Joseph blasts four as Civic demolished 8-0

The result saw the league leaders end their five-game winless run. Also, Joseph reclaimed the top spot in the season's goal-scoring chart with 15 – two more than Club Sando's Tyrone Charles.

Connection sit atop the 10-team standings with 33 points, three ahead of Police who brushed aside North East Stars 5-1 at the Larry Gomes Stadium, Arima earlier on Sunday.

Joseph got things going with two early items, in the eighth and 13th minutes, and completed his treble in the 37th when he ran onto a long ball from right-back Isaiah Garcia and lobbed the advancing goalkeeper Ishmael Salaam.

Kadeem Corbin got his name on the scoresheet in the 43rd, as he collected a pass from left-back Kurt Frederick and neatly placed his shot beyond the reach of Salaam.

Point Fortin coach Reynold Carrington introduced the Garcia brothers Nathaniel and Judah at the start of the second half, but that move had little effect as Connection continued to pile on the pressure.

Two minutes after the resumption, Jomal Williams, racing at goal from the left, was taken down inside the penalty box by Salaam, leaving referee Joel Cox with no option but to point to the spot.

Defender Triston Hodge's kick was parried by Salaam and Hodge calmly slotted home the rebound.

In the 55th, Corbin notched his second when he tapped home from close range, after Williams dummied a ball from the right by Garcia.

Another ball from the right resulted in a Connection goal, as Williams met a pass from Neil Benjamin and finished from inside the six-yard box.

Two minutes later (72nd), Joseph ended the goal-scoring bombardment with a low right-footed effort past the right of an outstretched Salaam.

At Arima, North East Stars, back in the fray after missing two games due to issues regarding payment of their registration fee, took a 13th minute lead courtesy Shakqeem Joseph.

But the lawmen responded in emphatic style, with two goals apiece from the Perry brothers Kareem (18th and 35th minute penalties) and Jameel (25th and 49th). Michael Hyacenth put the icing on the cake with a strike in the 66th.

In the first of back-to-back games in Couva, Club Sando defeated Defence Force 1-0 with Nicholas Thomas finding the back of the net in the 58th.

On Friday, in a double-header at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Mucurapo, Central FC whipped Terminix St Ann’s Rangers 4-2 and Morvant Caledonia United edged San Juan Jabloteh 3-2.

Round two match day eight fixtures:

Today – North East Stars vs Point Fortin Civic, Larry Gomes Stadium, 3.30 pm.

Tomorrow – Morvant Caledonia United vs Police; San Juan Jabloteh vs W Connection, Hasely Crawford Stadium; Club Sando vs St Ann's Rangers; Central FC vs Defence Force, Ato Boldon Stadium, 6 pm & 8 pm.

RELATED NEWS

Joseph fires W Connection with beaver-trick.
By Nigel Simon (Guardian).

T&T in­ter­na­tion­al Mar­cus Joseph fired in a beaver-trick as T&T Pro League lead­ers W Con­nec­tion end­ed a five-match win­less streak in style, drub­bing Pt Fortin Civic 8-0 at the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um, Cou­va on Sun­day night.

With its once healthy sev­en points lead at the top of the ten-team trimmed to a goal-dif­fer­ence ad­van­tage over three-time for­mer cham­pi­ons Cen­tral FC on Fri­day, the pres­sure was on the ‘Savonet­ta Boys”, five-time cham­pi­ons but not since the 2013-2014 sea­son to pick up max­i­mum points against Civic with on­ly two rounds of match­es left to com­plete the sea­son.

Joseph, who has been plagued by in­juries in re­cent weeks, wast­ed lit­tle time in giv­ing his team a much need­ed ear­ly cush­ion when he scored in the eighth and 13th min­utes to put Civic un­der ear­ly pres­sure.

Eight min­utes be­fore the in­ter­val, Joseph com­plet­ed his hat-trick while ex-na­tion­al Un­der-20 star strik­er Kadeem Corbin made cer­tain Civic had no way back in the match with a 43rd-minute goal for a 4-0 lead at the half-time whis­tle.

Two min­utes in­to the sec­ond-half an­oth­er T&T in­ter­na­tion­al, Tris­tan Hodge ex­tend­ed the lead to 5-0 be­fore Corbin grabbed a sec­ond in the 56th, fol­lowed by an item from na­tion­al mid­field­er Jo­mal

Williams in the 70th, be­fore Joseph com­plet­ed his beaver-trick in the 72nd minute with his league-best 15th goal of the sea­son to the de­light of his coach­ing staff and team-mates

The win puts W Con­nec­tion, on 33 points from 16 match­es, three ahead of Po­lice FC and Cen­tral FC while Mor­vant Cale­do­nia Unit­ed and Club San­do, are fourth and fifth re­spec­tive­ly with 27 points and are the two oth­er teams still in the hunt for the league crown as well as a top-two fin­ish to qual­i­fy for the Con­ca­caf Cham­pi­ons League.

In the ear­ly match at Ato Boldon Sta­di­um on Sun­day, Nicholas Thomas scored in the 58th minute to earn Club San­do a 1-0 win over De­fence Force, leav­ing the lat­ter on 24 points and a dan­ger of miss­ing out on a top two spot.

Up at the Lar­ry Gomes Sta­di­um, Mal­abar, strik­ers Ka­reem Fre­itas and Jameel Per­ry scored two goals each in Po­lice FC’s 5-1 spank­ing of North East Stars.

North East Stars ac­tu­al­ly went ahead in the con­test in the 13th minute via Shakqueem Joseph, but the Law­men then pressed on the gas with Fre­itas scor­ing in the 18th minute from the penal­ty-spot while Per­ry net­ted in the 25th to put his team 2-1 ahead.

Fre­itas made it 3-1 in the 35th with an­oth­er penal­ty for his 14th item of the cam­paign, while Per­ry got his sec­ond in the 49th, and Michael Hy­acinth the oth­er in the 66th.

Fri­day Re­sults

Cen­tral FC 4 (Akim Arm­strong 22’, Ewan Gran­di­son 30’, Le­ston Paul 75’, Du­ane Muck­ette 89’) vs Ter­minix St. Ann’s Rangers 2 (Ker­ry Bap­tiste 33’, Taje Com­mis­siong 77’)

San Juan Jabloteh 2 (Nick­el Orr 62’, Dar­ren Mitchell 90’+2) vs Mor­vant Cale­do­nia Unit­ed 3 (Quin­cy Bal­lah 1’, 18’, 67’)

Po­lice FC 5 (Ka­reem Fre­itas 18th pen, 35th pen, Jameel Per­ry 25th, 49th, Michael Hy­acinth 66th) vs North East Stars 1 (Shakqueem Joseph 13th)

Club San­do 1 (Nicholas Thomas 58th) vs De­fence Force 0

W Con­nec­tion 8 (Mar­cus Joseph 8th, 13th, 37th, 72nd, Kadeem Corbin 43rd, 56th, Tris­tan Hodge 47th, Jo­mal Williams 70th)