As round two of the SKNFA Premier League continued on Friday, defending champions S. L. Horfords St. Paul’s United registered a 2-1 victory over MFCR Old Road United Jets at the St. Paul’s Playing Field.
Scoring for St. Paul’s
Kalonji Clarke 19th min
Keithroy Freeman 26th min
Scoring for Old Road
Philson Wattley Jr (St.Pauls) own goal 90th + 1 min
The match went into a lengthy stoppage time due to injuries to players that warranted extended medical attention. Hence, stoppage time was some 20 minutes; enough for two players—one on either team to be sent off after receiving a second yellow card. Red Cards
Iquon Frazier (Old Road) 90th+10 min
Ordell Flemming (St.Pauls) 90th + 15 min
(both for receiving a 2nd caution in the same match)
St. Paul’s team manager Austin Lewis was more pleased with his team’s performance in the first half but felt the second half left more to be desired. “I think we had a good first half…in a game, you always have ups and downs and I think we can take the ups and work on them and continue to improve on the down moments,” Lewis said.
For Coach of Old Road Alexis Morris, he felt his team should have won the game comfortably, as they failed to put away chances. “I thought my team should have won this game handsomely,” he said. “Especially in the second half, we really stuck to the game plan. We went out, we were more resilient, we were forceful and as a result, we put St. Paul’s on the back foot and we should have gotten at least three goals in the second half,” Morris added.
On Saturday at the Newtown playing field, Village Superstars ran riot over Sandy Point FC, defeating them 8-0
Scoring for Village
Kimaree Rogers 2nd min
Dahjal Kelly hat trick 3rd, 22nd &23rd min
Hasani Flemming 8th min
Joseph Wilkes 2 goals – 54th & 59th min
Tiran Hanley 76th min
Red cards
Kori Phillip (Sandy Point) 33rd min
Rasheed Eddy (Sandy Point) 59th min
(both for receiving a 2nd yellow card in the same match)
Assistant coach of Village Vaughn Patrick suggested that scoring eight goals, after not scoring enough in previous matches, was a sign of progress. “I must commend the guys. We worked hard in training. We were lacking goals and we got eight today. That’s a plus,” Patrick said. Shaquan Pemberton of Sandy Point felt the two red cards his team got, affected their ability to get a better result. “As you can see, we got two red cards in the game…we just put that behind us and come out stronger in the next game,” he said.
In the night’s second match, league leaders Flow 4G Cayon Rockets edged Hobson Enterprises Garden Hotspurs 1-0 in the dying moments of the match. SKNFA Player of the Month for March, Mervin Lewis scored from a through pass in the 83rd minute. Despite the win, Coach Al Edwards of Cayon said he felt they should have scored more, sealing the win much earlier. I thought it should have been a bit more comfortable, given that we had a lot of chances. What concerned me is that we made a lot of errors in the back and really kept them in the game,” he said. He noted that they will be working on scoring goals in training as they were not converting their chances in this match.
Coach Stephen Brown said it was a good game and fatigue may have led to the defeat. “Honestly speaking, it wasn’t a bad game from the guys. I think they really put their all in tonight. I think a bit of fatigue crept in the game, so we became a little sloppy in possession and a little slow on defense, thus giving a little too much space; allowing the shot; which unfortunately beat the keeper near post. Once again we are going home without a win,” Brown said.