Superstars 1 - 4 Cottesloe (386975483)

Overcast weather free of rain made for a crowd turnout of 29957 at The House Of Pain today. Ola Skottlund was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Henry Besse and César López Yeste. People from all over Western Australia had joined up for the derby. Superstars tactics involved an interesting 5-4-1 combination. The following players had been chosen: Dunstans-Hills - Díaz, Natalicchio, Baumgartel, Profaca, Baugh - Gotowalski, Hack, McGuigan, Quadvlieg - Fagan.

Cottesloe decided to use a 2-5-3 set up. Starters: Caires - Carlerberg, Huťka - Forster, Warrington, Bartocci, Johnson, Nardella - Muselet, McCabe, Bruyn.

Superstars clearly had decided to counter-attack when they could. It was an obvious ambition of Cottesloe to use their ability at attacking on the flanks. M. Fagan almost seemed to dance around M. Warrington, his movements were so smooth. Unfortunately for Superstars, his finish ended up on the wrong side of the post. The home crowd breathed a collective sigh of relief when H. Bruyn was unable to put the ball in the net after his show of skill down the left 16 minutes into the match. He was seen beating the pitch in frustration at missing such a good chance to give his team the lead! After 17 minutes Superstars tried to exploit their counterattacking skills, unfortunately, M. Fagan's shot sailed wide after his break down the right. Superstars created a good opportunity to score 24 minutes into the match when M. Fagan's hooked ball from the left created a scuffle in front of the goal, and the visitors' defenders had a hard time clearing the ball. The opposing supporters gave the referee an earful when he only gave B. Natalicchio from Superstars a yellow card after a mistimed challenge from behind 34 minutes into the game. That was far too lenient! Unfortunately for Cottesloe, S. Muselet was injured when the game became more physical, and he had to leave the field. R. Fitzgerald replaced him. A mistake by the home side's central defence after 39 minutes allowed L. McCabe to score for Cottesloe. The scoreboard now read 0 - 1. 0 - 1 was the halftime score. Cottesloe enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 52 percent of possession.

C. McGuigan showed the skills that make him a real crowd pleaser as he, after 48 minutes, wove through the guests' entire central defence and put the 1 - 1 equaliser away. The guests took the lead 70 minutes into the match, after a right-side attack resulted in S. Bartocci scoring to make it 1 - 2. It was obvious that Cottesloe had instructions to attack on the wings instead of in the middle. A drive down the left side allowed M. Warrington to get in close and score another goal for Cottesloe after 74 minutes, taking the score to 1 - 3. After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, C. Baugh got himself booked. The manager of Superstars was not happy. After 87 minutes, a mistake by the home side's left defence allowed L. McCabe to get through. He outclassed the home side's keeper, adding another goal for the visitors. 1 - 4. F. Nardella of Cottesloe received a yellow card after 88 minutes for unsportsmanlike behaviour. Cottesloe claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 53 percent.

Superstars's top performer was clearly C. McGuigan. On the other hand, O. Baumgartel's play was disheartening. The most dominating Cottesloe player was without a doubt L. McCabe. R. Fitzgerald turned in a dismal performance, however. The match ends 1 - 4.