After 7 successive excellent team performances, it was perhaps inevitable that Vets 2 would have a poor game at some stage.

Unfortunately for us, Bousval Genappe was a good enough team to make the most of our shortcomings. Nevertheless, the day was historic because Bas Ten Holter made his 100th appearance for the club, and George Panagiotidis made his first.

On a warm October day on a wide astroturf pitch, Vets 2 started slowly - playing a 4-1-4-1 system, with Carl sitting in front of our regular back four, Leo on the right, Milan on the left and Adnane and Nigel in the middle, with Costa leading the line.

In the early exchanges, they tended to find space in midfield to launch their speedy wingers down the wings. We managed (just) to cut out crosses or block shots from their early attacks, but it was clear that we were in for a busy afternoon in defence.

After 15 minutes Vets2 took the lead, arguably against the run of play. Nigel slipped a nice ball through to Costa on the right side of the box. But the goalgetter from Galati still had some work to do. He got in front of the defender and fired a strong shot towards the bottom corner from quite a wide angle. The keeper managed to get a hand to it, but he could not keep the ball out. 1-0.

Bousval had a shot at goal directly from the restart - and Harun decided to miscontrol the ball, to the extent that it got within 1 metre of the goal line. He always had it under control, he reassured us afterwards.

Five minutes later, an excellent pass behind Munish seemed to put their winger through on goal. In a 50-50 race for the ball, he got there just ahead of our onrushing keeper - but not by enough to stay on his feet. And so Harun picked up his third yellow

of the season, but they only had a free kick. Curiously, Carl also picked up a yellow for pointing out where the collision took place. They missed the free kick, but 2 minutes later, one of their midfielders broke into the penalty area and fired an unstoppable shot into the top corner. 1-1.

The rest of the first half felt like an uphill battle. Nigel pulled up with a calf injury, replaced by Chris. And Costa picked up a yellow card for trying to win the ball. But we managed to get through to half time at 1-1.

We started the second half with the aim of closing down their midfield more effectively. But fairly on, both Chris (hamstring) and Carl (groin) picked up muscluar injuries. They both battled on bravely for a while, but it made it more difficult to get the upper hand in midfield. Although we didn't create too much - and Costa was a lonesome warrior for most of the time -

we more or less held on.

With 15 minutes to go, they finally took their chance. A midfielder found space on our right and put in an excellent cross to one of their forwards, who headed it in. 1-2.

It was now that George came on. And even before he touched the ball, we were level. Costa won back the ball on half way, dribbled round a defender and let fly from 30 metres. The early shot clearly caught the goalkeeper by surprised and it flew in just under the crossbar. 2-2.

It was then that we had our best spell of the second half, with Benoit pushing into midfield, and Leo, Costa and George getting forward. With about 7 minutes to go, Costa was put through nicely by Milan - and just as he was one on one with the keeper, the ref blew for offside. The guys on the sideline said afterwards that he was probably 3-5m onside.

And as so frequently happens, Bousval went straight up the other end, their midfielder dribbled round 2 or 3 tackles before placing the ball in the corner. 2-3.

With the ref confirming there were 5 minutes to go, Bas came on for the ailing Carl. But alas there was not much we could do - especially as it was the fastest 5 minutes ever seen. Indeed, Roger even got a yellow card asking to see the ref's watch!

Speaking after the game the Vets 2 coach said: "The bad news is that we didn't play well and we lost our 100% record. The good news is that we're still top of the table and we have another game next week."

Voting for man of the match saw Costa as a run away winner.

Team: Harun; Munish, Roger, Benoit, Kevin; Carl (Bas); Leo, Nigel (Chris F (George)), Adnane, Milan; Costa. MoM: Costa