Excelsior 3 - 2 Feyenoord

Fistly, apologies for the lack of games covered. I was hoping to do something on a couple of the opening games in England and Scotland but never mind, there is always a lot of available information on these matches.

Feyenoord cannot really be considered a major force in Dutch football any more, their last real success was when they won the UEFA Cup in 2001-02. This was seemingly confirmed today when the team went down 3-2 to relegation favourites and Rotterdam rivals Excelsior.

A wonderful strike from the edge of the area by Guyon Fernandez gave the minnows the lead after 29 minutes before Ron Vlaar got the equaliser just before the breaking; crashing in a header from a corner. The favourites then took the lead in the 74th minute from another corner. This goal was a lot more scrappy and in the end went in off the head of Excelsior defender Nelom.

Many would have expected Feyenoord to have strolled home from this point after dealing that blow to their opponents but an equaliser came only two minutes later from a free kick that was well headed home by Daan Bovenberg.

With literally nine seconds left on the clock, the man who opened the scoring in the match, Guyon Fernandez, also got the last goal and gave Excelsior the win. It's hard to say that the relegation favourites were necessarily the better team but Feyenoord were simply awful. The fact that their two goals came from corners says a lot in that they created little else and Excelsior keeper, Cees Paauwe, had little to do throughout the match. Meanwhile at the other end, Feyenoord did not exactly look 'together' as a defensive unit as was highlighted by the last goal. I wouldn't like to take anything away from the scorer, Fernandez, though and he was by far and away the best player on the pitch; a real threat throughout for his team.