The retirement of Alex Taylor

Nice one keeping hold of your players mate, just a shame about Kennedy

mgiffin Glad to keep them all, not getting Kenedy takes a bit of a shine off the day but, not a lot

It was a very short trip to get to Ghent for a match against last season’s winner against the runner up, it was also the place that in the last game of last season Alex’s side took a 7-2 hammering that almost knocked them out of Champions League qualification.



The biggest change from his usual line up saw Mechele move in at centre back as Alex gave Engels a break before the big match against AC Milan. Gedoz also made his return from injury replacing Centurion. Gent went for the usual odd formation they liked and Alex still wasn’t sure what to name going for 3-1-3-1-2.

Just after the tenth minute AA were passing the ball around the edge of the Brugge box. Deaux chipped a pass up to Gutierrez who chested the ball down and passed it wide to Foket. He cut inside and returned the ball to Guiterrez. He hit a low shot that Butelle got down quickly to push away. Wikheim got to the rebound but, the angle was to tight for a shot and his cross missed everyone and went out for a goal kick.

Just before the twentieth minute AA got the ball wide to Wikheim. He ran at the Brugge defence before hitting an early cross to Gutierrez at the back post just after the bounce he stuck his foot out and poked the ball on target and send the Gent fans into delight. Only for Butelle to dive and somehow push the ball away and Mechele whacked it out for a corner.

The Brugge fans jeered the premature celebrations of the AA fans as the corner was hit in. Rayos hit an inswing cross and Foket made a good run to get his head on the ball. It was set to be an easy save for Butelle until it hit a player in the box and fell to Nielsen six yards out and he buried his shot to put Brugge behind.

5 minutes later Gutierrez got the ball wide of the box. He passed the ball back to Kums who played a 1-2 with Deaux and then passed to Rayos he tried a through ball but, Cools easily intercepted it. He then dawdled on the ball in the box and Foket stole the ball and fired in a simple finish to double AA Gents lead.

They got to half time with Butelle making one decent save to keep the game as a contest. Alex was forced to chase the game and made changes to help his side get back into the game.

After 65 minutes Brugge won a corner. AA Gent half cleared he ball a couple of times but Brugge hit the ball in a couple more times until AA got the ball away to Depoitre. He passed the ball up to Kums who just hit the ball long for Wikheim to run onto on the counter. In on goal and to quick to catch Butelle was one on one and held his ground before timing his dive well to grab the ball off of his feet as Wikheim tried to round him for a tap in.

A couple of minutes later AA Gent had a corner. Rayos whipped it in and Nielsen headed it goalwards before Denswil cleared the danger. Izquierdo got onto the end of the clearance and made a beeline for the AA goal. He then passed up to Ribeiro who dropped the ball back to Vanaaken who chipped a pass up to Luciano, he pulled off a good first touch to get in on goal. Just outside the box with the keeper coming out Luciano simply chipped the ball over the keeper and it bounced just before going over the line to pull a goal back for Brugge.

After 71 minutes Martins hit in a corner that was headed away to Wikheim who got the ball under control and sprinted forwards. He had run from one box to the other and was shaping to shoot until Izquierdo of all people nipped in and won the ball before passing it back to Butelle. His long clearance was headed forward to Kums who passed to Milicevic who hit an awful pass right to Mechele. Who then hit an even worse back pass to Butelle. Gutierrez easily got to the ball first and easily slotted in to restore the two goal lead with both goals Brugge had to peg back being from mistakes.

Wikheim hit the side netting from a tight angle in the final act of the game as Alex suffered another defeat at the Ghelmaco arena. Not the perfect preparation for the midweek game against AC Milan.



Brugge held a narrow one point lead over Standard and four over AA Gent and Oostende and with four games left until the league split and points were halved it was very tight at the top.

A bad loss but still nice to sit atop, do you still have Bjorn Engels mate?

Unlucky mate, you've just gotta find that little tweak that gives your side the edge over Gent and you'll hammer them next time

Walkinshaw Yeah, its an annoying loss. Engels is still here and doing really well, pleased that no one seems interested in him for some reason.

mgriffin Yeah not sure what it is about that tactic but it does seem to have my number. Not sure what the tweak is.

The loss to AA Gent had not been good preparation for the visit of AC Milan in the Europa League on Wednesday. Alex was looking over the scouting report and while it was clear that AC Milan were no longer the all conquering team they once were, being in the Europa League proved that, they would undoubtedly be the favourites for the tie. European Golden Boy winner Romangoli and young goal keeper Donnarumma showed that they were still a force to be reckoned with however, signing players like Alex Tetty from Norwich to start also showed that they had weak spots in the team the could be attacked.



So far AC Milan were 5th in a tight Serie A and only one bad week away from falling into midtable with some decent recent form. Alex planned to sit deep and try and hit them on the counter. He felt they would be vulnerable on the break as they were hit with injuries at right back and it would mean that centre backs would likely be Romangoli and a young Brazilian and Alex hoped Luciano could cash in on the lack of experience while whoever he chose for the wings could hopefully do a job on the likely pairing of Antonelli and Papastathopoulous one was young and one was a centre back which would be helpful.

