Line up :

Kris Mercelis

Jean Minne – Nils McGrath - Sylvain Lachia

Maarten Billiet – Richard McGeehan – Kevin De Roeck –– Max Verkaik - James Philpot

Thomas Kellerman – Daniel Donner

Bench : Spencer Springob – Andrew Hodgson – Diederik Lebbink

A lot of players away on this 24th of November but still a strong team on the pitch !

Nils McGrath back in the defensive big tree and Thomas Bomber Kellerman back upfront.

The message was really clear, we need some improvement from last week : take the 2sd balls, build the game, let the ball alive and… score!

First half was 95% RBBFC. Good chances for Captain McGeehan, Nils, Thomas, Maarten, James, Max and Daniel. Almost all on good/great movement.

On a free-kick, Richard put it on the box, 2sd post. We heard a big crash and a "aaaaaaaaaaaaaa”, was it Thomas ? no, different voice this time, Nils has been destroyed in the penalty box by their big man.

Penalty ? no, as usual this season. As almost everyone was wondering what happened, Maarten took the floating ball with a good header on the second post. The ball went to the other post and Thomas put it into the net !

Goal ? no, offside! Was he really ? we do not know, we were not looking. I would say even the Ref was not looking… pitty for Thomas and RBBFC…

Tourinnois took their 5% while on a counterattack after a RBBFC corner kick, they were 3 against 2. They struggle to finish it properly thanks to our defensive work and we reached Half-Time with a non-deserved 0-0.

Message was clear again, everyone with 10% more and we will go to the beers with the 3 points.

Second Half was 90% RBBFC.

Good chances for Captain McGeehan, Nils, Thomas, Maarten, James, Max and Daniel. Almost all on good/great movement. Did I already say that ? yes ! did we score ? not yet.

Then, as usual in football, if you do not score, a half chance can become a goal against… it happened with a long free-kick deflected to their forwards, a bad rebound that pushed one of our defender to make an assist to them, and a bad finish that finally went into the net…0-1, 5% for them, undeserved, but still 20 min to play.

It did not affect our moral, Mr Hogdson Junior and Spencer came on to continue our effort.

A lot of corners, a lot of free kicks, a lot of combinations, a lot of throws in… we ultra-dominated the game.

On a throw in on our left side, to change, Maarten took it and Jean was in the box. Great move between Max and Jean to take their big guy away. Throw in, deflected by Jean, flipper game behind him, ball came again to him, control, toe kick between defender leg, 1-1. Go for the win now !

But in football, you have to be focused at every second. Tourinnois took their last 5% on one of their only good combination upfront, the ball came from the left between 2 defenders to their striker. He will finish it, certainly…he looked where to place it, loaded his shoot…then Jean decided to make a 5 meter tackle (winter and snow is coming, so it is time to take the sliding attitude). He countered the shoot and reminded everyone that it is very difficult to score against RBBFC…

We continue our effort but there was always something to block us to score…a leg, a body, the goalie (who made some great saves), a to long ball, a to long control, a wrong decision, the Ref (penaltys ? no offsides?) , etc…

We have even tried to score in the most spectacular way. Great one-two between Daniel and Thomas on the left side outside the box, Daniel made a long cross over the defense, Jean was staying in the box (you never know…), the ball came so that the only thing to do was to try the bicycle kick… he took it well, left foot, great sound, great feeling, great fall, but... great save from the goalie, again, no goal…

Nils decided to stay upfront, "I want the win, I will make some tricks you know…”.

But it was to late and on a last corner for rbbfc, the Ref blew the end of the game… frustration for everyone but quality was there again.

Tourinnois, as a lot of other teams, came for the draw, loosing a lot of time during the game, they reached their goal but we, as remaining Champions, have to handle this to reach our own goal : take pleasure every weekend + 3 points😉

Reporter and M.O.M : Jean Minne