The game against Anderlecht US is relatively quickly told. On a very wet and windy January Saturday afternoon, 11 RBBFC Vets 2 players went to Anderlecht. With the referee suggesting already before the kickoff that the game should never have taken place and there should’ve been a remis general, we knew to expect relatively little enthusiasm from him.

We lost the toss and spent the first half with the rain and strong wind in our faces. It was a stern test for Tim McPhie, coming in for his first game of the season, next to Roger in the centre of defence. When we had the ball, we tried playing it wide to the full backs, Benoit and Milan, or via the central midfielders, Brian Lewis and Cedric - but the wind generally got the upper hand. It wasn’t necessarily simple for AnderlechtUS either, because every through ball they played would run through to Luc. They tried a few long shots - or crosses into the box from set pieces, but Luc was in good form, catching or punching anything that came his way.

Ironically their keeper made the best save of the game, after Simon Yearsley, George and Nic combined well against the wind. Nic got into the penalty area and had a clear site of goal - his accurate shot was well-saved, and then the keeper made an even better save from Nick on the rebound. On another occasion, Thierry intercepted a wayward pass and came close with a shot from the edge of the box which just went over. Nevertheless, it’s fair to say Luc was very busy and Vets2 were relieved at reaching half-time at 0-0.

Surely, having the strong wind in the second half would play in our favour?

Alas, it didn’t make that much of a difference, partly because the wind died down quite a lot, but also because Vets2 had one of those phases where we couldn’t string more than two passes together. Thierry had a couple of shots. Tim, too. And George went close with a chance which the ref then called back for offside.

As if George didn’t have enough bad luck, the ref then gave him his first ever (!) yellow card for wearing a chain round his neck (which he only saw because their defender gave George a nasty bang on the head for which he needed the magic sponge.

Vets2 remained solid in defence, keeping calm when needed and avoiding rash challenges that have been known to happen in the past.

The ref had the last word, blowing the final whistle 4-5 minutes early - just as we had won a corner. Based on the preceding 30 minutes of the second half, he was only accelerating the inevitable 0-0.

Speaking after the game, the coach said: "In the end, we have to be happy with a point. It moves us closer to the middle of the table, and keeps them well below us. If we were on Match of the Day tonight, this game would definitely be last.”

Man of the match votes went to Tim, Roger and Cedric, but the clear winner was goalkeeper Luc for his dominant 1st half performance.

RBBFC Vets2: (4-2-3-1) Luc Tholoniat; Benoit Priest, Roger Waite, Tim McPhie, Milan Sverepa; Cedric Cabaret, Brian Lewis; Nic Northcote, Simon Yearsley, Thierry Levionnais; Georgios Panagiotidis.