They had some good attacking players though so Alex would have to work with Philippe on a plan to keep any of Vasquez, El Shaaway, Embolo, Honda and Suso quiet for a match as well as Bonaventura from midfield. The only mercy being that Bacca was out injured for both matches

One thing that stood out to Alex looking at the table was that despite being in 5th place AC Milan only had a goal difference of +3 and conceded over a goal a game which gave him some hope as his own side had a mean defence and were usually able to find a goal or two from someone to get them past teams. He could also rely on some experience for him and the team in knockout two leg football and hoped that it would help against an AC Milan side who hadn’t been in Europe for quite a few years and a lot of their players were in it for the first time.

Plans were drawn up with the coaching staff and the team was drilled to as close to perfection that Alex and Philippe though was possible in the time that they had in between the two games. Alex had also decided to try and take as much pressure off of his team and shove it onto AC Milan he hoped by saying he thought his side were underdogs it would motivate the team to prove him wrong and by saying that AC Milan would have to win just crank up that extra bit of pressure on them.

Alex talked of how a club the size of AC Milan had to do well in Europe as part of the club while for Brugge everything from this point on was a bonus, he tried every trick he had learned on courses and seen managers do to gain the upper hand over AC Milan who on paper had a much better team.



Having done everything he could do to add pressure Alex watch Rudi Garcia’s press conference and was pleased that he also seemed to be adding the pressure on his side to do well in the match.

AC Milan named a strong side Marlon and Papastathopoulous were both being played outside of position to get him a better chance of getting in behind the AC Milan defence. He was nervous about the front three that AC Milan. He decided to give Mechele and Cools a chance to make up for their mistakes against AA Gent at the weekend.

The game got underway to a roar from the Brugge fans as their team faced off against a giant of European football.

Inside of two minutes Butelle hit a free kick long into the middle of the park which Vazquez headed back to Mechele. He played the ball along to Denswil who knocked it up to Andre Martins in midfield. He got the ball wide to Izquierdo who had to check his run to get the ball in his control. He passed the ball to Emerson on the overlap who sprinted past the last defender to get space on the wing. He whipped the ball into the box and Donnarumma came out to claim the ball he mistimed his jump and the ball sailed over his hands and into the lap of Luciano who scored a simple tap in to put Brugge ahead inside three minutes and as good as Alex could have dreamed and the noise of the stadium rose a few decibels higher as the crowd exploded in joy of leading a giant of the game.

After 7 minutes Vazquez received a throw in and turned played the ball back to Marlon, ha passed along to Tettey who got the ball wide to Antonelli who got in behind Cools. He cut the ball back to Honda in the box and he chipped in a cross to the near post. Vazquez hit a shot on the near post that was luckily right at Butelle who paushed the shot away and Cools cleared the rebound.

After the clearance Mechele went down clutching his hamstring and Alex felt that despite seeming okay after a couple of minutes he pulled him off for Engels as he wanted to make sure everyone was at 100%. Soon after Gedoz won a free kick out wide and whipped in the free kick it was headed back out wide and Gedoz was the one who got to the ball first. He passed inside to Martins 20 yards out who resisted the urge from the crowd to shoot and passed to Izquierdo just inside the box. He turned and his shot beat Donnarumma who turned to watch the ball and when it smashed off the bar and it hit Donnarumma in the chest and he reacted quickly to catch the ball before it crossed the line for a second goal.

After half an hour Engels played a great pass out wide to Gedoz, he tried to cut inside and was forced to pass to cools out wide. His pass took a deflection and fell to Vanaken, he turned and sprayed the ball wide to Izquierdo who headed the ball over a defender to get past him and then his cross hit a defender and fell to Emerson in space out wide. He hit in a cross and Luciano redirected the ball goalwards and Donnarumma pushed his leg out to make an incredible save and keep the lead at 1-0.

A couple of minutes later Romangoli played the ball wide to Antonelli who played a 1-2 to get space out wide for a cross. He hit it in deep to the far post and Honda got up and hit a powerful header it was out of reach of the diving Butelle and there was an audible sigh of relief as the ball hit off the bar. Vazquez looked to have a simple tap in until Engels managed to backheel volley the ball out of his path with some incredible skill and Cools blocked a follow up from El Shaarawy and Antonelli drove the rebound of that wide.

After 36 minutes Engels headed a corner away to Honda who got past Vanaken before being forced to pass back to Bonaventura. His pass to Vazquez was intercepted by Cools and rolled to him perfectly 20 yards out. His shot was low towards the bottom corner and Butelle could only push the ball into the path of Vazquez. When he had his leg back to shoot Engels flew in and sent the ball out for a corner and sending Vazquez sprawling to the ground with a forceful last ditch challenge that was timed to perfection.

With five minutes to go until half time El Shaarawy exchanged passes with Tetty as he moved deep into the Brugge half. He laid the ball of to Bonaventura who slipped in Vazquez his first shot was right at Butelle and he hit the rebound well wide of the goal which got a loud cheer from the Brugge fans.

