BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – TDC Newtown United’s march to the St. Kitts-Nevis Football Association’s Digicel Premier League finals continued full steam ahead last night (May 19) as they trampled St. Peters F.C. 3-0.
Fresh off of an outstanding upset over reigning Digicel Premier League champion S. L. Horsford’s St. Pauls United, St. Peters attempted to carry their playoff momentum through to Newtown by aggressively running the ball down in the early minutes.
The strategy backfired in the early going, however, as Newtown’s top striker Ian ‘Rumpy’ Lake picked up a loose ball that the St. Peters’ goalkeeper attempted to chase down and netted an early 1-0 lead.
St. Peters righted itself for much of the first half after the early slip up and played a tight defensive line that kept the pressure on Newtown. In the final minutes of the first half, Newtown had a golden opportunity to score as Orlando Mitchum skillfully stopped the ball at the touch line and outpaced the St. Peters defenders to setup a picture perfect cross, but no one was home to further warriors from the east’s lead.
The second half of play proved to be a much more lopsided affair as Newtown opened several good scoring opportunities in the early minutes. Finally in the 61st minute of play, Keithroy Richards widened the gap as he picked up the ball in the area off of a corner kick and slipped a grass burner into the net.
Newtown’s final goal of the match came from birthday boy Mitchum, who used a hard and clean strike in minute 80 to seal the match.
The victory gave Newtown a total of six points in the Final Four standings and a very likely place in the finals, which are scheduled to begin May 26.
The second match last night at Warner Park was a more even affair that saw St. Pauls claiming their first victory of the playoffs 2-0 over Coury Gatorade Conaree.
St. Pauls opened the first scoring opportunities of the match, but it did not take long for Conaree to fire back in the must-win match for both teams.
In minute 33, Conaree had a golden opportunity on the breakaway to score, but the ball handler slipped on the wet turf in the area and fell before he could get his shot off. The missed opportunity characterized the largely flat first half from both teams, which ended at nil all.
St. Pauls awoke with fresh legs after the break, however, and drew a penalty kick within the first two minutes as they aggressively smothered Conaree. George ‘Yellowman’ Isaac took the shot for the reigning champions and made it look easy as he slotted the ball in the lower right corner for a 1-0 lead.
It was from that point forward that Conaree began to fold under the pressure of their first time in the Final Four. The blood was in the water and after a few minor misses, St. Pauls forward Javeim Blanchette launched a hard strike in minute 62 to find the back of the net again for his team and give them their first victory of the Final Four.
The massive crowd gathered at Warner Park last night will want to turn up this Saturday (May 22) at 8 p.m. as St. Peters and Conaree square off in a must-win situation for both sides.
Both teams will need to win by a large goal differential and hope for a favourable outcome of Sunday’s (May 23) match between Newtown and St. Pauls if they are to have a shot at reaching the finals.
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