The emotion surrounding Tuesday night's football riot seemed to have had an impact on leaders Boulevard as they slipped to only their second defeat of the season to lowly Hotels last night at BAA Field.

Centre back Clifford Roberts' goal on the half hour was enough to beat them in a scrappy game in front of a small and somewhat subdued crowd.

Fears that Somerset fans might journey into town to take revenge for the violence at the game between Trojans and Boulevard earlier in the week proved unfounded although a small police presence was visible during the early part of the match in case of any reprisals.

Unfortunately the events of the week seemed to be preying on the minds of both sets of players who failed to provide the rich entertainment on the park that would have helped fans to put the troubles behind them.

Boulevard, who went top on Tuesday with their 2-1 victory at Somerset, were admittedly lacking two top class players in six-goal striker Dwight Warren, who was missing for religious reasons, and left back Albert Caisey. But they made a promising start with Stevie Wade's ferocious shot after a neat backheel from Andrew Bascome flashing narrowly wide on six minutes. Wade missed another opening on 24 minutes but it was Hotels, who had failed to threaten in the early stages, who scored the first and what proved to be the only goal.

Roberts poked home from only eight yards after Michael Holdipp's long-range effort had created panic in the Boulevard defence. The ball fell kindly for the defender after bobbling about near the six yard box.

Chances remained at a premium but Hotels could have added to their lead with just over a quarter of an hour remaining.

Craig Crichlon broke clear on the left and sent over a perfect cross to Marlon Lindsay six yards out on the far post but he miskicked his attempted volley.

And with five minutes to go they missed an even better chance to secure the three points when Lindsay escaped the Boulevard defence but, powering in from the right edge of the box, his shot lacked the substlety to beat Andre Hendrickson who spread himself well.

Hotels: S.Dupres, D.Sharieff, F.Francis, C.Roberts, W.Augustus, C.Francis, W.Crockwell, D.Robinson, C.Crichlon, M.Lindsay, M.Holdipp Boulevard: A.Hendrickson, L.Stevens, D.Charles, D.Boyles, G.Foggo, T.Outerbridge, N.Robinson, V.Eve, A.Bascome, K.Hill, S.Wade Referee: Leroy Wilson Men of the match: C.Roberts (Hotels); D.Boyles (Boulevard) Hamilton Parish 0 YMSC 0 Bottom club Social Club took only their second point from a disappointing season with a battling point in their second division clash against Hamilton Parish at BAA Field last night.

Assistant coach Larry Darrell was particularly pleased with the performance of his team, who had come close to upsetting leaders Wolves, who had beat them 8-0 earlier in the season, in the Frienship Shield a couple of weeks ago.

He said: "After that defeat against Wolves we sat down and had a talk. We asked ourselves did we want to be the whipping boys of the division or did we want to enjoy the game and compete. We decided we wanted to compete.

"The trouble has been that we've a lot of new guys and it's taken some time to gel.''