With two goals he gave FC Emmen an extremely important victory on Saturday and so the smile is big at Ole Romeny, 22, who admitted it was a ‘do or die’ situation, he told Voetbal International.
Romeny, pictured centre while at Willem II, spoke out a month ago. The technically gifted attacker had ended up on the reserve bench and thought it was time to get up. He self-critically indicated what needed to be improved. Since then he has scored against Go Ahead Eagles, FC Volendam (officially an own goal by goalkeeper Filip Stankovic) and now twice against Excelsior.
The win at the weekend now puts Emmen out of the relegation places and overtakes Excelsior who drop down to the relegation play-off spot after recording their fifth successive league defeat and extend their winless run to eight matches.
“I put myself on edge, yes”, laughs Romeny. “After that interview I received a lot of messages: Show it then! That has been on my mind for the past few weeks. I know I can do it, I know I can be important, otherwise I wouldn’t have said that.
“I’m glad it’s out now, but we’re not there yet. We just have to keep going now, because we have to stay in the Eredivisie”, emphasises the match winner.”
Romeny even made his first goal with his head, to the surprise of teammate Mike te Wierik.
He said: “I didn’t even know he could run! But that doesn’t matter, he saved it for now,” laughs the experienced defender. “It was a really good header, against not the least keeper, because Van Gassel is having an excellent season. I just thanked Ole for that.”
Thanks to Romeny, Te Wierik could finally cheer again. He added: “That was a while ago for me, yes. Emmen of course won against PSV in January, but I wasn’t there yet. The last victory I booked was in October, with FC Groningen against PSV. So yes, I am very happy with it. We really needed these.”
Emmen still find themselves in the relegation battle with just a point separating themselves to the play-off spot and are due to face Sparta Rotterdam next weekend who are looking to remain in contention for a European spot.
