WAL­TER AL­IBEY

wal­ter.al­ibey@guardian.co.tt

Po­lice FC's in­tent to seal a dou­ble ti­tle at the T&T Pro League sea­son, took a pos­i­tive turn yes­ter­day, cour­tesy Ka­reem Fre­itas' brace in a 4-1 thrash­ing of AC Port-of-Spain on Fri­day night at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um in Mu­cu­rapo.

Fre­itas scored on each side of the half to send the Law­men in­to the sec­ond po­si­tion on the 10-team stand­ings on 14 points, trail­ing lead­ers De­fence Force by three points.

The First Cit­i­zens Cup win­ners were in con­trol from start to fin­ish, and it was on­ly a lapse in con­cen­tra­tion at the end that af­ford­ed their op­po­nents a con­so­la­tion item in the 92nd minute.

Po­lice, known fa­mous­ly for its stur­dy de­fence, had now sharp­ened up in of­fence, and Jameel Per­ry showed this when he hand­ed them the ad­van­tage af­ter just 18 min­utes. Lat­er Fre­itas opened his ac­count in the 36th, the first of his dou­ble strike which sent the Law­men to the half-time in­ter­val with a com­fort­able 2-0 lead.

Af­ter­wards, the AC Port-of-Spain men, who strug­gled to con­tain the rag­ing Po­lice of­fence in the first ses­sion, would go three-down, cour­tesy Ju­ma Clarence's item in the 61st minute that left the score at 3-0.

Fre­itas com­plet­ed his dou­ble in the 77th minute when he fired in for a more-than-com­fort­able Po­lice 4-0 lead. But with the game well in­to time-added-on, the for­mer San­gre Grande-based team found the net from the boot of Sedale Mc Lean.

The re­sult en­sured that AC Port-of-Spain re­mained at ninth on the ta­ble, but mul­ti­ple times Pro League win­ners W Con­nec­tion had now dropped to fourth af­ter a 2-2 tie with San Juan Jabloteh at the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um in Bal­main Cou­va.

And in an­oth­er game, Point Fortin Civic re­turned to their Ma­haica Oval home ground with a 3-1 vic­to­ry over Cunu­pia FC.

The Point Fortin men though had to come from be­hind af­ter Xavier Ra­j­paul gave Cunu­pia the ad­van­tage in the 22nd minute. How­ev­er, Kerville Je­re­mi­ah scored the equal­iz­ing goal in the 41st minute, be­fore Tyrel Em­manuel, the for­mer Shi­va Boys Hin­du School strik­er and Kern Ed­wards sealed the win for their team with items in the 68th and 80th min­utes re­spec­tive­ly.

Yes­ter­day, lead­ers De­fence Force was sched­uled to face Mor­vant Cale­do­nia Unit­ed at the Cou­va venue, while Ter­minix La Hor­quet­ta Rangers and Cen­tral were to clash in a 4 pm en­counter at the Lar­ry Gomes Sta­di­um in Mal­abar Ari­ma.

RE­SULTS

Point Fortin Civic 3 (Kerville Je­re­mi­ah 41st, Tyrel Em­manuel 68th, Kern Ed­wards 80th) vs Cunu­pia FC 1 (Xavier Ra­j­paul 22nd)

W Con­nec­tion 2 (Dim­itri Apai 60th, 86th) vs San Juan Jabloteh 2 (Jair Ed­wards 64th, Briel Thomas (own goal 89th)

Po­lice FC 4 (Jameel Per­ry 18th, Ka­reem Fre­itas 36th & 77th, Ju­ma Clarence 61st) vs AC Port of Spain 1 (Sedale Mc Lean 90+2)

LAT­EST STAND­INGS

Teams*P*W*D*L*GF*GA*GD*Points

1*De­fence Force FC*7*5*2*0*11*6*5*17

2*Po­lice FC*8*4*2*2*13*7*6*14

3*Mor­vant Cale­do­nia Unit­ed*8*3*4*1*9*6*3*13

4*W Con­nec­tion*7*3*3*1*13*6*7*12

5*Point Fortin Civic*7*3*3*1*11*7*4*12

6*Ter­minix La Hor­quet­ta Rangers*7*3*1*3*18*11*7*10

7*Cen­tral FC*8*2*3*3*8*9*-1*9

8*San Juan Jabloteh*8*2*3*3*9*13*-4*9

9*AC Port of Spain*8*2*1*5*10*24*-14*7

10*Club San­do*8*1*3*4*7*12*-5*6

11*Cunu­pia FC*8*0*3*5*5*13*-8*3