Line-up: Tommy; Lars, Massi, Simon (Damien); Maarten, Nel (Giunti), Hodgy, Horacio, Mark; Milos, Marcelo (Ema)

With first team opponents Jefke forfeiting their match first teamers Maarten and Hodgy were grateful for the opportunity to stay sharp and helped a vets 1 team on good form to keep up their push for division 2 with a convincing win over Nivelles.

Captain lolo, having suffered a broken collar bone in training, was not able to suit up for battle but that didn’t stop him from giving a strong pre-game speech. Team is on good form playing good football so instruction was to keep it up and press hard when the opportunity was right.

And, true to form, it didn’t take long before the team got their first goal. Maarten, playing on the right, had already shown what a danger he was going to be on a couple of occasions before he easily beat his man on the right, drove a good ball into the centre where goal machine Milos took one good touch and finished smartly with the keeper wrong footed. 1-0 up after a couple of minutes…perfect start.

The next phase of the match saw RBBFC have plenty of opportunities to increase their lead. Maarten on the right and Mark on the left were proving to be great outlets. Between some bad luck, poor finishing and one particularly good save from the rotund opposition keeper the score somehow remained at 1-0.

Simon suffered an injury and was replaced by Damien and their rapid right winger caused a bit of trouble. Mark soon figured his opponent out again and slipped him into his back pocket where he remained for the rest of the game.

Massi and Lars were easily handling everything in defence and between Hodgy, Horacio and Nel the midfield were well on top of their opposition. An opposition who had already started leaning on the dark arts to try and sway things in their favour. A lot of yelping, diving and arguing started to rapidly lower the tone of the game.

Thankfully we did manage to get a well deserved second. Mark powering all the way down the left wing before squaring to Milos who once again finished well.

Again, lots of wasted opportunities in the second half with our wingers getting in behind the opposition but those chances ultimately ending in frustration.

Nel was replaced by Giunti who came on as defensive mid with Hodgy and Horacio then pushed further forward. More cinema from the opposition and unnecessary drama led to a riled up ref taking his anger out on Thierry who managed to get two yellows for some mild, if admittedly unnecessary, back-chat from the bench.

Some more interesting calls from the ref followed. Mark outpacing his opposite number before being dragged down led to a free-kick….against him. A foul throw by the opposition landed about 5m in the pitch before the ref said they could take it again because the ball hadn’t entered the field of play. Ooooookayyyy.

Thankfully we got a well deserved third and best goal of the game. From the back Lars played a nice pass into Hodgy. Hodgy played the ball forward into Milos who returned the ball back to Lars in one touch. The in-form striker turned immediately and Lars played a great long pass forward into Milos’ path, perfectly into the space the striker had created for himself. Milos outpaced the defenders and finished well into the bottom corner. Great goal and game, effectively, over.

They scored a header from a corner and Tommy made a couple of decent saves to make sure there wasn’t any unnecessary panic. The opposition threw themselves into fences and onto the floor a few more times in a last ditch attempt to get something going. Their pathetic attempts failed. Ref blew the whistle and vets 1 keep their good run going. Fully deserved victory that could easily have been 6 or 7.

Man of the match voting came down to a draw between the two first team veteran debutants. The second round of voting led to a tight victory for your reporter, Hodgy.

Thanks guys for letting me and Maarten stay match-fit. I enjoyed the game even if the opposition did their best to spoil the occasion. Keep it up, season is long and at least one of the two leaders will surely slip up.