At half time Brugge were ahead and Alex couldn’t believe it AC Milan had been all over them but, they had an early goal. Alex decided to play it simple for his half time team talk and went for “Lets beat this bunch of overpaid c**ts.” He felt that it got a very good reaction.

Soon after half time and Vazquez was again thwarted by Butelle and it looked unlikely to be his day. After 53 minutes AC Milan got a free kick 25 yards out from goal El Shaarawy ran over the free kick and then Honda hit it perfectly into the top corner and got AC Milan level, well technically ahead on away goals and deflated the fans until a storming tackle got them back into the game.

The game petered out into a one all draw. It wasn’t a good result under any circumstances but, by the same token it also wasn’t a bad result. It would require a goal at the San Siro which Alex felt was manageable although not ideal.



Alex had a look at the other results and the one that mattered most to the teams in this match was Sampdoria claiming a surprise 2-1 win over Liverpool. In the other Belgium vs Italy match was 0-0 being OHL and Roma.

Still in shock about that Gent loss!! All in all great as always

Fantastic point against Milan! They're not a great side but in terms of pedigree it's a great point!

Beany Couple of mistakes against a top team and you are always going to struggle. Cheers

Mgriff Yeah pleased with the draw still got some good players but patchy ability. Just have to score against an Italian team in European football away being the big downside

The next day at training the whole squad was on a high following the tight draw with AC Milan. Everything was going well and Alex was hoping that his side would be able to carry the momentum on and give Westerlo a hammering to keep the good feeling in the club going. With Westerlo cut adrift on the foot of the table Alex knew that they only had four games to save themselves in the top division and so Westerlo would be fighting tooth and nail for every point they could get.

Alex kept training focused and tried to ensure that the squad felt that they were going to win but didn’t think they wouldn’t have to show up for the match and still get a win. With time running out before the split Alex also wanted to ensure that they had every extra point they could get before the points were halved and all of the games were tough ones so a big lead could evaporate quickly which Alex desperately wanted to avoid.

Training went well everyone was up for it and no one got injured which was always a good note to end it on as far as Alex was concerned. Everyone was in good spirits when Engels was walking and got onto the tile turning, likely to make a stupid witty comment, and slipped fell down and clutched his knee.

His screamed punctured the air and Thierry was called for to come over and help. Alex looked on in concern as one of his best players lay on the ground looking like he would be out for the rest of the season. Alex was wondering what the injury was going to be from how it happened he guessed it was something to do with his ligaments and that was very bad news as far as he was concerned.

Then Alex noticed that his usual partner in crime Vanaken was smiling and trying to hold back some laughter. He then guessed that something was up and that his defensive prospects for the rest of the season weren’t as bad as he was thought ten seconds ago.

This was confirmed when Engels suddenly popped back up to his feet and casually walked on to the locker room while talking to Vanaken as if nothing had happened leaving a bemused looking Thierry who had sprinted from his office and was walking back red in the face muttering that he would give someone a serious injury next time they faked it.

Once his heart rate had slowed down Alex got into his office and worked on some more detailed plans against Westerlo and working out which players were fit enough to play the full game and which ones he would have to pull out of the squad. Overall he felt that everyone seemed fit enough so would just have to keep a close eye on the next training session to ensure that he wasn’t running his players out of fitness and making them useless for a week or two.

Alex went for Centurion on the wing over Gedoz but, other than that he had his usual line up out to take on Waasland Beveran who had shown up with a very defensive formation and Alex didn’t think would show much interest in attacking.

His prediction was accurate as for the first half Waasland started out deep and set out to frustrate and were very much succeeding as Brugge failed to get a decent chance and the only point of interest was an injury to Gano. Alex went 4-4-2 and put on Ribeiro

From kickoff the ball was played wide to Emerson who played it up to Izquierdo. He played it inside to Martins who squared the ball to Vanaken. He played the ball long over the top to Ribeiro. He rose up and headed the ball into the path of Luciano who burst into the box to get onto the end of it and was pulled down before he could. The referee spotted it and gave Brugge a penalty with Denswil stepping up to take it.

As usual his penalty was powerful and it went down the middle as the keeper dived away and Denswil celebrated getting Brugge ahead early into the second half. Soon after Waasland fired a shot wide from a decent position as they started to attack as a result of going behind.

After 79 minutes Brugge got a corner that Martins went over to take. He whipped the ball into the penalty spot. Vanaken got up highest and powered a header past the keeper, The man on the line reacted well to shove a leg out and block the effort. It fell perfectly to Engels and he headed in a simple goal to double Brugge’s lead and mean the both centre backs had scored in the same match.

A very tight game had seen Brugge just sneak through and claim all three points to continue a good campaign in the league. The centre backs bailing out the attacking players and they knew they wouldn’t hear the end of it.



Standard drew so Brugge’s lead was restored to three points as teams headed very much to the business end of the season.

all super tight heading into the end mate, good luck holding off Standard, how many games are in the season?

Small margin, but I know you can come out on top!