Ajax Reserves vs Maastricht Predictions

Match day 14 saw Jong Ajax turn in yet another awful display on the road as they were beaten 4-3 by bottom side Jong Utrecht at Sportpark De Westmaat. It was the sixth defeat suffered by the defending Eerste Divisie champions from eight away matches this term, and coach Michael Reiziger will again be looking for an instant response when his team line-up at home this Friday night against MVV.

Even Reiziger is struggling to fathom just how his team can perform so well at home yet so badly on their travels, but the former international full-back concluded that his side ‘did not do any work’ against Jong Utrecht on Tuesday night as a fine hat-trick from Nick Venema sealed a 4-3 success for Robin Pronk’s basement dwellers at Sportpark De Westmaat.

The result took Jong Ajax’s away record this season to one win, one draw and six losses from their eight away matches, which is a stark contrast to their form in Amsterdam where they’ve won five from six.

Reiziger will be making changes aplenty ahead of this week’s clash with MVV at Sportpark De Toekomst following his damning indictment of the team’s lack of hunger and work ethic, and there’s no guarantee that Jong can keep up their strong run at home if they keep enduring embarrassing results on the road every fortnight.

Jong are certainly under-priced for this week’s fixture after proving that they’re capable of folding to anyone in this league, and there’s further reason to take them on here, with visitors MVV looking solid away from home this term.

Ron Elsen’s charges lost their unbeaten away record at Volendam in a 3-2 defeat two weeks ago, but had notched an impressive three wins and three draws on their travels prior to that.

MVV’s poor home form this season is the reason why they’re stuck in 12^th at the moment, but they finally landed their second success of the campaign at De Geusselt on match day 14 with a decent 3-0 victory over Roda JC through goals from Joeri Schroijen and Marnick Vermijl.

The result moved them level on points with 11^th placed Jong, which in itself tells us there’s little between these two sides and MVV have been heavily underestimated for this clash at around the 5/1 mark.

That price is very tempting indeed but the logical bet here is backing the Maastricht outfit on the double chance market, based on the fact they’ve avoided defeat in six of their seven away matches this season and in three of their last four visits to face Jong in Amsterdam.

The odds on offer are still generous and we can be a little bit more confident with two of the three possible outcomes on side, should Jong turn in a performance more akin to what they’ve shown at home so far this season. We still favour MVV for the win in the correct score market though, so we’re also going for a 1-2 success for the visitors.