easily tapped in, securing the win.

‘We knew we were better than the rankings showed, but you have to show it on the field. Today we finally did that. I enjoyed the individual actions and how we kept going. We never had any fear of relegation. You always have to look up. But you don’t get it as a gift. You have to keep fighting.’