Lead­ers W Con­nec­tion on Sat­ur­day be­came on­ly the sec­ond team af­ter De­fence Force FC to drop points against bot­tom-placed North East Stars this sea­son when Stu­art Charles-Fevri­er's men need­ed a late Kadeem Corbin strike to come away with a 1-1 score­line and steal a share of the points.

In the David-vs-Go­liath Pro League fix­ture un­der sun­shine at the Lar­ry Gomes Sta­di­um in Mal­abar, Ari­ma, North East Stars, still in search of a win af­ter 13 match­es in all com­pe­ti­tions to date this sea­son, held the vis­i­tors to a goal­less first half be­fore tak­ing the lead sev­en min­utes in­to the sec­ond pe­ri­od through an own goal cred­it­ed to vet­er­an Con­nec­tion de­fend­er Ger­ard Williams.

But eleven min­utes from the end Corbin res­cued a point for Con­nec­tion against the Zo­ran Vranes-coached side which they de­feat­ed 7-1 and 2-0 in the Char­i­ty Shield and in the group stage of the First Cit­i­zens Cup re­spec­tive­ly this sea­son.

Else­where at Ato Boldon Sta­di­um in Cou­va, Ty­rone Charles was at his bril­liant best, net­ting a beaver-trick as Club San­do de­feat­ed Mor­vant Cale­do­nia Unit­ed 5-3 in a dra­mat­ic con­test af­ter De­fence Force en­joyed a 3-1 vic­to­ry over Point Fortin Civic.

De­fence Force and San­do both climbed three spots on the lad­der to take over Po­lice FC and Cen­tral for sec­ond and third po­si­tions re­spec­tive­ly, but all four are on 16 points, sev­en adrift of league favourites, Con­nec­tion as the com­pe­ti­tion reach­es the mid­way mark.

Keron "Ball Pest" Cum­mings scored his first Mor­vant Cale­do­nia goal when he wrong-sided San­do first-choice goal­keep­er Kelvin Hen­ry from the penal­ty spot in the 15th minute af­ter Quin­cy Bal­lah was brought down in the area. But it wasn't enough to in­spire his first win at the "East­ern Stal­lions" af­ter three at­tempts since join­ing from Cen­tral FC in the Au­gust trans­fer win­dow.

Ty­rone Charles, who switched back to San­do in the trans­fer win­dow from Cen­tral, scored an un­in­ter­rupt­ed dou­ble on ei­ther side of the break to twice give An­gus Eve’s men the lead be­fore sub­sti­tute Shack­eil “Smek” Hen­ry scored a won­der­ful so­lo goal to com­plete the win in stop­page time.

Charles first lev­elled San­do 1-1 in the 18th minute be­fore putting his side in front 2-1 on 32 min­utes with a de­light­ful chip over goal­keep­er Ter­rence Lewis af­ter latch­ing on­to a de­fence-split­ting pass from Jabari Mitchell.

The grip­ping con­test twist­ed again on the hour mark when Say­drel Lewis, a 20-year-old Grena­da in­ter­na­tion­al for­ward, pulled Mor­vant Cale­do­nia lev­el when he knocked in a re­bound af­ter Hen­ry had charged down an ef­fort by sub­sti­tute Shel­don Hold­er, who, two min­utes lat­er put the Ja­maal Shabazz/Jer­ry Moe-man­aged side in front a sec­ond time with a scis­sors kick off a Richard Williams cross.

But just as San­do coach An­gus Eve re­act­ed with a triple change, Charles de­liv­ered the goods again for his side, lac­ing an equalis­er in­to Lewis' far net­ting to make it 3-3 in the 67th minute then pun­ish­ing Mor­vant Cale­do­nia from close up af­ter a Nicholas Thomas free kick fell to his feet in the six-yard area on 89 min­utes to lift the Or­anges in front again 4-3.

With his lat­est four goals, Charles (7 league goals) joins the Gold­en Boot chase be­hind Po­lice for­ward Ka­reem Fre­itas (8) and Con­nec­tion’s Mar­cus Joseph (11).

Shack­eil Hen­ry, who en­tered the field over the hour mark, weaved through three Mor­vant Cale­do­nia shirts with Charles, one of two team­mates in sup­port, be­fore smash­ing his so­lo ef­fort past Lewis to make it 5-3 in first of five stop­page-time min­utes.

