By Calvin Roberts
Some good goalkeeping from Alpha United Football Club’ Ronson Williams ensured his team added the 2008 Mayor’s Cup trophy to their overflowing silverware display, when they defeated Fruta Conquerors Football Club in a penalty shoot out in the finals, whilst Camptown came from behind to defeat Uprising Football Club 3-1 to claim third place at the Tucville ground Sunday night.
The 20 year old Williams was not called upon to prevent his opponents’ powerful striking force that consisted of Devon Forde, Kacy John and Dellon Williams from finding the back of the net during regulation and overtime, utilized all of his energy in the penalty shoot out and was ably assisted by a wayward shot from Conqueror’s captain Neville Stanton who sent his first shot hard and wide to the dismay of his teammates and the joy of his opponents.
Williams’s counterpart Oswald Cornette was the star on show as he had to pull out all stops to prevent the powerful forward line of Alpha from sending their team in the lead on numerous occasions and even came up as their hero in the penalty shoot out, when he thwarted the efforts of Leon Grumble and Anthony Harding after seeing Stanton missed his chance.
That was just part of his work for the night and it would have been the perfect icing on the cake for him had Conquerors gone on to win the match as from the time the opening whistle went until it sounded to signal the first penalty kick to be taken, Cornette was carrying the workload for Conquerors.
After seeing Stanton being cautioned for refusing to comply with the referee’s orders on a free kick inside their own half, and his forwards John and Forde coming close to finding the back of Alpha’s net on three occasions in 10 minutes, Cornette had to pull all stops to thwart both Anthony ‘Awo’ Abrams and Shawn Bishop from scoring inside two minutes much to the delight of the spectators.
Stanton must have breathed a sigh of relief when Alpha United’s coach Wayne Dover substituted Abrams with just under one minute to go inside the first half of extra time as he was a thorn in the flesh of the Tucville based Conquerors side throughout his stay on the field.
In the 50th minute of the game, Abrams sent a ball across Conquerors’ goal mouth after out dribbling Stanton, even showcasing some of his talent with some fancy footwork that brought oohs and aahs from a packed crowd, but Cornette was up to the task and magnificently intercepted the ball before it could have reached Elton Browne who had what some termed a ‘bad night’.
Abrams continued to make havoc of his opponents’ defence and in the 70th minute he evaded Stanton who was giving him only a six-inch breathing space, to round his marker and as Cornette advanced off his line, he too was beaten by a bouncing ball.
But when all and sundry went up to celebrate what was certain to be the first goal of the night, Stanton recovered his ground to thwart Abrams by clearing the ball of the line and even picking up an injury in the process after being brought down by his teammate who was coming in hard on the weak side of the play.
Stanton continued to work tirelessly in his team’s defence position as he thwarted two successive efforts by Kelvin Smith and looked on at the other end as Trevon Lycott’ s shot was magnificently saved by Williams in the 82nd minute.
Following Williams’s efforts, Alpha’s Dwayne Daniels who was guilty of excess dribbling of the ball at times, had a clear cut shot to goal but chose to out dribble two of his markers and ended up losing the ball.
Conquerors themselves had another chance to go ahead when they were awarded a free kick just about five yards away from the box, but Stanton sent his shot hard and flat into the wall and from the ensuing rebound, Cornette had to come off his line to prevent Bishop from finding the back of his net with another one of his dare devil saves.
Browne then had three chances to send his team ahead but on two occasions, he sent the ball wide of the goal and on the third occasion, he flew the offside trap that was set by Conquerors, but his attempt to send the ball around an advancing Cornette was too much for him as he placed too much spin on same which went marginally wide of the goal post. It was down to penalty kicks and after both Stanton and Browne missed their kicks for their respective teams, Lennox Charles stepped up and sent Conquerors into the lead. Cornette then continued his magnificent showing by saving the attempt of Alpha’s Anthony Harding.
Odel Williams then sent his shot hard into the cross bars much to the dismay of his teammates and supporters and to the delight of Alpha, Gordon Henry beat a diving Cornette when his shot struck the right post and ricocheted into the back of the net.
It came down to sudden death after the two remaining shots for both teams were successful ones and Cornette stepped up to the plate to take his team’s first shot. It was here that Williams displayed his goalkeeping skills as he not only thwarted Cornette with a brilliant save, but held the ball for 15 seconds in his celebration dance.
Peter Parks then calmly slotted the ball past Cornette who apparently had the wind knocked out of his sails after seeing his shot saved by Williams. The celebrations began for the reigning Kashif and Shangai champions amidst wild celebrations on the field from their supporters.
In the third place play off, Sunburst Camptown came from a goal down to defeat Uprising 3-1. After a goalless first half in a game that was reduced to 30 minutes a half due to a late start, Uprising went ahead courtesy of Rensford Coolridge who wormed his way into the box after eluding his marker and sent a low shot past the Camptown custodian.
The goal woke up Camptown’s fighting spirit as they got the equalizer two minutes later when Telson Mc Kennon pounced on a ball that was poorly cleared by the Uprising defender and sent a scorcher past the hands of the custodian Leon Bailey.
It became 2-1 when Tishawn Sandiford eluded his marker, beating the off side trap that was set by Uprising and calmly slotted the ball past Bailey. Mark Joseph then placed the icing on the cake for Camptown and the final nail in the coffin for Uprising when he beat Bailey from outside on the stroke of full time.
The presentation of prizes won during this competition will be held at a later date.
