No one could believe when Beitar Jerusalem crushed Maccabi Tel Aviv 6-2, yes you read correctly, 6-2 at Bloomfield Stadium back on Matchday 10 in early November. Maccabi had taken a 1-0 lead before halftime but then lightning struck, not once or twice but six times as Beitar absolutely left the home fans with their mouths agape with no words being able to come out of their collective mouths.

They were in shock as to what they had all witnessed and couldn’t quite grasp what had occurred.

That was not just true for the fans that were in attendance that night but also the players and staff in what Beitar Head Coach Barak Itzhaki called a match that will be remembered in the history books.

Itzhaki is correct, that game has now gone down in the annals of history and the upcoming matchup between the two this coming Monday night at Teddy Stadium is a brand new challenge which in reality has no connection to the 6-2 thrashing.

Maccabi has a new coach in Ronny Deila, who has brought with him plenty of energy and enthusiasm while they have also added a significant goal scorer to a squad, that for the most part is the same that it was back a few months ago. But since the Norwegian bench boss arrived, the yellow-and-blue have looked a billion times more dangerous and so much better than they were over the course of the last few matches under former coach Zarko Lazetic.

Beitar will need to pay special attention to just that as they look to get out of their four match winless streak slump. It should be noted that all four of these games were played without arguably the club’s most dangerous player in Omer Atzily who they will be without once again when they step onto the Teddy Stadium pitch on Monday.

Atzily’s absence has been quite difficult for Beitar to handle especially when it looks like no one has stepped up to take his place and in fact, no one has even come close to playing the role that he has and that’s been a massive problem.

Itzhaki has some wonderful players but none have been able to step into Atzily’s shoes and make the difference that was needed in the losses to Hapoel Beer Sheva and Bnei Yehuda as well as in the draws with Hapoel Haifa and Ashdod.

Against Beer Sheva, Itzhaki made some changes to his usual game plan and that almost worked out, however, Beitar still came up short not being able to take advantage of many of the opportunities that they were able to create.

Following the match, Itzhaki spoke about how Beer Sheva is a team that has been able to become a club that competes for titles with consistency year in and year out ever since owner Alona Barkat took over. This wasn’t something that occurred overnight but took some time to get into gear, but since it has, the southern reds are a threat to take home hardware each season in their fabulous Turner Stadium which has become a place that visitors fear and quite the Fort Knox for the hosts themselves.

Beitar is just beginning the process of becoming a team and club that will be in the mix every single season. For that to happen, the team needs to continue to succeed on the pitch while the club has to continue to develop off of it and as Itzhaki said when the two go hand in hand, the path will be a positive one. But it’s also one that doesn’t happen overnight.

It wasn’t long ago that the yellow-and-black were staring relegation right in the face Itzhaki reminded everyone, but right here and right now Beitar is back at the top and in the mix for the championship. In order to stay there and to become a contending team year in and year out, Beitar needs to continue building the infrastructure. Success will be there and as Itzhaki said, he sees a much bigger future for Beitar in the coming years.

However, that’s easier said than done.

It takes a tremendous amount of time as well as funds to become a Beer Sheva or Maccabi Tel Aviv, a club that Itzhaki was a part of for many years. At Maccabi, he was able to see first hand what an owner like Mitch Goldhar did to take the yellow-and-blue from the doldrums back up to being a championship contender and regular participant in European competition.

Itzhaki together with sports director Almog Cohen and owner Barak Abramov have all done things right thus far, but this is a long and arduous process that will take time. There will be plenty of ups and downs and crises along the way and the secret to success will be the patience of the fans and the principles who are making the decisions. The saying goes that patience is a virtue and everyone involved will need to have plenty of it should they want to really build a long lasting and formidable structure at Beitar.

Moving back to the immediate present, Itzhaki needs to make sure that Beitar doesn’t fall too far behind Beer Sheva and they need to stay ahead of both Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Tel Aviv as well. With Ron Kozuk’s squad winning at Ashdod they are now 7 points in front of the yellow-and-black while Hapoel Tel Aviv is just three points back of Beitar after downing Hapoel Jerusalem on Friday. Maccabi is currently five points back of second place and with a win they’ll cut that down to just 2 points as the pressure on Beitar mounts.

The heat is on.

On the positive side of things, Beitar will have 30K fans in the stands and due to a penalty levied by the Israel Football Association, Maccabi supporters will not be permitted to attend. This was the same situation that Beitar faced last week against Beer Sheva at Turner as the yellow-and-black faithful were banned from the stadium.

Without a doubt this will be a barnburner of a clash and one that could set the wheels in motion for either team as Beitar looks to stay in the title race while Maccabi tries to re-enter it in earnest.

This won’t be another 6-2 matchup, but one where both sides will battle tooth and nail for their footballing present and the near future as they look to close in on Beer Sheva.