S L Horsfords St. Paul’s United maintained their lead at the top of the National Bank Group of Companies Premier League table with a 2-0 win over Honda Newtown United on Sunday March 24th at Warner Park, despite going down to ten men when Omar Francis was issued a red card late in the first half.
St. Paul’s have 12 points, winning all four of their Premier League matches thus far.
The goals came from Nicquan Phipps in the fourth minute and Kalonji Clarke in the 45th minute.
The St. Paul’s match was part of a rare triple header on Sunday; the first ending 6-0 to SOL IAS Conaree FC over Trafalgar Southstars; their first win of the season.
The goals came from Errol O’Loughlin in the 24th minute, Jahquan Hendrickson in the 28th minute, Byron Phillip in the 46th minute, Tijani Fahie in the 50th minute, Quanieki Clarke in the 64th minute and Shawn Martin (pk) in the 90th +3 minute.
The second match saw Flow 4G Cayon Rockets also earning their first win of the season with a come from behind to defeat Hotsprings Bath United 2-1.
Venreece Richards gave Bath United the lead in the 53rd minute before Cayon Rockets equalized 23 minutes later through Vinceroy Nelson. Five minutes later, Shaheem Prentice got the winner.
On Saturday March 23, SKELEC Garden Hotspurs and MFCR Old Road United Jets came to a goalless draw, while Development Bank St. Peters FC delivered a shocked 3-2 come from behind win against defending champions Rams Village Superstars.
Jayan Duncan (10th minute), Kadeem Rawlins (72nd minute) and Shavene Boston (89th minute) got the goals for Hotspurs while the St. Peters goals came from Joseph Wilkes in the 18th minute and Kimaree Rogers in the 52nd minute.
The National Bank Group of Companies Premier League continues on March 27th and 28th ahead of the Easter weekend.
The SKNFA Super Six Playoffs table is tight after this past weekend’s matches. One team is almost assured of a finals spot and four of the remaining five teams have a mathematical chance of being the next finalists.
Added to that, two of those teams, Conaree FC and Village Superstars are tied on six points with the same goal difference. The table makes each team’s final match of the round-robin phase very intriguing.
The drama all started on Friday night when Flow 4G Cayon Rockets defeated Newtown United 2-1. Devaunty Carty opened the scoring for Cayon in the 20th minute before a K’andre Wattley own goal 16 minutes later tied proceedings. Cayon’s winning goal came in the 90th minute through Kejorn Wattley.
Coach Al Edwards of Cayon, while happy with the win, rued his team’s missed chances.
“The last time we spoke, I said all we have been practicing is finishing and for the last three days that's all we have been doing; finishing, finishing, finishing," Edwards said. We were looking for a big win to boost our chances at even a third place or to squeeze in the final (two) but it didn't come tonight," he said.
Newtown Coach Anthony “Nets” Isaac felt a substitution of his goalkeeper in the latter stages of the match, with an outfield player, due to an injury to his goalkeeper and the unavailability of his starting custodian, changed the outcome of the match.
“It changed a lot for us.... we had to put in one of our better defenders in the goal just to replace the goalkeeper," lamented Isaac, who said his goalkeeper had his shoulder dislocated. His first-choice goalkeeper was unable to play due to an accident before the match.
Saturday saw one of the best matches of the playoffs so far between MFCR Old Road United Jets and SOL IAS Conaree FC.
Old Road took a very early lead in the 3rd minute through Loudajour Lewis before Conaree equalized seven minutes later through a Javern Matthew penalty. Wazim Hough gave Conaree the lead in the 26th minute before Old Road squared things up through Tiquanny Williams in the 37th minute. An Errol O’Loughlin strike two minutes before the half meant Conaree went in with a 3-2 advantage.
That lead lasted all the way to the 90th minute before Williams converted a penalty to tie the game at 3-3.
The game ended on a sour note, however, as four players were given straight red cards after the match ended prematurely due to a fight.
The red carded players were Iquon Frazer (Old Road), Tiquanny Williams (Old Road), Kadeen Lewis (Conaree) and Wazim Howe (Conaree).
Coach Al Richards of Conaree was hoping for a win but relished the point from the draw.
“I thought we should have won it…We gave up a penalty, which was a soft penalty. But nevertheless, the team held out for the draw,” Richards said.
In relation to the incident, the SKNFA issued a statement: “The SKNFA deeply regrets the unfortunate incident that occurred following an exceptionally competitive match—one of the season's finest. Such behavior has no place in the game we love and respect. Consequently, our disciplinary committee will convene to take decisive action, in line with our established bylaws.”
Action continued on Sunday when SL Horsfords St. Paul’s United and Rams Village Superstars played out a 1-1 draw.
After a goalless first half, Niquan Phipps gave St. Paul’s the lead in the 67th minute before Tahir Hanley got the equalize for Village in the 94th minute.
That match was marred by a serious injury to Diquan Johnson of St. Paul’s, who was taken by ambulance to the JNF Hospital. The incident led to a 23-minute delay. That delay affected how both teams approached the conclusion of the match, as explained by Coach Stephen Clarke of Village and Manager of St. Paul’s Derionne Edmeade. Clarke said he had to withdraw Hasani Flemming, the player who tackled Johnson when he sustained the injury.
