Vets1 made their way to the far corner of Brussels in Watermael-Boitsfort to face Ettekijs in what was a "must win” game if they wanted to stay in touch at the top of the division and follow up their thumping 7-0 win from the week before.

Captain Legere was at the ground early to inspect the pitch, the "buvette”, the changing room facilities and ensure that there was ample parking space available for when the bicycle brigade would arrive.

There were no surprises in the line-up as Vets 1 set the stalls out in their usual 3-5-2 formation with Sejersen in goal and Voell, Legere and Christensen in defence. Rice was tasked with filling in at right wing-back and joined by Giunti, Guarnaccia, Estrada Lopo and Pellegry in midfield, while Stanojevic and De Lima provided the fire power up front.

No surprises in the pre-match speech either with Legere pointing to the strength of the squad and warning against any complacency. Focus was on keeping possession, staying calm and taking our chances when they would come.

The game didn’t start that way, however, with Vets 1 guilty of giving the ball away too easily against an opposition they had destroyed at the same ground the season before. The game was scrappy from the beginning with little action at either end of the pitch and it took a mistake by the Ettekijs backline to gift Vets 1 the opener midway through the first half. A poor attempt at a dribble by one of the Ettekijs centre halves was intercepted by Stanojevic, who squared to ball to De Lima for an easy tap-in into an empty goal.

The rest of the half continued in the same manner with Vets 1 having a couple of good opportunities to extend their lead, while any threat posed by Ettekijs was comfortably snuffed out and dealt with by Voell, Legere and Christensen at the back. Sejersen wasn’t troubled and spent most of the half instructing Rice to retreat from his "fairly” advanced wingback (right sided striker) position.

It was still a frustrated team who came in for their tea at halftime as they knew they hadn’t been at their best and that their slender lead was not enough. Legere tried to calm things down in his own charming way, while Guarnaccia did the complete opposite and insisted that the final ball had to be better. Vets 1 needed a second goal quickly to settle any nerves.

Right on cue, a minute into the second half, Rice picked up the ball on the right hand side and put a peach of a ball into the path of Estrada Lopo, who slotted it under the Ettekijs keeper. 2 – 0 and the perfect start to the second half. Special mention here to Stanojevic, whose incredible run off the ball dragged the entire Ettekijs defence out of position and created the space for Estrada Lopo. A run later described, among other, as "game changing” and "out of this world” by Legere in his post-match analysis.

Pellegry was having a solid but quiet afternoon by his own high standards this season, while Guarnaccia and Giunti made sure that the workload of the Vets 1 defence was kept to a minimum.

Tsopo and Charvet were introduced into the fray to help take out any attempted Ettekijs sting and made an instant impact. A clever through ball by Tsopo resulted in two Ettekijs defenders running into each other, leaving Estrada Lopo one on one with the keeper and he made no mistake. 3 – 0 and the game was effectively over.

Charvet had a final trick up his sleeve, however, when his good run down the right side was followed by an excellent cross to the back post for Rice to magnificently head in off the near post before nearly taking out the corner flag in an unexpected knee sliding celebration.

A well-deserved 4 – 0 win kept Vets 1 in touch with the top teams and, without having to make a save all afternoon, Sejersen could add yet another clean sheet to the collection. A good afternoon out in Watermael-Boitsfort… !

MoM & Reporter: Christensen