Nigel Si­mon

For­mer cham­pi­on, W Con­nec­tion slowed the march of De­fence Force to­wards its first Dig­i­cel T&T Pro League ti­tle in 11 years when both teams bat­tled to a 0-0 draw at the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um, Cou­va on a rainy Tues­day night. Go­ing in­to the sec­ond round day two match, the "Teteron Boys" held a per­fect record of ten wins from as many match­es and led with 30 points, but in the "Savonet­ta Boys" they found a stiffer chal­lenge than in their first round meet­ing which they won 2-1. With the point earned, De­fence Force which failed to score for the first time in a league match this sea­son im­proved to 31 points, nine ahead of de­fend­ing cham­pi­on, bmo­bile Joe Pub­lic which came from a goal down to beat ten-man San Juan Jabloteh 3-1 via a Ker­ry Bap­tiste hat-trick at the Mar­vin Lee Sta­di­um, Ma­coya. Be­fore the kick-off, Jabloteh coach, Eng­lish­man Ter­ry Fen­wick was forced to make a ros­ter change af­ter strik­er Hec­tor Sam with­drew from the team fol­low­ing the birth of his son pri­or to kick­off.

Six min­utes in­to the con­test, Jabloteh was dealt a fur­ther blow when cap­tain and vet­er­an mid­field­er Mar­vin Oliv­er was is­sued a straight red card by ref­er­ee Shane De Sil­va for dis­sent. De­spite be­ing a man down, Jabloteh cre­at­ed the bet­ter of the chances and on the stroke of half-time went 1-0 ahead when makeshift strik­er Willis Plaza pounced on a de­fen­sive blun­der by Makan His­lop to stab the ball home past goal­keep­er Mar­vin Phillip. Five min­utes in­to the sec­ond-half, last sea­son's lead­ing scor­er in the league and Joe Pub­lic cap­tain, Ker­ry Bap­tiste got his team lev­el as he fired past goal­keep­er Cleon John from on the edge of the 18-yard box. Ten min­utes lat­er Bap­tiste made it 2-1 when he col­lect­ed a Hay­den Tin­to left-sided cen­tre that some­how found its way through four Jabloteh play­ers' be­fore pok­ing the ball past John.

The nip­py Bap­tiste then added an­oth­er with a clin­i­cal fin­ish in­to the far cor­ner for a 3-1 cush­ion. He al­so had time to squan­der a chance at a fourth goal from a Mic­ah Lewis right sided cross.

In the end, it was a wel­come re­turn to form for Bap­tiste and vic­to­ry for Joe Pub­lic which had suf­fered a 2-0 ex­tra-time T&T Foot­ball Fed­er­a­tion FA Tro­phy round-of-16 loss to Jabloteh on Fri­day night at the same venue. Ear­li­er on at Ma­coya, Trevin Ceasar fired home a 90th minute item to give Ma Pau an un­like­ly 1-0 win over an un­lucky St Ann's Rangers, who had on­ly them­selves to blame for not hit­ting the tar­get. The win pushed Ma Pau to fourth spot with 17 points, one be­hind Cale­do­nia AIA which need­ed an 89th minute win­ner from Kem­ron Pur­cell to get past FC South End 2-1 at the Man­ny Ramjohn Sta­di­um, Mara­bel­la. Guyanese mid­field­er Shawn Beveney had giv­en Cale­do­nia the lead in the 37th minute but Os­win Williams drew South End lev­el in the 70th minute be­fore Pur­cell struck. In Tues­day's oth­er match, na­tion­al util­i­ty play­er An­tho­ny Wolfe reg­is­tered a sec­ond-half hat-trick as Di­recTV North East Stars out­gunned Po­lice 6-3 af­ter trail­ing 0-3 at the in­ter­val at the Lar­ry Gomes Sta­di­um, Mal­abar. The next round of league match­es take place on Tues­day.

Tues­day's re­sults

Ma Pau 1 (Trevin Ceasar 90th) vs Rangers 0.

Joe Pub­lic 3 (Ker­ry Bap­tiste 50th, 65th, 87th) vs Jabloteh 1 (Willis Plaza 45th).

Cale­do­nia 2 (Shawn Beveney 37th, Kem­ron Pur­cell 89th) vs South End 1 (Os­win Williams 70th).

D/Force 0 vs W Con­nec­tion 0

N/East Stars 6 (An­tho­ny Wolfe 53rd, 66th, 86th, Kendall Velox 56th, Ak­ile Gue­vara 59th, Gary Glas­gow 70th) vs Po­lice 3 (Noel Williams 15th, 44th, Sayid Fre­itas 25th)

Cur­rent Stand­ings

Teams P W D L F A Pts

D/Force 11 10 1 0 27 8 31

Joe Pub­lic 11 6 4 1 20 12 22

Cale­do­nia 11 5 3 3 14 11 18

Ma Pau 11 4 5 2 14 9 17

W Con­nec­tion 11 4 4 3 14 9 16

NE Stars 11 4 4 3 20 16 16

Jabloteh 11 3 4 4 12 10 13

Rangers 11 2 3 6 11 21 9

Po­lice 11 1 2 8 14 33 5

South End 11 1 0 10 8 25 3

Com­ing match­es

De­cem­ber 14:

Cale­do­nia vs Po­lice, HC Sta­di­um, Mu­cu­rapo, 6 pm.

Jabloteh vs Rangers, HC Sta­di­um, Mu­cu­rapo, 8 pm.

Ma Pau vs South End, Ato Boldon Sta­di­um, Cou­va, 6 pm.

W Con­nec­tion vs Joe Pub­lic, Man­ny Ramjohn Sta­di­um, Mara­bel­la, 6 pm.

N/E Stars vs De­fence Force, Lar­ry Gomes Sta­di­um, Mal­abar, 6 pm.