Western Tigers began their redemption path in the 18th annual Kashif and Shangai football tournament with a convincing 4-1 victory over Silver Shattas in the feature match of the double-header opener at the Mackenzie Sports Club ground, Wednesday night.
In the first game, Santos Football Club was the first team to walk the plank, courtesy of a 2-0 defeat by Amelia’s Ward Football Club.
In the feature game, the Tigers signalled their intentions early with some attacking set pieces as they set out on the redemption path as indicated earlier by secretary Dexter Cush.
It began in the fourth minute with a long ball to the right side of the play where Phillip Rowley, who was having a wonderful night in mid-field for Tigers, controlled the ball and made a perfect pass to Gavin Wilson who took it at the top of the box, made a safety turn towards the Shattas’ goal and fired instantly.
This pumped up the Tigers both on and off the field, setting off wild celebrations and numerous attacks on the Shattas’ defence which managed to withstand the attacks non-the-less, mainly because of custodian Oswald Benjamin.
Silver Shattas soon found their rhythm and began to press the Tigers’ defence whose turn it was to withstand the attacks of the Shattas forwards as they fought for the equalizer. In the 18th minute, Tigers’ custodian and guest player Keith Fraser of the Guyana Defence Force, was called upon to pull off a magnificent save as he faced Troy Richards in a one-on-one situation.
Richards had picked up the ball in the mid field area of the Tigers’ half and advanced towards the goal. He outsprinted both Dellon Fraser and Sherman David but the quick-witted Fraser came off his line and magnificently took the ball off the foot of Richards before he could even get a shot off to the amazement of the bi-partisan crowd.
Five minutes after Fraser’s effort, Tigers got their second goal via a defence error. Rowley had received a pass to the top left hand side of the box, from David and after getting past his marker, he let loose a powerful shot that ricocheted off the body of Julian Davidson and ended up at the back of the net to increase the lead for the West Ruimveldt based- team.
Again, the Linden – based team found extra life after a goal and had the opportunity of reducing the lead before the whistle went for the half. John Waldron, who was putting in some over-timework for his team in the right back position, overlapped with the ball and sent a perfect pass across the Tigers’ goal mouth where he found Nigel Price.
But to the dismay of the crowd and his teammates, Price let off a powerful shot that sailed all over the bar, leaving the score 2-0 in Tigers’ favour at the half.
Action in the second half was no different from the first, as both teams sought to increase and decrease the lead respectively. Shattas gained the advantage when Tigers’ Orin Pompey became the first casualty of the tournament as he was issued marching orders by the referee for a forceful attack in the 63rd minute. Shattas took advantage of this and were rewarded in the 72nd minute, when Price redeemed himself after his first-half blunder. Again it was the hardworking Waldron who fed him with a wonderful pass any striker would ask for following a free kick which was taken quickly and caught the Tigers napping.
Price took the ball at the top of the six-metre box and calmly placed it at the back of the net to spark off long overdue celebrations on and off the field.
This goal revitalized Silver Shattas as Richards forced Fraser to pull off another one of his magnificent saves for the night one minute after. But the goal had also served to wake up the killing instinct in the Tigers who, surged forward hungry for prey. It was the hard-working Maxwell Pellew who regained the two-goal lead for his team. Paul Giles and Shawn Arthur were enjoying a comfortable one-two play in the far corner of the Shattas field, when Pellew came sprinting from the midfield position and after receiving the ball from Arthur midway in the Shattas half, sent a low left foot shot to the near post that eluded the grasp of Benjamin. Tigers 3 Shattas 1.
This goal probably frustrated the Shattas team and Pellew and company continued to harass the defence as they went in search of prey. In the 90th minute of play, Pellew was faced with a one-on-one situation with Benjamin, who brought him down in the box and not only gave away a penalty which captain Dellon Fraser calmly placed at the back of the net, but earned himself a yellow card in the process.
When the final whistle blew, the score card read Tigers 4; Shattas 1. In the first game, Santos played like a newly-formed team that was making their debut in this prestigious tournament when they faced up to Amelia’s Ward United.
Like the NAMILCO ALL Star team on the opening night, Santos worked hard for the ball only to give it away easily. Had it not been for the efforts of their custodian Ryan Hunte, the scorecard would have been different as the Santos players seemed at sea especially when they did not have the ball.
Ezra ‘Odingo’ Greene forced the Santos custodian Ryan Hunte to make a brilliant save diving to his left. In the 36th minute, it was Renault Fraser’s turn as he forced Odel Allycock, who was between the uprights for the Lindeners, to pull off a save from point blank range. The action continued drama-less in the first-half although both Greene and Fraser made some spirited runs for their team, but they lacked the finishing touch. At half time it was a 0-0 affair, but Greene sent his team into the lead after 10 minutes of play in the second half. Fraser had sent a low shot to goal of the mining town team,which brought a spectacular save from the 16-year-old Allicock. In the resulting play, Greene took the ball from midway in his half and made a sprint towards the Santos goal area leaving half-time substitute Jermaine Fraser in his wake.
He let off a first time shot that beat Hunte to his left and as the ball settled in the back of the net, wild celebration went off in the stands with Greene being the recipient of a yellow card as he jumped the advertising barrier to get close to his team’s supporters, a clear violation of the playing conditions in this year’s tournament. His goal sparked some life into his team and they sent shot after shot to the Santos custodian although some of them were off target. Fraser did some hard work for his team as he sought to level the score also but the hard working Allicock continued to deny him and his team the goal they sought to level the game.
However, Martin Romney took the life, fight and wind out the sails of Santos’s ship with a soft tap into an open goal in the 86th minute of play to leave his opponents waiting on the final whistle as they set off for their walk on the losers’ plank. They would be delighted to know, however, that a Linden team was joining them on that walk after the first round.
Prior to the start of both games, a minute’s silence was observed for the late Neil Hernandez who passed away tragically on Monday and for Ian Hercules, Public Relations Officer of Banks DIH Ltd. and good friend to the organizers Mohammed Kashif and Aubrey ‘Shanghai ‘ Major.
Action will continue tonight with another double header featuring five-time champions Topp XX from Linden and West Berbice’s Monedderlust in the feature game from 2030 h. In the opening fixture, Winners Connection and RUSAL will go head to head.
Once again whatever the outcome, two more teams will join Santos and Silver Shattas on the sidelines.
