W Connection, Jabloteh make winning start

At the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, Mu­cu­rapo, W Con­nec­tion, win­ners of the last of their Cup ti­tles in 2017, 3-1 over De­fence Force, trounced Pt Fortin Civic 3-0 led by a goal each from na­tion­al strik­er Shah­don Win­ches­ter (32nd), Mick­aeel Gem Gor­don (36th), and Neil Ben­jamin Jr (47th) to go top of the six-club round-robin Aber­crom­bie Group, ahead of three-time win­ners De­fence Force and Ter­minix La Hor­quet­ta Rangers, on goal-dif­fer­ence with all three clubs on three points each.

Ter­minix La Hor­quet­ta Rangers got the 50th-minute item from Jo­moul Fran­cois to beat Po­lice FC, 1-0.

Down at the Diego Mar­tin Sports Com­plex in Bagatelle, Diego Mar­tin which host­ed Fri­day's open­ing dou­ble-head­er, Jabloteh, who last won the com­pe­ti­tion in 2003 kicked off their tour­na­ment ver­sus 1976 FC Phoenix with goals from na­tion­al de­fend­er Car­lyle Mitchell in the 37th, Un­der-20 na­tion­al strik­er Jodel Brown in the 40th and Kadeem Hutchin­son, in the 72nd.

The vic­to­ry left Jabloteh as sole lead­ers of the Im­mortelle Group with three points af­ter AC Port-of-Spain (for­mer­ly North East Stars), and Tiger Tanks Club San­do bat­tled to a 1-1 draw in the night's sec­ond match.

John-Paul Rochford fired AC Port-of-Spain in­to a 72nd-minute lead, but Ke­muel Rivers snatched an 89th-minute equalis­er for Club San­do.

When the com­pe­ti­tion be­gan on Fri­day, Cunu­pia FC got a 53rd-minute strike from Ajani Clarence to stun two-time win­ners Mor­vant Cale­do­nia AIA 1-0 in their Im­mortelle Group cur­tain-rais­er, and last year's beat­en fi­nal­ist De­fence Force edged ti­tle-hold­ers Cen­tral FC 1-0 cour­tesy a 25th-minute ef­fort from Jameel Coop­er in the Aber­crom­bie group.

The tour­na­ment is be­ing con­test­ed via a round-robin for­mat with two groups of six teams each.

At the end of the round-robin phase, the top two teams from each group will ad­vance to the se­mi-fi­nal in­ which the win­ners of that round will earn the right to con­test the $75,000 win­ners' prize, while the run­ners-up with pock­et $25,000.

Mean­while, the league com­pe­ti­tion will of­fi­cial­ly kick-off the league af­ter close to a year of in­ac­tiv­i­ty on De­cem­ber 13, and will even­tu­al­ly be called the 'As­cen­sion Pro League' as mem­ber clubs and the Board of Di­rec­tors of the Pro League, have agreed to have As­cen­sion spon­sor it this year while dis­cus­sions are still on-go­ing with Sports­Max and the T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion to join.

Pro League of­fi­cials are al­so lis­ten­ing to the foot­ball as­so­ci­a­tion to have the Sec­ond Tier com­pe­ti­tion or­gan­ised in time for the of­fi­cial start of the pro league on De­cem­ber 13.

MON­DAY'S RE­SULTS

San Juan Jabloteh 3 (Car­lyle Mitchell 37th, Jodel Brown 40th, Kadeem Hutchin­son 72nd) vs 1976 FC To­ba­go Phoenix 0

AC Port-of-Spain 1 (John-Paul Rochford 72nd) vs Tiger Tanks Club San­do 1 (Ke­muel Rivers 89th pen)

W Con­nec­tion 3 (Shah­don Win­ches­ter 32nd, Mick­aeel Gem Gor­don 36th, Neil Ben­jamin 47th.) vs Pt Fortin Civic 0

Ter­minix La Hor­quet­ta Rangers 1 (Jo­moul Fran­cois 50th) vs Po­lice FC 0

Lat­est Group Stand­ings

Aber­crom­bie Group

Teams*P*W*D*L*F*A*Pts
1. W Con­nec­tion*1*1*0*0*3*0*3
2. De­fence Force*1*1*0*0*1*0*3
3. L.H Rangers*1*1*0*0*1*0*3
4. Cen­tral FC*1*0*0*1*0*1*0
5. Po­lice FC*1*0*0*1*0*1*0
6. Pt Fortin Civic*1*0*0*1*0*3*0

Im­mortelle Group

Teams*P*W*D*L*F*A*Pts
1. San Juan Jabloteh*1*1*0*0*3*0*3
2. Cunu­pia FC*1*1*0*0*1*0*1
3. AC PoS*1*0*1*0*1*1*1
4. Club San­do*1*0*1*0*1*1*1
5. Mor­vant Cale­do­nia*1*0*0*1*0*1*0
6. To­ba­go Phoenix*1*0*0*1*0*3*0