Season 1988/1989

After a disappointing previous season, where Stade Rennais finished 10th in the league, the club were due to put things right and give themselves the means to realise their ambitions, by getting promotion back to the First Division. In order to achieve this, the club recruited several players with top-flight experience, such as Goudet from Brest, or Guillochon who arrived from Le Havre. But the key signing would end up being Patrick Delamontagne, who had returned "home" after 10 years playing for other more high-profile clubs. After a slow start, with Kéruzoré in charge for his second season, Rennes joined the hunt for a promotion sport from Matchday 6 by winning 5 games in a row. Unfortunately, from Matchday 10 onwards, Rennes started to struggle, and the top spots started to disappear over the horizon. However, thanks to a 15-game unbeaten run (from Matchday 18-32), Rennes would end up Third in the table which got them into a play-off qualifying spot. Alas Rennes lost this qualifying match 0-1 against Nîmes, and promotion would have to wait. In the French Cup, Rennes had a good run, mainly thanks to their marksman Erik van den Boogaard, who scored in virtually every match (9 goals in total), and they went on to reach the Quarter Finals, where they were eliminated by First Division league champions, and eventual cup winners Olympique Marseille.