CHIYA 4-7 NEW ROVERS

Last season's top scorer, Israel Onwubiko, took just minutes to announce his return to the team, finishing clinically after being sent through by Andrea Ekuase, then, before the break, Ousmane Cissé expertly scored a hat-trick, one from the penalty spot and another on the end of a huge Eliasz Zalewski kick, and Julien Kouame scored another goal - although sloppy defending allowed Chiya to score twice before the break, once from the penalty spot. Benefiting from an increasingly strong wind and a few more examples of poor defending, Chiya, despite conceding another goal from Rovers' best play of the game when Onwubiko collected Kouame's cross, refused to be put down and made it 6-4, forcing Rovers to change formation to a 4-5-1, with Johnny Greenwood returning to central defence - but Abdulrahman Alsahar, cleared by Ryan Devine, was brought down in the box and, taking the resulting penalty himself, completed the scoring before the end.

The exciting attacking pairing of Cisse and Onwubiko were extremely effective - 5 goals and 3 assists between them, Devine was, as ever, tireless in midfield while the return of Cha Henderson was a real bonus. On the downside, too many avoidable goals conceded and far too many 50/50 losses against aggressive and motivated opponents.

Zalewski; Alsahar (Byfanzi), Onanu, Al Humaidi; Henderson, Kouame, Greenwood, Devine, Ekuase (Martins); Cissé, Onwubiko.