Icarus maintained their impressive recent record against the Army with their fifth win in a row against them. This was a tougher match than the score line suggests with the Army putting up dogged resistance throughout the 90 minutes and scoring an excellent equalizer in the first half.

Icarus used the game as an opportunity to give first starts to Steve Kemp and Shane Rutherford as well is giving Alex Stones his first start of the season.

Icarus began the game slowly using a new 3-5-2 formation and the Army dominated the opening exchanges. It was 25 minutes into the game before Icarus started passing the ball well and making chances. The Army defence, capably marshalled by Stevie Saunders, was able to deal with most of the early Icarus moves. It was Alex Stones who controversially broke the offside trap to open the scoring, running through from the halfway line and slotting the ball home to make it 1-0. 10 minutes later, Icarus lost the ball in their own half and the Army broke and scored with a lovely lob over the stranded Steve Ricketts in the Icarus goal.

The Icarus team did not panic, and while not playing at their best, Stones once again broke through on his own to round the keeper and make it 2-1 at half time.

It was clear that if the Crusaders continued to play as they had in the 1 st half then they stood a chance of getting back into the game. The first opportunity presented itself 10 minutes into the second half. Kim Sue gathered possession in the centre of midfield and delivered a defence splitting pass for Nathan Evans to beat the offside trap and calmly round the RAF keeper, only to miss an open goal from 15 yards.

Ten minutes into the second half the Icarus manager, John Hetherington made the first of three substitutions and changed the shape to 4-4-2. Joe Griffin, a second half sub for Rutherford, dominated the midfield and after a fantastic pass from Lee Hodgkinson, chipped the ball over the Army Keeper's head and tapped it in to make it 3-1.

With Icarus now looking the fitter of the two teams the game was effectively over, however the Army kept plugging away and caused Icarus to suffer some uncomfortable moments at the back. It was Lee Hodgkinson who finally sealed the game with a powerful run through the heart of the Crusaders defence to fire the ball into the roof of the net with two minutes remaining on the clock.

Team: Ricketts, Kemp (Turner 58), Arnison, McIntosh, Shutie, Lowe, Rutherford (Griffin 55), Portaluri (Swinney 89), Hodgkinson, Bond, Stones (Hetherington 70)