Mouscron started the season in desperate fashion and by the end of August they sacked their manager and appointed German Bernd Strock. He had immediate impact in making the team a bit more compact and solid all over the pitch.
Results were not immediately much improved but the team started to show signs of cohesion and discipline, getting points off the likes of Gent, Genk and Standard in consecutive games in the autumn.
They managed to built a bit of a cushion with bottom side Lokeren by the time of the winter break but their season really exploded in 2019 when they went on a pretty extraordinary run.
Strock's side took a scalp after scalp, beating Anderlecht, Genk and eventually Club Brugge in a stunning nine-game winning streak that lifted them to mid-table and captured the imagination of everyone.
Strock based it around a very compact and hard-working midfield and a powerful and pacy attacking lead, spearheaded by Taiwo Awoniyi, who enjoyed a superb run upon his return to the club for a second loan spell in January.
Based on that, Mouscron were expected to challenge seriously for the top spot in their play-off group but a slow start, mostly due to injuries to a few players, left them handicapped and they never stood a chance of catching Kortrijk.
Strock announced that he is leaving at the end of the season due to disagreements with the board but he deserves a lot of praise and should be proud of the work he did with a team universally expected to be bottom of the table, turning them into an unstoppable machine for a stretch in early 2019.
