Shipley 0 - 1 Shooters (377501639)

The crowd of 25000 turning up at Moorhead Lane today were greeted with some nasty showers of rain. Fernando Mattle was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Li Kok Sing and Gigi Buffon. Shipley started off with a 4-5-1 lineup. They fielded: Flemming - Grammenos, Graça, Hrdý, Fiúza - Zocher, Sgariglia, Månsson, Thorsen, Ebermann - Kleindienst.

Shooters tactics involved an interesting 4-5-1 combination. Lineup: Gadéas - D'Alessio, Schuler, Fawcett, Igreja - Geliher, Coucill, van der Zwan, Kauser, Ruane - Garrido.

Shooters focused on getting players in position for long range shots. With 7 minutes played, F. Hrdý of Shipley fell dramatically just outside the penalty area. However, the referee was unimpressed, and booked him for diving. It was a bad day for the usually speedy M. D'Alessio. The mud seemed to slow him down. 40 minutes into the game, D. Garrido had a great chance to put his team ahead, but his kick from the left went wide. Shipley's H. Zocher was shown a yellow card for standing over the ball and blocking an opponent's quick free kick after 41 minutes. It was obvious that the tactic of the day for Shooters was to go for long shots, but in order to score they have to do better than the shooting attempt from M. Geliher after 44 minutes, which was a total failure. 0 - 0 was the score after the first half. Shipley claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 53 percent.

Shipley's B. Månsson's long shot really ought to have found the net 69 minutes into the match, but it fell just wide of the target. After 76 minutes, the Shipley coach wanted to see a new face on the pitch, waving B. Månsson off the field. D. Parsons took his place. As the captain was no longer on the pitch, D. Parsons took over the role of being the Shipley captain. Shipley mounted an inspired counterattack down the right wing after 77 minutes, but A. Grammenos was unable to convert from short range. Shooters's R. Igreja lived up to his reputation for finding unexpected ways to get the ball in the net when he sent a nifty little pass over to D. Garrido who finished for 0 - 1 with 78 minutes of the match played. M. Sgariglia didn't let the weather get him down and made some great moves on the pitch in spite of the rain. 87 minutes into the game, Shipley seemed a little tentative in their play as their organization fell to solid. The rain made it hard for players like R. Kauser to show their technical control of the ball on this soggy day. Shipley needed a fresh pair of legs on the field, and after 89 minutes H. Zocher made way for N. Dick. After 89 minutes Shooters's M. D'Alessio limped slightly after a late challenge, but he was able to continue. 89 minutes into the game, Shipley had difficulty finding their positions and their organisation dropped to inadequate. Shipley had most of the ball, with 52 percent of possession.

Shipley's best player was M. Sgariglia. However, N. Dick made a disastrous appearance. Shooters's top performer was clearly D. Garrido. H. Ruane turned in a dismal performance, however. The match ends 0 - 1.