BRIDGETOWN, Bar­ba­dos – Eng­land-based for­wards Ro­maine Sawyers and Har­ry Panayiotou both scored as St Kitts and Nevis brushed aside Saint Mar­tin 3-1 to take sole pos­ses­sion of the lead in their group in the CON­CA­CAF Na­tions League.

Play­ing in Group B of League C on Thurs­day night, Sawyers scored in the first half while Panayiotou came off the bench to net in the sec­ond, as St Kitts ran out com­fort­able win­ners at the Ray­mond E. Guishard Sta­di­um in An­guil­la.

The vic­to­ry was the sec­ond for the Kit­ti­tians, tak­ing them to sev­en points from three match­es, three clear of sec­ond placed Aru­ba.

St Kitts threat­ened to take the lead from the out­set and fi­nal­ly did so in the 26th minute when Ti­quan­ny Williams tucked in a re­bound from close range, af­ter Sawyers’ ini­tial shot struck the up­rights.

Saint Mar­tin lev­elled nine min­utes lat­er, Jérémy Pe­ter­son-Du­toya whip­ping a cross from the right side for Pierre-Bertrand Arné to knock in from point blank range.

St Kitts were back in front just mo­ments lat­er, how­ev­er, Sawyers stab­bing in a re­bound this time af­ter an­oth­er Unit­ed King­dom-based play­er Omari Ster­ling-James had been de­nied by goal­keep­er Jor­dan Eti­enne.

Ahead at the break, St Kitts put the game to bed through Panayiotou, the 28-year-old Maid­en­head Unit­ed play­er smash­ing home yet an­oth­er re­bound in the 89th minute.

In Group A of League B, Bar­ba­dos and An­tigua and Bar­ba­dos suf­fered con­trast­ing fates by the same score­line.

Play­ing at the Wildey Turf Sta­di­um, hosts Bar­ba­dos con­ced­ed the lead to Cu­ba in the third minute through Maikel Reyes and then failed to find a way back against the Span­ish-speak­ing Caribbean side.

And at the Rene Serge Baba­joth Sta­di­um in Guade­loupe, UK-based Ash­ley Nathaniel-George pro­duced a mo­ment of mag­ic down the left-side, beat­ing sev­er­al de­fend­ers and fin­ish­ing clin­i­cal­ly in the 57th minute to hand An­tigua their win over the hosts.

In the oth­er game in League B, hosts French Guina beat the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic 1-0 at the Ed­mard Lama Sta­di­um.

In Para­mari­bo, hosts Suri­name re­mained win­less in Group A of League A when they went down 2-0 to gi­ants Mex­i­co af­ter con­ced­ing sec­ond half goals.

CMC

Thurs­day's re­sults

Scores:

League A

At the IR Franklin Essed Sta­di­um (PARA­MARI­BO, Suri­name):

Suri­name lost to Mex­i­co 2-0

League B:

At the Ed­mard Lama Sta­di­um, (CAYENNE, French Guiana):

French Guina beat the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic 1-0

At the Rene Serge Baba­joth Sta­di­um (LES ABYMES, Guade­loupe):

Guade­loupe lost to An­tigua & Bar­bu­da 1-0

At the Wildey Turf Sta­di­um, (WILDEY, Bar­ba­dos):

Bar­ba­dos lost to Cu­ba 1-0

League C:

At Ray­mond E. Guishard Sta­di­um (THE VAL­LEY, An­guil­la):

Saint Mar­tin lost to St Kitts & Nevis 3-1

At the AO Shirley Recre­ation Ground (ROAD TOWN, British Vir­gin Is­lands):

US Vir­gin Is­lands lost to Puer­to Ri­co 3-1