FC Dordrecht's promotion to the Eredivisie in 2014 was one of the biggest surprises in recent history. The relatively small club wasn't able to compete with the Eredivisie teams at all and the relegation only one year later was the automatic result. Things went rapidly downhill after that drop to the Jupiler League as the club simply didn't have the budget available to form a decent squad. The staff had to add loan players and inexperienced youngsters to the team, which wasn't ideal at all. Dordrecht finished 14th in 2016 and they had to fight until the last day of the 2016/2017 season to prevent a disastrous drop to the Tweede Divisie. They eventually survived that huge scare though as Achilles '29 recorded a fatal defeat on the last day of the season.
Manager Gerard de Nooijer had to work with an extremely young and inexperienced squad this season, which wasn't an easy situation at all. The results just weren't there during the first half of the campaign and the pressure became a real problem near the end when Achilles '29 fought for the last chance. The Groesbeek side booked some crucial wins and they even had the chance on the last day of the season to knock FC Dordrecht out of the league, but a defeat against Jong PSV destroyed that last bit of hope.
FC Dordrecht managed to secure the Jupiler League spot for next season, which is in fact the only positive point to be honest The financial problems are still there and the lack of a real budget to add more quality players to the squad is a problem as well. Director Marco Boogers will have to be creative again during the summer to form his squad as all the loan players will leave the club again. Pushing the club back to the Eredivisie simply is a mission impossible, but avoiding the relegation did satisfy the fans despite the fact that Dordrecht only booked five wins in 38 matches.