In the open­ing match of the Cou­va dou­ble-head­er, Brent Sam, Shaquille Bertrand and Hashim Ar­cia scored a goal each for De­fence Force be­fore Bevon Bass net­ted a late con­so­la­tion item for Civic af­ter the Point Fortin side were de­nied twice by the frame.

Sam, start­ing up front in place of vet­er­an scor­ing ace De­vorn Jorsling, fired through the legs of goal­keep­er Aki­ni Adams to put the "Tetron Boys" ahead 1-0 with his tenth goal in all com­pe­ti­tions this sea­son af­ter fif­teen min­utes off a feed from winger Kendall Hit­lal.

Bertrand, for his first goal of the sea­son, then made it 2-0 in the 33rd minute from close up off an­oth­er Hit­lal as­sist af­ter Adams had saved a Sam free-kick on­to the bar.

Sam lat­er squan­dered a chance at the goal­mouth off a Je­lani Fe­lix cross be­fore some fine goal­keep­ing by Shel­don Clarke in the sec­ond half and the posts stood in Civic's way.

Clarke de­nied Ju­dah Gar­cia twice on the hour mark be­fore the Aki­no­la Gre­go­ry saw his ef­forts crash off the bar and the up­right in the 81st and 88th min­utes, re­spec­tive­ly.

Civic, sec­ond from bot­tom with just one win and two draw re­sults, had fall­en fur­ther be­hind in the 71st minute when Ar­cia ar­rived off the bench to lash home the "Tetron Boys"' third to make it 3-0.

The vis­i­tors did, how­ev­er, find a con­so­la­tion item in stop­page time af­ter vet­er­an util­i­ty play­er Bass danced de­fend­er Rodell El­cock in the box be­fore rip­ping a shot past Clarke who had de­nied him 22 min­utes ear­li­er.

Civic will next host San Juan Jabloteh at Ma­haica Oval at the start of round two in the Pro League on Tues­day. De­fence Force and Mor­vant Cale­do­nia will clash in the sec­ond of two games at Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um af­ter Po­lice and San­do lock horns, while a dou­ble­head­er at Ato Boldon Sta­di­um will see Ter­minix St. Ann's Rangers tack­le Con­nec­tion and Cen­tral against North East Stars.

Sat­ur­day's Re­sults

North East Stars 1 (Ger­ard Williams 52’) vs W Con­nec­tion 1 (Kadeem Corbin 79’)

De­fence Force FC 3 (Brent Sam 15’, Shaquille Bertrand 33’, Hashim Ar­cia 71’) vs Point Fortin Civic 1 (Bevon Bass 90’+2)

Club San­do 5 (Ty­rone Charles 29’, 38’, 67’, 89’, Shack­iel Hen­ry 90’+1) vs Mor­vant Cale­do­nia Unit­ed 3 (Keron Cum­mings 25’, Say­drel Lewis 60’, Shel­don Hold­er 62’)

(Fri­day 21 Sep­tem­ber)

Po­lice FC 3 (Kem­ron Pur­cell 13’, Chris­t­ian Thomas 25’, Ka­reem Per­ry 45’+2) vs Cen­tral FC 0

Ter­minix St. Ann’s Rangers vs San Juan Jabloteh

Pend­ing league de­ci­sion. Match did not play due to un­pre­pared pitch.

Lat­est T&T Pro League stand­ings

Teams*P*W*D*L*GF*GA*Pts

1. W Con­nec­tion*9*7*1*1*25*5*23

2. De­fence Force*9*5*1*3*24*11*16

3. Club San­do*9*5*1*3*19*13*16

4. Po­lice FC*9*5*1*3*18*13*16

5. Cen­tral FC*9*5*1*3*19*15*16

6. San Juan Jabloteh*8*4*2*2*9*8*14

7. Mor­vant Cale­do­nia*8*1*4*3*14*16*7

8. St Ann's Rangers*8*2*0*6*3*31*6

9. Pt Fortin Civic*9*1*2*6*9*18*5

10. North East Stars*7*0*1*6*7*17*1

To­mor­row's Match-ups

Po­lice FC vs Club San­do, 6pm at Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um;

Mor­vant Cale­do­nia Unit­ed vs De­fence Force, 8pm at Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um;

Ter­minix St. Ann’s Rangers vs W Con­nec­tion, 6pm at Ato Boldon Sta­di­um;

Cen­tral FC vs North East Stars, 8pm at Ato Boldon Sta­di­um;

Point Fortin Civic vs San Juan Jabloteh, 7pm at Ma­haica Oval.