The TIgers eventualy won 3-2.

They were almost made to pay when the Saints were awarded a penalty early on after Pete Goonan made a superb tackle but in picking himself up from the ground inadvertently handled the ball. 

The Saints striker steered the ball wide from the spot though, and found themselves behind when Mark Mallia slammed home the opener from close range after a goal mouth scramble.  The game was held up shortly after when a sickening collision between Tigers legend Dave Hardy, who was making his first grade debut for the year, and a Saints player left Hardy with a broken forearm. This brought Josh Croker on in the unfamiliar right back role with little more than 15 minutes gone. 

The reshuffle may have distracted the home side as they conceded a very soft goal from a poorly defended corner kick, and it was all to play for until moments later when the Saints went a man down, the referee issuing a straight red card for abusive language.

From this moment on the Tigers seized control of the match. Great build up play saw Mallia put the Tigers in front five minutes before the break, and the home side went into the shed in buoyant mood. 

At half time the coaching staff urged the players to continue to play a fast passing game, while being wary of the counter attack, and to mark more tightly on the set piece. Codey Chick and Pete Goonan were excellent defensively, well supported by Croker and Matt Scarff. Croker’s introduction to the game brought a new dimension to the Tiger’s attack, with his profound accuracy on long switches of play causing immense problems for the Saints. With little more than 10 minutes gone in the second half, Jack Yeates increased the Tigers lead on the end of some great build up on the right involving an effervescent Jake Camilleri and young star Jaidyn Kianou. The next 15 minutes saw Yeates complete his hat trick, taking the game right away from the Saints. 

Both Yeates and Mallia were given an early mark, bringing the evergreen Chris Ceccato and Rod Yanez into the fray. Ceccato wasted no time in getting on the score sheet, volleying home superbly from a Camilleri cross. It appeared that Ceccato had doubled his tally shortly after, but a Saints defender intervened to steer the ball into his own net, denying Ceccato a second but further increasing the Saints woes. The Tigers were rampant by this stage, and at one point almost the entire side was in and around the Saints penalty area. They were unable to add to the score though, and so the game finished TFFC Tigers 7, Kempsey Saints 1.

“I think the send off early on really affected us, but the Tigers played very, very well today and thoroughly deserved the win,” Kempsey Saints coach Jason Fisher said.

Jake Camilleri was a clear standout for the Tigers on his return to the first grade starting lineup, torturing his opposite number with blistering pace and pin point delivery of his crosses. At the other end of the park Peter Goonan had a towering performance.