There is one more league match to go for a loaned out member of the Tottenham Hotspur squad and it is a huge game for his loan club
Troy Parrott’s club season will come to an end on Sunday evening with a huge match for Excelsior Rotterdam which requires him to have his shooting boots on.
The young Tottenham Hotspur striker has had a terrific season despite Excelsior’s struggles down the bottom of the Eredivisie. Within the Dutch side’s difficult campaign, Parrott has plundered 14 goals and laid on five assists in 28 league games. Excelsior’s 16th-place finish in the table meant they entered the Netherland’s relegation/promotion play-off system which meant crunch games against sides from the Eerste Divisie – the Dutch second division – to decide the Rotterdam club’s league status.
In the first set of games, they overcame fifth-placed ADO Den Haag over two legs 9-2, with Parrott grabbing an assist in the first game before bagging a hat-trick in the second. That brought a place in the play-off final against NAC Breda but the second division team ran riot at home with a 6-2 victory, Parrott getting on the scoresheet again with a penalty just before half-time for an Excelsior side that had two men sent off, one in each half.
Now Parrott and Excelsior must climb a mountain in the home leg on Sunday (5pm kick-off UK time) to get those four goals back with 11 players on the pitch and the young forward will be expected to hit the net before heading off to join up with John O’Shea’s Republic of Ireland squad.
Excelsior boss Marinus Dijkhuizen has been showing his players videos of big turnarounds in football, including the club’s play-off final against Den Haag in 2022, with the Rotterdam side scoring four goals from 78 minutes onwards with two after the 90 minute-mark and having a man sent off.
Dijkhuizen said this week: “Faith is also the first thing you need to have to be able to make something of it. Last Tuesday after the away match against NAC Breda, a number of players immediately shouted that it was not over yet.
“We showed those images from various matches today to further encourage that belief. It is an advantage that several players in our squad were there in 2022. If you have experienced for yourself that something like this is possible, then you have even more faith in it.”
Another player who is set to join Spurs next month is also in action this weekend for his club for the last time as Lucas Bergvall will play his final game for Djurgarden against Hammarby before linking up with Sweden Under-21s. Then after a holiday the 18-year-old midfielder will join the Tottenham squad from July 1.
