Skills 0 - 5 Saints (374696128)

30680 punters turned up at Noobs with Skills Arena, and despite threatening clouds on the horizon, no rain came. Petricã Udrescu was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Knut Tvedt and Martin Calotã. All of Zuid-Holland was shut down for the day, as fans of both clubs came to the derby. Skills started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. The following players took the field: van Dulmen - Meekhof, van den Bogaard, Steen - Brusselers, Burks, Terlecki, van der Sleen, Brosens - de Wilth, Bürkler.

Saints tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. Starters: Storck - Haaksema, Ayán, Otaola - Carneiro, Crimi, Bastiaans, Kiekeberg, Utkiek - Hawlitzky, Bilkevičius.

Saints took the lead 9 minutes into the game, making the score 0 - 1 after some elegant movement down the middle. O. Hawlitzky was the scorer. G. Crimi of Saints received a yellow card after 10 minutes for unsportsmanlike behaviour. With the scoreboard showing that 28 minutes had been played, Saints nearly put themselves up another goal after O. Hawlitzky came through on the left. Fortunately for the home crowd, the keeper made the save. The referee signalled a penalty 29 minutes into the game following an offence which looked like it was outside the box. M. Ayán knocked it home to make the score 0 - 2. The players of Saints now seemed to think the job was done and acted more defensively, just waiting for the ref to blow the final whistle. The opposing supporters gave the referee an earful when he only gave S. Bilkevičius from Saints a yellow card after a mistimed challenge from behind 32 minutes into the game. That was far too lenient! Due to a severely mistimed tackle, R. de Wilth of Skills spent some time on the grass writhing in agony before he could get up and continue the game. With 34 minutes played, a quick exchange of passes on the left wing freed T. Kiekeberg of Saints to slip through the defence and score another goal for the visitors. That made the score 0 - 3. There was concern in the stands when, at the 36 minute mark, Saints's J. Otaola hit the ground hard, but he refused the attention of the trainer and rejoined his teammates on the pitch. A. Utkiek received a delicate pass through the home side's central defence after 39 minutes, and chipped it past the flailing keeper to score making it 0 - 4. The Saints fans went wild, whilst the home fans started to think about leaving early. 0 - 4 was the halftime score. Saints enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 55 percent of possession.

After the ball was lifted in from the left, M. Ayán was on his own in the home side's penalty area and should have scored after 69 minutes, but missed, probably due to lack of concentration. Skills's R. de Wilth managed a superb strike from the left after 71 minutes that would have left goalkeeper R. Storck without a chance, had it not hit the post. Saints increased their lead after 78 minutes when G. Crimi broke through on the right, upping the score to 0 - 5, much to the home crowd's dismay. With 79 minutes played, S. Carneiro nearly put the visitors another one up as he broke through in the middle and fired from just outside the box, but his shot passed just over the bar. Saints's T. Bastiaans was shown a yellow card for standing over the ball and blocking an opponent's quick free kick after 83 minutes. 84 minutes were showing on the scoreboard when Saints's S. Bilkevičius received his second yellow card and was sent off. Saints claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 54 percent.

W. Brosens performed admirably for Skills. On the other hand, R. Bürkler's play was disheartening. Most important Saints player was O. Hawlitzky. However, R. Storck made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 0 - 5.