Mavericks versus Water Boy kicked off Round 4. Mavericks came into the game on the back of a 1-0 defeat to Trilution. Water Boy came into the game on the back of a 2-0 defeat to Trilution and then sat out Round 3 with time to ponder that defeat and lick their wounds.

Mavericks were still well placed in Group B. They currently sat in third position and a win here would move them into second. Water Boy had a game in hand on most of their Group B rivals. A win for them would see them move above Mavericks in the table.

Water Boy have made 7 previous eurofootballfives.com appearances with this being just their second in the Veterans section (previously 2015 also here in the Algarve). On that occasion they won 2 and lost 3 of their group games before finishing runners-up in the Plate. Today they were 1 win, 1 loss so far.

After this match Water Boy could add another victory to the “win” column. It was a narrow 1-0 victory with Bernardo Agostinho proving to be the match-winner as he was in Round 1 versus Dickie Dogs.

The next fixture was Gosham Rangers versus Dickie Dogs. Gosham Rangers were fresh from their first win of the day and faced a Dickie Dogs with 1 point from their first 3 games.

When Dickie Dogs last played in the Algarve Veterans Tournament they finished with 1 win, 1 draw and 3 defeats as they finished 6th and missed out on the knock-out phase. They were currently 6th and occupying the last Plate qualification place as things stood – you felt they needed a win here (although there were still a couple of games to go).

It was the Dickie Dogs who forged ahead with Neil Ainger scoring his first of the day. Gosham Rangers should maybe not be too worried at this stage as they came from behind to 3-1 in their last game. The comeback would be more difficult this time though as captain Ian Hall then put Dickie Dogs 2-0 up.

In the end, there was no way back for Gosham Rangers. Steve Banks and his defence kept their second clean sheet of the day to do their bit in a fine 2-0 win.

The sense around the ground was that FC Mahou were the team to beat and favourites for the title. You can see why.

They have 3 eurofootballfives.com titles to their name - the 2011 Prague Masters, 2013 Algarve Open and 2017 Mallorca Veterans Tournament. In previous early tournaments they were only knocked out by other eurofootballfives.com winners – Bulgaria's Lozenetz City (Prague Masters 2009, Manchester Fives 2010) in the Cup Quarter-Finals of the 2009 Barca Fives and Spain's Futbol City in the Cup Semi-Finals of the 2010 Valencia Fives. This trend continued in the 2012 Mallorca Tournament when they went out in the Cup Quarter-Finals to eventual winners Cosegur Balear of Spain.

At the 2014 Budapest Fives they drew a tough group and qualified for the Plate competition which was as strong as some Cup competitions that we've had in the past – they duly went on to win it to become one of a few number of teams to win both Cup and Plate trophies. At the 2016 Mallorca Tournament they were on fine form as they finished 2nd in Group C with 4 wins out of 5 as they scored 22 goals with just 1 conceded. In the Cup Quarter-Final they lost to 2011 winners Policia Local in a 5-3 thriller. Then came last year's Vets win.

They had just made it 10 wins from 10 games in our Veterans events but this looked to be their hardest fixture to date. They were up against Trilution who were just 3 points behind them with a game in hand. Both teams had 100% records – so far!

It looked like 11 wins could be on the cards when Mike Brandon's 7th goal of the day put FC Mahou 1-0 up. Trilution were not to be beaten though – Aquino's third goal in as many games pulled them level. The match would go onto finish 1-1, a great result for the Portuguese.