Richmond Pioneers and Britannia arrived at Blundell Park to witness a surreal scene right out of National Geographic, as thousands of migrating snow geese were descending on the surrounding grasslands.

Oddly enough, the geese seemed to respect the field markings, even before the teams started their warm-up, although there was ample evidence that they had, at some point, enjoyed grazing and suchlike on the field of play, giving both teams sufficient incentive to stay on their feet at all times.

The game got underway with the southbound travellers providing a noisy background that lasted the whole game.

The Pioneers and Britannia both struggled to settle down, the Pioneers showing little sign of their impressive play of late.

The best chance of the half came when Pioneers' keeper Gary Byrne spared the blushes of Jim Langlands, whose scufffed attempted clearance was goalbound until Byrne acrobatically scooped it clear.

Still tied 0-0 well into the second half, the Pioneers finally started to show signs of the form that has brought them 22 goals in the previous four games as they took the game to Britannia.

The opening goal came when Evgeni Kushnir broke down the left wing and the low cross found Ken Johnston at the near post, his partially blocked shot barely trickling over the line. The goal brought the team's all-time leading goalscorer to within five of the magical century mark (see column on the left).

The Pioneers added a second when a pinpoint crossfield pass from Ken Kan found John Tsang on the right wing, Tsang beating his marker and taking a shot that took a wicked deflection, fortuitously curling into the far top corner. 2-0 Pioneers.

As the Pioneers sat back content to protect their lead, Britannia put some pressure on for the last ten minutes, and in the last play of the game a Jim Fitzgerald blunder let the visitors in to score a consolation goal.