Team: Williams, Wrigley, Knott, Macdonald, Riley, Brown, Boyadjiev, Gutierriez, Antonicoli, Doessing, Ffinch. Subs : Stemple, White.

A windswept Nossegem was the setting for vets 2 derby clash against FC Irelande. Memories of the meeting earlier in the season reflected on regret that we hadn’t beaten them on the field, it was a 1-1 draw, relying instead on the Micks’ inability to get the new match day tablet to work properly and gifting us a 5-0 forfeit victory as a consequence.

Chairman Mao roared in his team talk that 3 points were there for the taking but we would all have to be committed and fight to the end to get the win. How true this proved! A 3-5-2 formation, or the more subtle 3-2-3-2 if you prefer, was the order of the day with Mao himself back to stiffen the midfield alongside Pete Brown. Mike Gutierrez and George provided the width and the left and right respectively.

There was a cry from the Irelande side at kick off of "let’s get an early goal” and unfortunately that was exactly what happened as their forward was able to get on the end of a long ball and evade our defence to score after about 5 minutes. Vets 2 struggled to get into the game early on and FC Irelande had their tails up and put us under quite a bit of pressure as we failed to retain possession of the ball. However, much like 2 weeks ago against Choule we suddenly got our act together and equalised. The ball reached Mike on the left who cut inside. His cross was partly blocked, but found its way to Chris Ffinch on the 6-yard box and Mini Mao chipped it over the keeper into the back of the net. 1-1.

It would be fair to say that Irelande had the better of the first half, they forced several corners and right on half time scored from a corner to lead 2-1 at the break.

Mao decided that reinforcements were needed and John Stemple and Tony White came on for Pete Brown and Patrizio. As soon as we changed ends it was a different game. The wind was probably more of a factor in our poor first half than we realised and we immediately started to impose ourselves on the game with Chairman Mao leading the charge with his usual revolutionary zeal. We had much more possession and our forwards were starting to cause problems with several fouls were conceded by their defence as a result. John Stemple and Mike were causing havoc on the flanks and George, having moved to the middle, was pushing forward effectively. The equaliser was bound to come and following a corner the ball bounced around in the box and Timme pounced to slam the ball home. 2-2.

Irelande tried to push forward from the kick off but we dispossessed them, countered quickly on the left and Stemps set up Chris Ffinch but their keeper pulled off a great save to stop a certain goal. With the Irish clearly tiring and vets 2 virtually camped in their half, a third goal looked very likely. Stemps got the ball on the left, cut inside and his shot took a deflection off one of their defenders and rocketed into the net. 3-2.

The defence of Alex, Scott and Paul saw off any Irish forward attempts and our opponents virtually didn’t enter our 18 yard box in the second half. So Tea Bag could relax and watch the planes come and go. We probably should have added to our goals tally but we easily saw out the game for a very pleasing 3-2 win. There was a great deal of satisfaction at the end at the winning fightback from being twice behind and this was truly a great team effort.

I have to give a final mention to Dave Leigh, who despite his civilian attire, was actually listed as a substitute. He was noisy on the sidelines and gave us his support in his inimitable style. A series of positional changes and coaching tips were offered but Chairman Mao and the rest of the team stuck to the script to positive effect.

In a MOM vote that the Red Army would have heartily approved of, our Glorious Leader Chairman Mao, was the clear winner by several votes.

MOM – Chris Riley