For all the teams in the Oberliga Niederrhein, the games started again last weekend. Ratingen, on the other hand, were able to look at the results from the comfort of their sofa.
League action in the Oberliga Niederrhein resumed last weekend. While Sportfreunde Baumberg were on the losing end, Ratingen 04/19 were laughing all the way to the bank. The second-placed team in the table was able to follow the second half of the season in comfort via the RS live ticker. 04/19 had no game on matchday 19.
Martin Hasenpflug’s team watched league leaders Baumberg suffer a 2-0 defeat at bottom club TSV Meerbusch. This was a steep challenge for the club from Ratingen, who would like to see the light of day in the regional league.
This means that the Hasenpflug eleven are hot on the heels of the Sportfreunde. With one game less and only three points behind, Ratingen are now in the thick of the action.
Coach Hasenpflug doesn’t want to dwell on the slip-up, however: “The media said that we were the big winners on the matchday. So we don’t have any more points in our account now than before. We don’t want to look at the competition, we want to focus on our own homework. “
This is a club that has developed strongly in recent years and has grown incredibly – as has the team itself.
Martin Hasenpflug on VfB 03 Hilden
He also emphasizes: “We have the underdog role in the promotion battle. In order to take advantage of this, we must never lose our cool and certainly not be lulled into a sense of security just because someone at the top has made a mistake.”
04/19 will be looking to make an immediate statement against their first competitive opponents of the new year, VfB 03 Hilden. Not an easy task. Hilden, currently in fourth place with 30 points, also have good reason to believe they still have a chance of promotion.
Hasenpflug is humble ahead of the chasing duel: “I definitely see Hilden as the favorites in the match. It’s a club that has developed strongly in recent years and has grown incredibly – as has the team itself. I also think that they have beaten us in the last four or five games. We are therefore approaching this task with humility. “
