Guyana’s Golden Jaguars went down to Grenada 2-1 in their second international warm up match after squandering several scoring chances at the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) ground yesterday.
The Guyanese had only themselves to blame for the defeat against the Grenadians who scored at the opportune time and then provided a sturdy defensive wall to stave off a late onslaught by the home team.
The Grenadians took the lead in the 42nd minute of play when Cassim Langaigne, who was tightly marked by Guyana’s central defender Howard Lowe, received a square pass from the right side from the experienced Ricky Charles and fired a shot past a diving Richard Reynolds in goal.
The Golden Jaguars equalized three minutes later when England-based Shawn Beveney penetrated on the right flank and squared the ball to an unmarked Shawn Bishop who slotted home an easy goal levelling the scores 1-1 at stroke of half time.
But the Guyanese had numerous scoring opportunities during the first half with striker Nigel “Powers” Codrington, who was the star of Guyana’s Digicel campaign just over a year ago, Bishop, Kayode McKinnon and Anthony “Awo” Abrams all failing to exploit critical chances.
US-based midfielder, Sean Cameron, who was outstanding in Guyana’s 1-0 win against St. Vincent and the Grenadines two Sundays ago at Blairmont, also looked lacklustre against the Grenadians during the first half.
The Golden Jaguars started the second half with aggression but again the finish was lacking.
Midway in the second half Guyana’s captain Charles “Lilly” Pollard was injured during a collision with one of the Grenadian players and was taken off the field on a stretcher.
His absence left a vacuum in Guyana’s defence as the local side’s technical staff introduced midfielder Kanata Manning and defender Kelvin McKenzie but their presence made very little impact with Grenada scoring their second goal even as Guyana tried to regroup.
The goal was scored in the 70th minute when Rene Dennis pounced upon a loose play and scored the game’s winner.
The Guyanese tried to score the equalizer but like the first half the finishing was poor with Troy Prescod, Mc Kinnon, who took over the captaincy from Pollard, and second half substitute and goal scorer against St. Vincent Gregory “Jackie Chan” Richardson missing chances in the dying stages of the match as the Grenada side brought most of the players in defence to defend the slim lead.
Technical Director of the Guyana side Jamal Shabbazz said that his team did not capitalise the chances they had during the encounter.
He said that had the Golden Jaguars capitalized on the scoring opportunities they would have come out victorious in the match.
“The defeat has not unsettled us, we tried to utilize as many players as possible, some of the players like Troy Prescod came in when we were down but they handled the pressure well,” Shabbazz disclosed.
The technical director said that Pollard received a severe blow to the head and the management was monitoring the situation.
“We will lose some matches along the way, we have sometime to recuperate,” said Shabbazz.
Coach of the Grenada team Norris Wilson said it was a morale-boosting win against Guyana who had beaten them in the Digicel preliminaries in 2006.
“This is our first international match since 2006 and the victory has given me encouragement and zeal. Our goal is to reach World Cup 2010,” Wilson said.
The Guyanese are expected to travel to Barbados for a match against the Bajans on Friday and then move on to St. Vincent for a rematch.
The Guyanese are also expected to play against Honduras and Cuba here next month as they continue preparations for the 2010 World Cup qualification.