The great fear has definitively materialized for Pettorazza San Martino.
30 championship days were not enough for the red and whites, almost all of which were spent in ambitious or at least safe waters, to secure their salvation: Sandro Tessarin’s men, in fact, they will have to win it through a fratricidal derby in the playouts against Rovigowhich will force Polesine to lose another team in Promotion after Scardovari.
PSM, by virtue of its best position in the standings (fourth-last with 34 points, compared to 30 for the third-last Rodigini), will enjoy a double advantage, namely to play the return match on Sunday 26 May at home (the 19th will be went to Gabrielli) and to be able to save themselves in the event of an equal overall score in the two matches. But inertia doesn’t seem to be on the side of Captain Bellin and his companions at allvictorious only once in the last 13 matches and, inevitably, sucked in by Rovigo’s comeback, which thanks to the direct clash two weeks ago reduced the gap from -11 at the beginning of the second leg to -4 at the end, bringing it within the limit threshold of 5 points to play the play-off.
Play-off that became reality due to Sunday’s 3-2 knockout on the field of champion Pozzonovo: for PSM, who would have directly saved themselves with a victory, the usual well-played performance was not enough. Indeed, against a Rovigo that has died and risen several times, now forged for every battle, a PSM will probably be needed, perhaps less beautiful but more concrete and knowledgeable.
“Now we have to think about the playouts and reset everything – says coach Tessarin – yet in Pozzonovo we played a good match, creating opportunities right up to the end in front of important players. In particular in the first half, as long as we had energy, we were strong-willed, so much so that we closed the lead thanks to Nordio’s goal (number 12 in the league, ed). And we could have even scored the second. Then, at the beginning of the second half, they scored a fortuitous goal and then it got tough, Munaro’s goal of hope wasn’t enough for us. But we knew that it would be difficult to win in Pozzonovo”, concludes Tessarin bitterly.
