Team: Mercelis; Philpot, Minne, Bernardo : Gimenez, Hodgson, Agily, Novak, Donner: McGrath, Godeau

Subs: Thom, Si Mohammed, Van Dijck

Finally the day arrived, 1st match of the season, last vestiaire in Rosières, old crew, lots of smiles, almost new kit…even the birds were singing!

The new campaign started with new captain/s, our beloved kit designer has decided to take more responsibility and accept another board member role besides the one in Composil and took on the captaincy of what seems to be the best-ever squad roster. His sidekicks Kris and Sylvain respectively, each doing their duties off and on the pitch. Welcome back to John McG and his inexhaustible comments on how to further improve our game.

First ever I guess official 1st team captain speech with French accent was underway when it was interrupted by our lucky charm Mike (like any Saturday). Lots of talk on motivation, how great it’s been to be back, play new tiki-taka style and so on with John and Hodge sharing their views too and finishing with the most important note of all – to go out and enjoy ourselves!

That's what we did! Game started and you could tell that RBBFC players are thirsty and up for the game trying to control the ball and create space through plays that were cutting opponents midfield and opening sides. One of these resulted in a foul some 35m of the goal. Lukic took the Rick role and launched into 5m box where supposedly flying Danish man Nils has touched the ball that would continue its way into the net for big 1-0 lead.

Even after the goal, game plans didn't change and RBBFC decided to continue the same way but using the wings more trying to skip the game a bit with a few diagonals and try to surprise the opposition but solidly covered. What we did well in the first half again made an impact 10min before going to the break with Nils coming towards centre circle pulling away the defender and Hodgy's rotating in the middle with Lukic to try and lose one of their fit midfielders. This proved good once more as one of I believe Noah's ball went to Nils who played direct pass back for my Lukic's (?) assist towards the new guy on the block, Thomas who went 1vs1 with goalie and lost the duel but won a clear penalty. Secure executor of these nowadays is capitain Jean for 2-0. Last opportunity went to them when beloved Danca was showing his signature arm move which resulted in a penalty for 2-1.

Half-time message was as always strong, keep up and score another or a few and don't let them take advantage of this last-minute goal. We didn't and we proved to be mentally stable and strong for another goal, this time by the new guy, Thomas for final 3-1, assisted by another not so new but freshly promoted 1st team player T'arik (supposedly strong Ta followed by ik; ask Noah for more info) – welcome!

Worth mentioning that against my beliefs, opposition was quite fit and continued to challenge us on each ball, not allowing us to relax. To conclude, we played a very good match with nice performance from all (bench included) and some nice moves. Now, let's continue like this, focused in each match but one at the time. If we all do our best and help one another we will get far once again!

Lastly, very nice seeing some new faces that bring new sets of skills and furthermore highlight our club's international DNA.

MoM & Reporter: Luka Lukic Novak