Athletic 2 - 1 Concede (390050646)

A brilliantly sunny day had enticed a crowd of 52481 to The Ayerside. Giulio Platania was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Gwendolin Jaindl and Adolphe Desseaux. Athletic decided to use a 3-5-2 set up. Starters: Birney - Catterall, Pace, Fitzpatrick - Lidbury, Cleary, Lampard, Baxendale, Newman Spaul - LeBlanc, Skinner.

Concede tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. They fielded: Hedrick - Nolmans, Reichholf, van der Molen - Vuls, Lam, Pérez Torres, Boulter, Dinescu - Hänninen, Schneider.

Athletic seemed to prefer attacking in the middle. R. Vuls managed to make an excellent pass from the flank, but D. Dinescu was not as skillfull in scoring. Athletic took the lead 34 minutes in, as F. Baxendale broke through on the left and put the 1 - 0 shot just beyond the reach of the outstretched keeper. 1 - 0 was the score after the first half. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Athletic, with 65 percent of the ball.

With 46 minutes played, the Concede coach decided a substitution may help turn the game around. V. Mpakoyiannopoulos came on, R. van der Molen had to leave the fray. 61 minutes into the match, the speedy C. LeBlanc easily outpaced E. Reichholf, chipped the keeper and made the score 2 - 0. A free kick just outside of the visitors' penalty area after 70 minutes could have resulted in another goal, but G. Hedrick got a hand out and tipped the ball over the bar. Concede managed to reduce the score to 2 - 1 as E. Pérez Torres finished off a well-played combination from the left, easily carving through the defence. The coach of Athletic was happy with the game so far, but still wanted to change the line up. After 80 minutes, A. Satyakam came on for C. LeBlanc. Athletic enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 67 percent of possession.

Athletic's top performer was clearly M. Skinner. However, E. Birney made a disastrous appearance. J. Schneider performed admirably for Concede. R. Vuls was a disappointment, however. The match ends 2 - 1.