Hercules remained the better team, until Christiaan van Hussen, the crowbar in midfield, was injured. The last fifteen minutes before half time belonged to Excelsior, who scored the equalizer in the extra of the first half through Bram Wennekers. “I enjoyed the team for the first half hour,” René van der Kooij said afterwards. The trainer acknowledged that Van Hussen’s retirement weighed heavily on his team, which was already missing the necessary players. “Because of Chris’s absence, I had to shift, and that was at the expense of the automatics.”
Hercules coach optimistic despite draw in first play-off match: We are really going to beat Maassluis, one hundred percent’
