Match Report: Player ratings & match report courtesy of Scott Barton.

The early kick off seemed to have an adverse affect on St Johns, Scott Barton cracking the screen on his mobile phone throwing it after Sab called him at 10.30am waking him from the best dream ever and then having to live with the disappointment of not being able to see Tim Westwood attempting to kick a football on Soccer AM's 'Road To Wembley' game wasn't the greatest start to the day.

That was all remedied though when a pre match call from Brendan to Sab revealed that St Johns were down to a bare 11.....one of which being an injured Sab who'd have to play in goal......BARTON WAS PLAYING ON PITCH!

The journey to Benfica's ground had Barton telling fables of when he was younger and used to terrorise defences as a lightning quick centre forward for Langley Lions Under 14's .

Half of the St Johns team arrived at the ground five minutes before kick off to find the Benfica team had been warming up and readying themselves for the past three days , all running in a tight knit group with their shirts off....exposing well chiselled six packs that put the St’s to shame.

With the Uni boys returning from the best week of their lives in Spain looking bronzed, refreshed, drinking San Miguel and greeting each other with 'Ola's' it was extremely hard to tell which of the two teams were of Portuguese origin.

After a minute of Tony Gear's expert warm up St John’s were buzzing and ready to go. The appearance of St John’s legend Andy Bell running the line gave the boys an added lift and the first five minutes was an ambush on the Benfica goal. The shin pad-less Ricco Saleem hitting an early warning shot a whisker away from the keepers near post.

Fifteen minutes in and a mazy run by Brendan Hegarty ended with a pass to Mark Midmore who in turn laid a perfect pass off to Barton 20 yards out.....who steadied himself......pulled the trigger......and missed.

A few mistimed tackles by Saleem turned the game a bit edgy with St Johns coming out on top in most battles. Full backs Matty Ellis and the ever impressive Tom Richardson causing grief with scampering runs up and down the wings, only a final ball was eluding Johns.

With ten minutes to go until half time though it all went a pear shaped for the battling underdogs when a routine near post corner was misjudged (they all left it) by Tony 'Richard' Gear, Nye Jones and Sab Ventre and sneaked into the net. Deflated St John’s failed to raise their game from the kick off and soon conceded a second. A Benfica striker walking through a number of attempted tackles and slotting the ball passed Ventre to make it 0-2.

A half time pep talk and a quick change around (Barton back in nets, Ventre off and 'The Heartbreak Kid' Dave Michael’s on as a holding midfielder (sic) brought a rejuvenated John’s out for the 2nd half.

Johns decided to play the classic counter attack, soaking up pressure for most of the second half only to hit Benfica with some quick route one football. After a lengthy spell of pressure a quick ball over the top found Ralph Pirie Lewis one on one with the Benfica keeper only for Ralphy to over run the ball and poke it into the side netting like a slag. Brendan Hegarty seemed to find his feet also in the second half, sobering up to play some neat football down the left wing combining well with Tommy ‘The mince’ Richardson.

It seemed only a matter of time before Benfica added to their tally but a combination of great defending by Jones, HBK and Gear, the crossbar and a couple of smart saves by Barton frustrated the rapidly quick attacking play of the home team.

The game ended 2-0, all in all not a bad result for an under strength John’s but it could've been a lot closer had the few chances presented to St Johns been taken. Two games to go, mid table security beckons.