Atiba Harris St. Peters registered one of the biggest wins on the weekend over a struggling United Old Road Jets, as they thrashed the relegation-bound outfit 5-1 in the SKNFA National Bank Premier League on Saturday. Due to international cricket being hosted at the Warner Park, only three star studded matches were played at the football stadium this weekend, with the other games continuing Tuesday. St. Peters ran riot over Old Road and led 2-0 at half time thanks to Tyquan Tyrell who scored in the 28th minute and Devante Fahie in the 45th minute. Dakeem Esdaille made it 3-0 in the 54th and it appeared it was going to be a long day for Old Road. But Nequan Browne gave Old Road a lifeline with a 67th minute goal. But that was short lived as the very next minute St. Peters restored their three goal cushion through a Yuson Slader strike. And Devante Fahie made sure the win was a resounding one in the 77th minute.
There was also another 5-1 victory in the day’s earlier match when S.L. Horsfords St. Pauls, coming off back to defeats, drubbed Mantab 5-1.
SCORING FOR MANTAB
Eversley Davis 18th min
SCORING FOR ST PAULS
Keithroy Freeman 2 goals 23rd & 28th min
Mahlik Clarke 42nd min
Darrell Challenger (pk) 81st min
Diondre Challenger 90 +3 min
Finally, Saturday’s marquee matchup was open and exciting as S-Krave Newtown suffered another lopsided defeat this time to Hobson Enterprise Garden Hotspurs 2-0. They were drubbed 3-0 the week before to Village Superstars. Both goals for Spurs came in the second half:
SCORING FOR SPURS
Steve Archibald 47th min
Rovan Wigley (pk) 50th min
Coach Austin Dico Huggins said his team is now on a roll after picking up three wins on the trot after a slow start to round 2. “The guys are in training working very hard and we are now trying to make the team more cohesive in terms of the defense because we find that over the past few games we have been giving up goals,” he said. “We have been working hard to get the team more compact, a lot more communication, a lot more positioning so tonight we continue the trend from the good performance last match onto this game,” Coach Huggins added.
He noted that he changed the strategy in the second half, which was to press high up the pitch, forcing Newtown to make defensive errors. “Newtown is a team that likes to run at you and they love to play the long ball and a lot of balls coming in from the wing into the box. So we try to close it down as quickly as possible. If we don’t win (the ball) back in say six, seven, eight seconds, we drop back behind the ball and remain compact and force them to dump it over, we win it and then capitalize and go forward,” he explained.
The win was not without controversy however, as Newtown had two of their players sent off.
RED CARDS FOR NEWTOWN
Dagena Roberts 80th min
* For receiving a 2nd yellow card in the match.
Jason Isaac 83rd min
* Violent conduct and abusive and threatening language towards the referee.
The violent conduct of his players in that moment, bothered coach Earl Jones of Newtown and he addressed this after the match. “I would never tolerate players behaving like that. The officials have their jobs to do, we as players and coaches we have our jobs to do. Everybody have their part to play. If you think that the referee made a bad decision, we still have to live with it. The game has to go on; that’s the game,” he said. “That’s part of the game we cannot coach…but at least we can put certain things in place to ensure those things don’t happen again.”
However, Coach Jones pointed out that the team did not get the chance to prepare adequately for their match Saturday, which was the main reason for the defeat. “We didn’t get a chance to practice and correct our mistakes from the last game and it’s only going to hurt us. We must practice in order to succeed,” Jones said.
The SKNFA National Bank Premier League Match Day 19 continues this Tuesday with the continuation of round 3 with SOL Island Auto Conaree taking on Fast Cash Saddlers United at 6pm and Rams Village Superstars playing FLOW 4G Cayon Rockets at 8pm. Both matches are scheduled for the Warner Park Football Stadium.
—END—