TEAM: Kris Mercelis / Andrew Hodgson, Nils McGrath, Dex Bernardo, Endre Amundsen / Kev Deroeck, Rich McGeehan / Rob Brown, Steve Lamarra, Nick Lambers / Thomas Kellerman

On Saturday the 14th of September RBBFC firsts travelled to Tourinnes St Lambert to face a difficult opposition called Tourinnois. It was a rainy morning and on a narrow semi-bumpy pitch the team with most desire would surely have the edge in this close encounter. The instructions before the game were simple from McGrath; "It won't be an easy game and if we don't take the game to them they will come at us strong". With a narrow pitch the two wingers had the job of remaining as wide as possible to stretch the attack and beat their opposition and hammer in as many crosses as possible.

The game commenced and both teams looked up for it with many slide tackles being thrown around. The referee (a strict Irish fella who made it clear he won't tolerate any back talk) set the tone of the match handing out a yellow card in the first ten minutes to Brown for a clumsy tackle. With the teams being evenly matched RBBFC piled on the pressure.

The first sliding tackle came in from Brown who blocked the clearance and the ball was now deep in Tourinnois half. Lamarra and Kellerman reacted very quickly to put tremendous amounts of pressure on the opposition forcing the ball all the way back to the goalkeeper whom before he could blink was closed down by Kellerman who blocked the clearance. The ball slowly trickled towards the goal with a Tourinnois defender chasing it with Steve Lamarra not far behind him. Surely the defender would make it? As the ball rolled towards the goal Lamarra started to celebrate as the ball crept in. One nil RBBFC (Kellerman).

With RBBFC piling on the pressure and Tourinnois struggling for any space, shortly after RBBFC's first goal Stevie received the ball on the left from center midfield duo Kev and Rich. Stevie - a bag full of tricks, beats his marker neatly and managed to get to the by line. Stevie bulleted in a cross low and hard just like McGrath had asked for. The Tourinnois defenders sprinting back couldn't manage to deal with the cross and as the ball flew pass RBBFC's hit man Kellerman, Brown crept in at the back post unmarked slotting in the ball to make it 2-0.

With half time shortly approaching RBBFC were on a great track. As RBBFC started to dominate the game Tourinnois started to get more agitated, tackles were thrown forward and the referee started to call more fouls. With the game approaching half time,Nils McGrath received a slow pass and he tried to flick it past the defender who luckily for him guessed right and was now through one and one with the goalie Kris. McGrath lunged himself at the ball getting the man (and some of the ball?) and resulted in a foul. As the ref looked for someone in a white shirt near the foul to say a second man was nearby saving McGrath from a red card, Rich magically appeared in front of the ref’s eyes with a smile. With his lightning speed he surely would have blocked the shot anyways resulting in McGrath receiving just a yellow card.

In the half time team talk, manager John McGrath arrived and he was now on the sidelines giving RBBFC an extra confidence boost. Skipper Nils McGrath instructed the team to keep persisting and not to get sloppy, and that if Tournious get a sniff of the goal they will take their chances and the game will be much harder for us.

The second half commences and almost instantaneously Tourinnois had stepped it up a few gears piling on the pressure deep in RBBFC's half. Tourinnois feeling hard done by the previous decision of McGrath’s foul started to play good football, and soon after the foul they had a shot that hit the cross bar and one of their players was in the right place at the right time to head it in.

RBBFC decided to make a substitution, taking Lambers off for Cris Debouter, who almost instantaneously after his arrival on the pitch slotted home a beautiful finish on the breakaway. With the score being 3 – 1 the game was surely in RBBFC’s grasp. As the Tourinnois players started to get restless they started to play more long balls putting the RBBFC defense under pressure. The back four, especially Nils and Dex won headers all day long and covered tremendously for each other.

As the game came to a close the Tourinnois had piled enough pressure to win many corners in which they were a very dangerous side from. As balls were whipped in RBBFC dealt with every corner leading to Brown to break away on the left side. As he breaks away he hears Stevie behind him yellow for the ball, as he receives it he spots Endre in the corner of his eye making an overlapping cross and plays a magnificently first time ball into his path. Endre drives the ball into the box who at the end of the cross found Kellerman who slotted the ball in the back of the net. Surely game set and match.

As RBBFC had performed to the capabilities, Tourinnois resulted in shooting from long range and fortunately for them a shot skidded in front of Kris late in the half. As the ball was very hard to deal with and the pitch being bumpy it skidded past Kris resulting in the final score being 4 – 2.

Reporter & MOM: Robert Brown