Three different players were on target as Ma Pau whipped Tobago United 3-1 at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo on Friday to close the gap on Digicel Pro League leaders, Defence Force to three points. !--break--> Going into the match, the 'Casino Boys' under coach Michael Mc Comie, had won only one of its previous four matches and were under a bit of pressure to come away with full points. Tobago-born, Tevin Caesar provided them with the early spark when he opened the scoring after only the 14th minute while Kerry Noray made it 2-0 in the 28th minute as the dominant Ma Pau took a comfortable lead into the interval.
On the resumption, Tobago provided a tougher test and in the 64th minute sliced the lead in half through Guyanese midfielder Kayode Mc Kinnon. However, that was as close as Tobago got as Anthony Wolfe added an injury time third goal for Ma Pau, for its second win of the season. The victory improved Ma Pau to second on the table with nine points from five matches, three adrift of idle leaders, Defence Force who has maximum 12 points from four matches. Third is W Connection with eight points followed by defending champions, bmobile Joe Public and San Juan Jabloteh, with seven points each. At the Marvin Lee Stadium, Macoya, an understrength Joe Public was held to its fourth drawn result in five matches, this time in a 1-1 deadlock with W Connection.
Both goals at Macoya, came in the space of four minutes as Joe Public went ahead 1-0 in the 16th minute thanks to a strike from Japanese midfielder, Yu Hoshide before Matthew Bartholomew converted a penalty four minutes later to earn a share of the points for W Connection. In Saturday's other match, striker Odelle Armstrong slammed in a second-half hat-trick for St Ann's Rangers in a 5-2 thrashing of Police at the Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva. Armstrong, formerly of Caledonia AIA and Defence Force got his goals in the 53rd, 65th and 89th minute while captain netted the other two, in the 48th and 88th minutes. For Police, Telon Williams got both replies, in the 76th and 82nd minutes. Matches continue on Friday. On Friday, Jabloteh blanked Stars 2-0 and FC South End upstaged Caledonia AIA 2-1 at Mucurapo.
Results
Digicel Pro League Saturday
Ma Pau 3 (Tevin Caesar 14th, Kerry Noray 28th, Anthony Wolfe 90th) vs Tobago Utd 1 (Kayode Mc Kinnon 64th).
Joe Public 1 (Yu Hoshide 16th) vs W Connection 1 (Matthew Bartholomew 20th pen).
Rangers 5 (Odelle Armstrong 53rd, 65th, 89th, Josimar Belgrave 48th, 88th) vs Police 2 (Telon Williams 76th, 82nd).