Chorlton 4 - 1 Burlington (393214605)

Overcast weather free of rain made for a crowd turnout of 52938 at Chorlton Superdome today. Ulf Andersson was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Jens Christian Skals and Nicodemo Dechant. Chorlton decided to use a 3-5-2 set up. Lineup: Blackburn - Amesbury, Zabierek, Heales - Hanrahan, Kellen, Maisch, Hubbard, Pumphrey - Partington, Shearer.

Burlington started off with a 2-5-3 lineup. The following players had been chosen: Respaldiza - Lucey, Andronache - Wood, Herma, Farrar, Kilgallon, Meek - Laakso, Beck, Teacher.

Chorlton took the lead 4 minutes in, as D. Partington broke through on the left and put the 1 - 0 shot just beyond the reach of the outstretched keeper. With 27 minutes played, D. Partington could have brought this one home for Chorlton as he charged up on the left, but his hooked ball went just a bit too high. A cross coming in on the right hand side left T. Meek alone in front of the goal after 34 minutes but his shot was woeful. B. Amesbury stunned the crowd with a brilliant counterattack from the left, giving Chorlton the goal to make it 2 - 0. R. Kilgallon of Burlington received a yellow card after 36 minutes for unsportsmanlike behaviour. Burlington's I. Herma refused to leave the field after injuring his achilles tendon after 37 minutes. Chorlton's G. Shearer has the wonderful ability to create chances out of thin air. 38 minutes into the match he bamboozled a couple of opposition defenders before sending the keeper the wrong way and sidefooting the ball home into an empty net. That totally unexpected burst of flair made it 3 - 0. After this, you could see that the players of Chorlton were more interested in killing time than scoring more goals. It was 3 - 0 at the break. Burlington claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 53 percent.

After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, P. Heales got himself booked. The manager of Chorlton was not happy. Burlington fought on and, after 85 minutes, R. Beck was able to reduce the deficit to 3 - 1 after some excellent moves on the right side were finished off with an incredibly clever chip. A free kick just outside of the visitors' penalty area after 87 minutes could have resulted in another goal, but A. Respaldiza got a hand out and tipped the ball over the bar. Chorlton managed to extend their lead to 4 - 1 when G. Shearer cut in neatly from the left side and struck a fine shot past the away team's goalkeeper. This part of the game was a standoff between the teams in terms of possession.

Chorlton's top performer was clearly M. Blackburn. On the other hand, B. Amesbury's play was disheartening. T. Meek performed admirably for Burlington. A. Laakso was a disappointment, however. The match ends 4 - 1.