– Milerock maintains lead
Things are certainly heating up in the Upper Demerara Football Association (UDFA) Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, Coca Cola-sponsored first division football tournament as Milerock and Bakewell Topp XX are still fighting to see who will walk away with the honours.
On Wednesday the tournament continued with a double header at the Mackenzie Sports Club ground where Milerock FC and Bakewell Topp XX came out victorious.
In game one, Milerock made light work of the already struggling Netrockers, beating them 2-0.
From the first kick-off, the two teams shared equal possession of the ball with Netrockers coming very close in the 25th minute when captain Keon Bristol sent a header just wide of the goal.
But Milerock were rock solid on both ends of the field although they failed to capitalize on several chances early on in the game resulting in the scores being 0-0 in the first half.
However, 14 minutes into the second half, their persistence paid off with a beautiful goal by Kevin D’ Andrade.
D’Andrade himself was guilty of squandering three certain goals early in the match and the goal was his first since being transferred from Netrockers to Milerock last August.
Things got worse for Netrockers as they were reduced to 10 men after their captain was given marching orders by referee Stanley Lancaster. He had picked up his second yellow card of the match.
Netrockers later made some good attempts on goal but their chances were thwarted by the Milerock defence which was being manned by Kevin Sullivan and Mortimer Ramdeholl who, had a very good game in defence.
In the second game of the double header, Bakewell Topp XX emerged 1-0 victors over Winners Connection in a closely fought encounter.
The game started with both teams going at each other with Winners Connections’ nifty striker Rawle “Boney” Gittens making his way past the Topp XX defence all night but he just couldn’t get his shot on target as most of his efforts went wide off target and in some cases safely found the gloves of the Topp XX goalkeeper.
The first half ended with the score 0-0.
When the second half resumed, Topp XX’s forward, national youth player Kevin Beaton, began to find his range with some good attempts at the Winners Connections goal.
Shevonne Seaforth, who is known for his thunderous shots on goal, came close in the 77th minute when one of his trade mark shots hit the uprights. But the decisive point in the game came in the 88th minute when Topp XX’s forward Curt Murphy was brought down in the 18-yard box by the Winners Connection goal-keeper and a penalty was awarded by referee Abdullah `Zico’ Hamid.
Despite the protest by the Winners Connection supporters and players, Hamid stood firm on his decision and the kick was made good by Kevin Beaton.
Milerock FC lead with 23 points with three matches in hand while Bakewell Topp XX is in second place with 22 points and one game remaining.
Meanwhile today’s matches were postponed due to the staging of the Schools Champion of Champions event and will resume later after due notice.