BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE number three seeded St. Peters F.C. gave their fans something to celebrate last night (May 16) as they knocked off reigning Digicel Premier League champion S. L. Horsford’s St. Pauls United F.C. 1-0 in their first match of the Final Four.
Coming off of a tough loss last week in the FA Cup finals to TDC Newtown United, St. Pauls lacked much of the passion they have been known for throughout the regular season. From the first minute, St. Peters, who are making their third ever appearance in the Final Four, controlled the action.
By the end of the first half, St. Peters’ Ashton Davis found the back of the net with a well placed strike and gave his side the early advantage. The second half was played out very similar to the first, with St. Peters keeping their legs fresh and shutting down St. Pauls’ lead scorers at nearly every pass.
The 1-0 result in St. Peters’ favour was a marked improvement over their two regular season meet-ups with the 2009 champions, which were lost 1-3 and 0-3, respectively.
SKNVibes spoke to St. Peters Manager Julian Morton, who said his players were on a “major high” from the opening round victory.
“I think they did underestimate us because they were the only team in the league that beat us badly in the regular season. They worked out that they had the upper hand…but we executed our strategy as we planned,” he stated.
St. Pauls Manager Dwyer Edmead agreed with Morton’s assessment of the game, though he felt the loss would be a wake-up call ahead of their next game against Coury Gatorade Conaree.
“The guys came out a little over confident. Sometimes if you've beaten a team one too many times you mentally relax yourself too much. Our guys never executed the game plan we had come up with...[and] St. Peters executed their game plan perfectly.
“I think generally that when great teams fall, the next game they play is when they are the most dangerous. I think that even without the coaches having to say very much you should see some very good things out of the guys in the next game,” Edmeand said.
Meanwhile, Morton noted that his team is hoping to carry their winning momentum into Wednesday’s (May 19) match against number one seed Newtown.
Newtown will not be an easy opponent, however, as they too will be coming off of a major 3-0 victory over Conaree on Saturday night (May 15).
Following a scoreless first half, Newtown came out aggressively in the second against their number four seeded opponent and controlled the midfield as they exploited weaknesses in the outside lanes to open scoring opportunities.
Rain came down repeatedly in the second half of the game and along with that moisture came a rain of goals from Newtown, the first coming on a fierce header from Alexis Saddler in the 55th minute.
Keithroy Richards picked up another goal in minute 78 for Newtown with a strike from inside the penalty area and Malivai Harris put the final nail in the coffin in minute 90 off a corner kick moments after coming onto the field as a substitute.
Newtown’s victory electrified the massive crowd at Warner Park and set a good tone for an exciting race to the finals.
Matches will continue on Wednesday with St. Peters and Newtown facing off at 6 p.m., followed by St. Pauls taking on Conaree at 8 p.m.
