bcat 1 - 3 St.James (390835648)

Overcast weather free of rain made for a crowd turnout of 12000 at Tacatà Stadium today. Henk Johan Oort was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Bertrand Duras and Adam Robinsson. bcat tactics involved an interesting 3-4-3 combination. Starters: Lyons - Getto, Vainio, Adelskär - Hızlı, Bader, Dudaszek, Brãtianu - Lokey, Elkins, Corbie.

A 4-5-1 alignment was the formation of choice for St.James. They fielded: Julien - Loucas, Heerink, Kegele, Rice - Allen, Providence, Bayley, Kirkland, Henderson - Elrick.

St.James seemed to prefer attacking in the middle. St.James's goal to make the score 0 - 1 came via a questionable penalty, but R. Heerink struck it home without a second thought. After 21 minutes of play, C. Brãtianu evened things up for bcat with an impressive goal coming up the middle. 1 - 1. S. Adelskär could have put bcat into the lead after 28 minutes, but the free kick went just wide. J. Henderson had a good try after 31 minutes, coming in on a fine move from the left, but the ball went wide. Halftime score was 1 - 1. Possession in this half belonged to bcat, who controlled the ball 55 percent of the time.

St.James's L. Allen managed to lose the defenders as he advanced down the right wing and scored, putting the visitors ahead after 54 minutes. 1 - 2. S. Elrick left the field with a smile on his face as he was substituted 55 minutes into the game, as his team was in the lead. D. Lara was the replacement. J. Henderson wanted to play on, but the St.James coach had other ideas, and he was replaced 60 minutes into the game by J. Stephens. Given a free kick in a difficult position after 63 minutes, St.James tried a variation that they had practised in training. The kick was sent into the area just in front of the keeper. However, the defence were on their toes and allowed no space for a finish. The coach of St.James was happy with the game so far, but still wanted to change the line up. After 65 minutes, T. Neysmith came on for K. Bayley. T. Neysmith increased the visitors' lead by putting a volley away after a pass from the right. 1 - 3. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by St.James, with 54 percent of the ball.

bcat's top performer was clearly T. Corbie. D. Lyons turned in a dismal performance, however. Most important St.James player was R. Heerink. However, J. Julien made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 1 - 3.