Guyana’s Golden Jaguars scored a 1-0 revenge win over St. Vincent and the Grenadines Vincy Heat in their friendly international football match played at the Blarimont ground, West Berbice yesterday.
Nippy striker Gregory “Jackie Chan” Richardson scored the game’s lone goal in the 10th minute of play under soggy conditions and watched by a large crowd.
The Guyanese, who were beaten 2-0 in last year’s Digicel Cup playoffs by the Vincentians, launched an early attack on their opponents and even before some spectators had time to settle in their seats Richardson sent his team inTO the lead.
The Vincentians had a scare as early as the fifth minute when Richardson was fouled just outside the penalty area but the initial shot was saved by the visitors’ goalkeeper Winslow McDowell off a deflection from Guyana’s Captain Charles Pollard, from the ensuing free kick.
Two minutes later, Richardson made another effective run down the right flank but lost his footing and his shot went wide of the mark.
However, Guyana’s golden opportunity came minutes later when a Collie Hercules shot at goal stuck in the mud and a lurking Richardson made no mistake in hitting the ball to the right of Mc Dowell to score.
The Guyanese, who had adjusted well to the soggy conditions, maintained the pressure with the midfield, marshalled by Sean Cameron, Kayode McKinnon and Sean Bishop, controlling the ball possession but the strikers were lacking in their finishes.
Dwayne Jacobs made several raids from the right wing but the Vincentians defensive wall of experienced Captain Wesley Charles, Theron Gordon and Richard Hayde were equal to the task.
The visitors got their game together and came close to scoring in the 35th minute following a loose pass from the Guyanese at midfield but Vincentian striker Sean Glynn’s shot was deflected off a defender for a corner.
Both teams had scoring opportunities before half time but failed to convert.
The second half started in similar fashion to the first with Guyana’s strikers launching runs on their opponents’ goal area, one such play almost resulted in a goal but Richardson, with only McDowell to beat, tried dribbling the goalkeeper and lost his footing.
He retrieved the ball and had two more attempts but finally lost possession to the amazement of the spectators.
Hercules and Richardson were substituted for Nigel Codrington and Anthony `Awo’ Abrams and while they were effective with their offensive runs on occasions, they failed to hit the mark.
Charles missed a header in the latter stages of the game for St. Vincent while Kevin Abraham had his header saved by Guyana’s goalkeeper Richard Reynolds close to the end of the encounter.
Technical Director of the Guyana team, Jamaal Shabbazz, said his team played quite well under difficult conditions.
“We adjusted much better to the ground conditions than St. Vincent but the finishing could have been better. We did not have enough shots at goal although the players had the ball a lot in the box,” Shabbazz remarked.
Asked about the squad’s departure for a training camp in Trinidad and Tobago, Shabbazz said that it had not been finalized but said he wanted the team to leave by the end of the week.
Guyana is expected to play a return match against St. Vincent later this month and have also lined up matches against Grenada and Antigua and Barbuda as part of their preparation for second round action in the 2010 World Cup preliminary competition.
Both Guyana and St. Vincent teams are preparing for the World Cup preliminary action.
Guyana’s ranking is likely to move up following this win. The Guyanese are currently ranked 128 and St. Vincentians 101.