“I had to take him out because he was very, very distraught. But besides that, we still had a game to finish,” he said. Edmeade said the injury impacted how his players finished the match. “I think that also took a toll on the mindset (of the players) as we tried to finish the game,” he said. Best wishes to Johnson as he is recovering from his injury.
All teams will have to wait a week to know their fate as we now enter an international break. The St. Kitts Senior Men’s National Team will bow into action in the Concacaf Nations League this Thursday at 7 p.m. against Guadeloupe at the SKNFA Technical Center.
It’s official: the SKNFA Premier League regular season has ended; the Super Six teams have been decided and the three teams that have been relegated have been confirmed. The six teams in the Super Six playoffs are: St. Paul’s United, Cayon Rockets, Village Superstars, Old Road United Jets, Conaree FC, and Newtown United. Let’s review the final match week matches that led to this outcome.
Jones Group Sandy Point FC, in a Friday night matchup, having already been relegated ended their season on a high defeating Newtown United 2-1 in Sandy Point.
Sylvester Caines gave Newtown the lead in the 2nd minute before T’Ondre Rouse equalized for Sandy Point 11 minutes later. 10 minutes from full time, Zahmai Greene scored Sandy Point’s winner.
Assistant coach of Sandy Point, Kenneth Douglas, said he is proud of his players and that they will be rebuilding in Division 1 with the aim to earn promotion back into the Premier League next season.
“Just wanna say congratulation to the guys. Although we have been losing games, we told them we have to get our win before we go to Division 1, and today they went out there and they played their all; they played with energy; they played with guts and we came home with the victory,” Douglas said.
Newtown’s coach Anthony “Nets” Isaac was very disappointed with the performance of his team.
“Well, I'm very much disappointed about the results. I mean we came down here looking to go up another three points...but I'm very disappointed with the performance," Isaac said.
Also on Friday, July 21, MFCR Old Road United Jets easily dispatched of Fast Cash Saddlers United 2-0 in Saddlers’ last match of the season.
Kaylon Liburd in first half stoppage time and Jardel Isaac in the 56th minute were the goal scorers for Old Road.
On the Saturday of the final match week, St. Peters FC was trying to earn a playoff spot with a huge 5-2 win over Security Forces FC in Cayon. In the end, despite the big win, it was not enough to give them a spot.
St. Peters went up 5-0 in the first half through goals from Shevene Boston (8’), Tyquan Terrell (11’), Deshawn Collins (32’), Tyquan Terrell (37’) and Shomari Hanley (39’).
Security Forces got a pair of second half consolation goals through Julan Gordon own goal in the 47th minute and a David Joseph goal in the 58th.
Coach Austin Huggins of St. Peters offered his thoughts after the match.
“We did well in terms of scoring goals. We did get five goals this evening, but in my estimation, we still lacking in the scoring department, because we wanted to get at least 11 goals," he said.
Security Forces Assistant Coach George Kinta Gilbert said his team played a much more organized second half.
“In the second half, we organized ourselves...in the first half it was just chaos," he said.
The following match also in Cayon, between Cayon and Conaree ended in a 0-0 draw. Coach Al Edwards of Cayon said his team played a good match, despite not getting a goal.
“Our thoughts and focus now is tweak what we have (for the Super Six)," Edwards said. On the other hand, Conaree’s Coach Al Richards rued their missed chances. “I think at times we were a bit disorganized," Richards said.
Over on Nevis that same day Bath United once again blew a lead to draw the match, this time against St. Paul’s United. Romario Daniel struck twice for Bath in the 8th & 42nd min before Keithroy Freeman scored in the 84th min and Nicquan Phipps in he 90th + 3 min to earn a point.
Meanwhile, the following day at the SKNFA technical center, Garden Hotspurs were beaten 0-5 by Village Superstars.
Joseph Wilkes (16’), Devaughn Elliott (41’), Caaja Burnham (45+1’), Austin Henry (75’) and Tahir Hanley (90’) got the goals for Village.
Coach Stephen Clarke of Village, hailed his players for qualifying for the playoffs, after a very slow and hard start for his team this season.
“The first round was not the best for us as a team and then we had a lot of injuries so we could not practically play consistently,” he explained. "The second round we were more consistent. Players were more consistent, not a lot of players missing so we ended up building a bit of momentum going forward," he said, adding that the team has been playing well both defensively and attacking-wise.
Meanwhile, Coach Steven Brown of Spurs said they started the match well, but it went south after conceding an early goal.
“I wanted the guys to come out today, have fun just to find back the love of playing football because we've been in a funk these past few weeks. We started well but conceded an early goal and it kind of went downhill from there,” he added.
On Tuesday, the action continued in Nevis, this time with Bath United winning—edging Old Road United Jets 1-0. The goal came from Chris Brown in 1st min of stoppage time.
Then, on Wednesday at the SKNFA Technical Center, Village Superstars and Conaree got 2-0 and 3-0 wins, respectively, over Newtown United and St. Paul’s United.
Village’s goals came from Leroy Hanley in the 18th minute and Denis Fleming in the 34th minute.
Anthony Grant (6’), Errol O’Loughlin (45+2’) and Javern Matthew (76’) were the goal scorers for Conaree.
Football fans earnestly await the start of the 2023 Super Six playoffs, but first, there is the matter of the Concacaf Caribbean Club Shield, which will be held for the first time in St. Kitts and Nevis from August 3-13 at Warner Park and the SKNFA Technical Center.
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