Antwerp started the season with high ambitions following promotions, signing some pretty impressive and established players and luring Laszlo Boloni to be their coach. The experienced Romanian soon got the Good Old organised and into good shape. They lost just once in the opening eight games of the season and looked quite lively in attack at times as well, having won three of the opening four games. These promising results breathed confidence into the squad and Antwerp maintained a good level of performances and results throughout the regular season.
Their goalscoring exploits dried after the strong start, mostly due to the incessant injury problems of main striker Obbi Oulare, but they remained rather close to the top six as a whole, winning four of their last seven games in the calendar year. A superb performance against leaders Club Brugge in the first game after the winter break should have earned them a win, but a late collapse meant a share of the spoils and Antwerp never really regained their groove after that. Successive heavy losses away to direct rivals Kortrijk and Genk suddenly put them in serious risk of missing the top six and indeed they were beaten by ten-man Anderlecht on the final game of the regular season to just miss out.
They never really got over that disappointment during the play-offs and barely played to their abilities in the final ten games. Overall, the first season after long spell in the second-flight was a success for one of the legendary Belgian clubs but they will still be looking back with disappointment during the summer at this poor period at the start of the year when the top six just eluded them.
