THE preliminary round of the 2024 First Citizens Cup came to an exciting end on Sunday night, with Police FC’s TT Premier Football League (TTPFL) tier two outfit and Miscellaneous Laventille Utd both booking their places in the round of 16.
In the second game of a double-header at the University of TT (UTT) O’Meara campus, Police battled in a servicemen derby against Defence Force’s tier two team.
Police opened the scoring in the 26th minute when Joshua Leach found the back of the net. The lawmen went into the halftime break with a 1-0 lead, and they doubled their lead in the 70th minute when Clevon McFee converted a penalty to make it 2-0.
Defence Force made the dying moments uncomfortable for their Police counterparts, as Kevon Blackman scored in the first minute of second-half stoppage-time to cut the deficit to 2-1.
However, Police held on to get the crucial win to advance to the last 16.
Police’s tier one team, the current leaders in the TTPFL top flight, was one of six clubs to receive a bye through to the last 16.
At Frederick Settlement, Caroni, TTPFL tier two strugglers Laventille Utd pulled off one of the upsets of the preliminary round when they got a 3-1 victory over the fifth-placed tier two team Petit Valley/Diego Martin United (PVDMU). The PVDMU outfit finished as TTPFL tier two playoff finalists last season, but their 2024 knockout cup run was stopped by a determined Laventille Utd team.
The encounter got off to a quite stunning start as three goals were scored in the opening ten minutes, with Laventille Utd jumping out to a 2-1 lead. Qualanson Archibald and Kersheem Alexander scored within a minute of each other to give Laventille Utd an early 2-0 lead before striker Akeil Thomas scored in the ninth minute for PVDMU to cut the deficit to 2-1. Laventille Utd held their slender lead for most of the encounter, and they wrapped up the victory in the 86th minute when Kester Hewitt netted the all-important third goal to send them through to the next round.
In two of the notable results in the preliminary round, tier two team QPCC stunned tier one outfit Caledonia by a 2-0 margin, while Eagles FC got a 3-1 win over 1976 FC Phoenix in the lone all-tier one duel in the first round.
First Citizens Knockout Cup preliminary round results:
Eagles FC 3, 1976 FC Phoenix 1
Club Sando (tier two) 0, Central FC 6
Caledonia 0, QPCC 2
Eagles FC (tier two) 1, Terminix La Horquetta Rangers 6
Heritage Petroleum Point Fortin Civic 4, Central Soccer World 0
Tiger Tanks Club Sando 6, RSSR 0
San F'do Giants 4, Bethel United 0
UTT Patriots 1, Prisons FC 2
PVDMU 1, Miscellaneous Laventille Utd 3
Defence Force (tier two) 1, Police FC (tier two) 2
SOURCE: T&T Newsday