FC Volendam vs RKC Predictions

It was lights out for Volendam boss Misha Salden last week after his side’s 2-2 draw at fellow strugglers Helmond Sport prolonged their winless start to the campaign. Former manager Hans de Koning takes over at Kras Stadion on a caretaker basis, and his first assignment will be a clash with his previous employer RKC on match day eight this Friday.

Salden’s dismissal hardly came as a surprise considering Volendam had failed to win a competitive match since early April, and their dreadful start to the current campaign leaves them second bottom seven games in.

The 2-2 draw at Helmond Sport on match day seven was just their third point of the season, and they’re also out of the KNVB Beker having been beaten 1-2 by Willem II at Kras Stadion last week.

Hans de Koning enters the fold for his second spell at the club, and the experienced 58 year-old has a huge task on his hands to turn Volendam’s fortunes around. Many will bet against him doing so based on the poor record he built up in his most recent role at RKC Waalwijk, but he has an immediate opportunity to give fans some belief this Friday against the club that sacked him in the summer.

Volendam achieved qualification to the end of season Play-offs twice between 2012-2015 under the stewardship of de Koning, so supporters at Kras Stadion are likely to get right behind him from the off on match day eight, where they’ll be confident of landing that elusive win against an RKC side that are themselves without a win in five Eerste Divisie games.

Things started really positively for new Waalwijk boss Fred Grim as his team secured back to back victories over Telstar (1-0) and Den Bosch (2-3) in the first fortnight of the campaign, but the club have endured a barren run since.

Last week’s 2-1 defeat at Almere City was RKC’s fourth loss from their last five league outings, and confidence is undoubtedly low in the Waalwijk camp.

However, it’s important to note that all of RKC’s defeats have come against teams currently occupying a place in the top six, so it’s distinctly possible that they’re better than their current 14^th place suggests.

A repeat of the performances turned in against Telstar and Den Bosch could well be enough for RKC to land the spoils here, and they’ll take comfort from the fact they won this corresponding fixture 0-1 last term.

Nonetheless, better can surely be expected of Volendam with their new man in charge, and it’s dangerous to bet against a team under new management with players usually desperate to impress.

So with the hosts drawing two of their three matches at Kras Stadion so far this season, we’re tentatively going for a stalemate in this one. With both sides keen to stop the rot, it should be quite a cagey affair and we can see the teams cancelling each other out for a 1-1 result.