Saturday 4th February 2012 ko 8.00pm

Belgian Pro-League

STVV SINT-TRUIDENSE 0

CERCLE BRUGGE 1 (Vitokele 37)

Att 6,184

Entry €20

Yearbook and teamsheet FREE

Badge €4

After leaving Aachen,and warming up in Lee’s car, it was just an hour’s drive, clipping the edge of the Netherlands, before arriving in the Flemish city of Sint Truiden. Author Aldous Huxley briefly lived here.

With the temperatures falling still further, I don’t think any of us quite believed that the fixture would take place, even though the sage of Belgian football, Peter Abbott, had informed me that the pitch was state of the art 4G, and that it had passed an earlier pitch inspection. There was also the vexed issue of actually getting a ticket, as top flight Belgian games can have fairly stringent ticketing arrangements. We walked into the ticket office, brandishing our passports, and Lee’s details were taken, but otherwise the process was straightforward. We commiserated with the staff, as the heating in the club offices had failed. I used the visit to take pictures of the club banner and the East Stand, where I was to sit later.

We then checked into out hotel in nearby Hasselt, and enjoyed watchng the smokers’ dilemna at the entrance. Feed your addiction and get cold or stay in the warm and withdraw. We used the time at the hotel to load up on coffee, and put on every item of clothing we possessed. Twenty minutes later, back at the car we looked like 4 Michelin men!

I discovered from the Yearbook that the reason for the new pitch is that the club have dug down from the old pitch to build an underground car park. With that in place it’s taken the strain off the street parking, and the pitch played perfectly despite the freezing conditions.

It was quite biblically cold. My camera lens could only take around 5 seconds worth of exposure before freezing up, and needing to return to the warmth of my pocket. I couldn’t resist checking the temperature on my iPhone, in a state of amused horror!

Stayen is a stadium in progress. The club offices, and some shops, are held within the fabric of the modern north stand, which frankly doesn’t look like a football ground from the outside. We sat in the modern East stand, which almost unbelievably, featured a disco in the concourse! Opposite, the old West stand has been demolished, with just a tiny terrace on that side while the new stand is being built. For the groundhopper, the reason to visit Stayen is the narrow double deck stand behind the goal. Terrace below, and seats above, its the one remaining part of the old Stayen, and long may it survive.

There’s no reason for it to go, because STVV are marooned at the bottom of the league, and I saw nothing about them in this game to suggest that salvation is just around the corner. Once Igor Vitokele nodded home from a corner just after the half hour, their fragile confidence was shattered, as passes went astray, and the crowd began to get on the players’ backs. It wasn’t a bad game, and I wasn’t that cold, the layers of clothing worked well, but I couldn’t see how STVV could get back into the game. That was for two reasons, firstly because STVV offered so little, and secondly due to the freezing fog sweeping the ground, putting the fixture in some doubt.

After half time the STVV side was rejigged, but to little effect. The fog relented a little, although I note that the club have offered all those there a free ticket for their next home game, on the basis that you couldn’t see this one!! STVV huffed and puffed but at no stage did they look like even getting even an equaliser. I felt for them, as they were easy to deal with, a friendly club, but relegation looks certain.