Cleveland City Stars (2)3

Sella 26, Schulte 41, Bundu 51

Some woeful defending saw Bermuda Hogges slip to their second consecutive home defeat at the National Sports Centre last night.

Goals from Adriano Sella, Mark Schulte and Sallieu Bundu gave Cleveland City Stars a comfortable win in a game that was all but over by half time.

There was little positive to take from the Hogges' performance, and the best that can be said of it is they managed not to lose by a greater margain.

Coach Kyle Lightbourne must take some of the blame for the defeat with a baffling team selection that saw the likes of Kevin Richards, Kwame Steede, and Keishen Bean relegated to the bench.

Lightbourne however can not be held responsible for the suicidal defending that contributed to at least two of the goals his side conceded. And while Sella's strike mid-way through the first half would have graced any level of football, the space he was allowed to get his shot away summed up the Hogges' night.

The warning signs where there for the Hogges almost from the start. A long ball from the back caused chaos in the home side's penalty area and Ian Leibbrandt, the Cleveland midfield player, should have done better than to scuff a weak shot wide of Timmy Figuerido's wide post.

Figuerido and the Hogges defence, especially full backs Johnny Ball and Darius Cox, had one of those nights they will want to forget in a hurry. Ball spent most of the game being caught out of position, and mid-way through the first half the Hogges paid dearly for it.

Tucked in to close to his centre backs, a raking ball over the top found Sella in acres of space and he hit a tremendous right-footed volley that flew past Figuerido into the corner of the net.

If the first goal had an element of misfortune about it, there can have been no such excuse for the second. From the needless free kick that preceded it, to the poor defending that saw Cox outjumped at the back post by Schulte, to the tame attempt by Figuerido to stop the weak header that followed, there wasn't a single redeaming feature in the whole team effort.

The home side were little better in attack, failing to force Eric Reed, the Cleveland goalkeeper, to make one save worthy of the name, and being largely reduced to taking pot shots from well outside the area.

On a night when anything that could go wrong for the Hogges seemingly did, there was also the worrying sight of Jared Peniston limping from the field on his first start back after a serious knee injury. However it is believed that Peniston suffered nothing more than a serious case of cramp.

Any chance that the Hogges might have had of getting back into the game went in the first five minutes of the second half. Having gone over the top of the Hogges in the first hafl, Cleveland went through them in the second and Derek Potteiger's pass allowed Bundu the easiest of tap-ins.

The game stopped being a contest after that as Lighbourne made a series of substitutions that reduced what little rhythm the Hogges had to a series of disjointed passing moves.

If anything Cleveland looked like they might move further ahead, but in the end the game ended up drifting towards its inevitable conclusion. The home side did come close to scoring, when substitute Keishen Bean crossed and another replacement Aljame Zuill scuffed a shot just wide.