Vets1 made the long trip to the outskirts of Brussels on the infamous southwest side. Cut through town, take the long way round or fight your way through Uccle and Forest: not an easy choice. Most gladiators arrived on time, testament to their time management.

A new loudspeaker was in the modern dressing room: nothing creates stronger bonds pre-match than jointly complaining about the choice of music….

Captain Rice kept it simple, continue the unbeaten run, crisp passing, play the possession game and the goals will come. Line up of 4-5-1 to the untrained eye looks defensive until you know the players (and also the miniature pitch so Tommy could also have a go downwind). Lars and Roger as the solid core, enterprising wingbacks Cedric and Nando. A controlling midfield of Ian and Carl, flanked by Thierry and Ben S with Cian in the point of the reverse diamond and Simon on his jack as target man. Ben and Bas trudging on the side-lines impatiently and Brian Lewis back as motivator.

Ecusson decided to switch halves and benefit from the wind in their backs and waddoyouknow, 3 minutes in and a long pass that dropped awkwardly between Roger and Lars. Their danger man controlled it, cut back in side and fired high in the far corner. 1-0 to the bellies. Unfazed we started to build our game. Some naïve rushes through the middle and the occasional missed pass, despite our pre-game focus , but eventually our patience would pay off. We played the ball round a few times and crossed long on the small pitch. One of these balls lead to a cross-pass for Thierry, who narrowly beat the keeper and headed towards goal. He did not give it a lot of umph so the their fullback ran back after it and pulled of a miraculous clearance: he booted it onto his own crossbar from a yard out and the ball was back in play.

Stunned, we regrouped. Next option was for Simon on a textbook header from another beautiful cross: unfortunately wide. Then it was Ian’s time to have a go but despite deftly playing around the goalie after some nice combination play, he lost his bearings and put the ball wide.

Now we were getting into our stride. Ecusson barely passed the halfway line, other than with goal kicks that were taken care of by Roger and Lars. We pushed on and the reward came. A corner kick, some pinball bounces and it fell to Ian who needed two touches to fire home from close range. 1-1. This took any remaining wind out of the sails of Ecusson. Before the break we were up to 1-2 with a great through ball to Simon after a combination between Ben S and Cedric, a run to the touchline and a nice pull back on to Carl’s weapon of choice and into the back ‘o the net.

Break-time and a calming speech from the Cap. Keep it going, they are tired and lost their goalie who was replaced by the midfielder that was this week’s adversary to Ian’s penetrating runs.

Soon in the second half it was Ben for Simon and this paid off rapidly. With Ben holding the ball after long passes and passing them to whomever would storm up beside him, Cian took possession and refused to let go. He reached the edge of the box and with enormous awareness poked the ball with good pace to the corner, the stand-in goalie had no sufficient answer. 1-3 and all is well.

Another change of Roger for Bas in defence to close out the game and see if we can add to the tally. We did, one beautiful combination on the left saw Bas, Carl, Ian involved, a through-pass to Thierry who touched it for a one-two, down the wing he went to attract the remaining defender on the touchline. A pullback to Ben and 1-4 is on the board. Thierry then added one of his own after a nice break on the right, 1-5 with a few minutes to go.

Nando was increasingly restless but bound by strict defensive orders to protect our lead. He did see some openings for rushes and the occasional corner to go forward only to be disappointed by a pass rather than a nice high ball in the box, knowing their keeper was but a stand-in, so with Ian, Cian, Ben, and Nando all licking their lips at the opportunity a high one would have been the way to go.

We found a way to get around their offside trap and with all of them looking to the (excellent, must be said) referee Ben calmly strode forward and put the ball away against the hapless stand-in goalie who had to go fishing in his net again.

1-6 and the clubhouse was heaving, mostly due to a funky combination of salsa music, children’s birthdays and some retirees that use the club house for their Saturday beers and dancing. And dancing they did, including with a jolly Irishman right after the MoM celebrations. All hail to Thierry who had an excellent game, a pass-completion percentage in 90s, a goal and some of these quality long balls he likes to release while almost standing still. Repeated voting for Ben G almost snatched it from him but the final result stands.