The team decimated by defeats is not giving up in spite of another unsuccessful game and wants to fight for continuance in the top league. This time Banská Bystrica was the team that succeeded in getting all points in Trenčín. The guests profited from the nervousness of the home players. “We lost although we had a couple of good chances in the first half. We could score twice or three times but, again, we conceded goals from counterattacks. This is our problem,” says midfield and the most experienced player of Martin Stano’s team, Thijs Sluijter.

In spite of this, he believes that the chance to save the league still exists and while it does, he will fight hard to seize it. “We have to stop looking on other teams’ results and to only focus on ourselves. We can not be interested in Senec, Zlaté Moravce, or Dubnica. The only thing that remains is to look ahead and to fight hard while a chance still exists. We have to think positively otherwise we can pack it up,“ comments the experienced Dutch who is however not missing a realistic view of situation; “It is not just the end of the season in front of us. We have to make use of every match to improve. We realize what position we are in and nobody has to remind it to us. There are nine games remaining and it will be difficult to save the league.“

Sluijter as well as the other AS players feels bad about the results also because of the fans. “These are not good times for us but we are doing our best to please them. They stand by their team from the beginning and I believe we will be able to reward them for it at least partially. We are trying to keep heads up and work hard on change,“ concludes the former player of Heerenveen and Litex Loveč.