Wuppertaler SV are eleven points behind Alemannia Aachen with nine matchdays to go. Nobody at WSV wants to talk about first place anymore.

The frustration at Wuppertaler SV was huge after the 3-0 defeat in Wiedenbrück. At the beginning of the year, sporting director Gaetano Manno and coach Ersan Parlatan were still on the offensive and wanted to start a race to catch up towards first place.

However, recent away defeats at FC Wegberg-Beeck and SC Wiedenbrück have ensured that WSV can put their promotion ambitions to one side. Sporting director Gaetano Manno spoke of “15 final games” before the start of 2024.

In other words, WSV would have had to win almost all of their games to finish at the top. The four wins from the last six games are not enough. In the first half of the season, they simply left too much to chance.

After the 3-0 defeat in Wiedenbrück, Manno was very clear on the subject of the club’s promotion dream. “That was zero in terms of body language. We invited Wiedenbrück to make it 1-0, otherwise it’s still 0-0 and then there might still be something in it. But after the goal it was bottomless. We can congratulate Aachen. If we can’t do it ourselves, we have no business being there. I’m incredibly sorry for the fans, the club and Friedhelm Runge, who invests so much. We’ve let them down very badly. We at least want to end the season properly,” the WSV sporting director told the “Wuppertaler Rundschau” newspaper in plain language.

Manno will also know that it won’t be any easier to attack the top in the 2024/2025 season. Patron Runge recently announced that he would be scaling back his financial commitment to WSV – Forecasting reported.

WSV wanted to attack in the 2023/2024 season. That was the big opportunity. Charlison Benschop – 23 games, eleven goals, eight assists – knows that too and was accordingly disappointed after the defeat in Wiedenbrück.

“That was bad! There’s nothing more to say. We prepared for it, our training pitches aren’t the best either. But we can do it there too. It was a match of fights. It stayed 0-0 for a long time, but then we suddenly tried to do different things. And that’s what we’re simply not doing well at the moment. And then we also concede stupid goals. We want to keep at it, also personally. We also have our own goals,” the striker told WR, not wanting to write off the season just yet.