Rangers salvage point on home turf

The tied re­sult means that Rangers moved in­to sec­ond place with 10 points, three be­hind un­beat­en leader De­fence Force (13) and ahead of Po­lice (10) on goal-dif­fer­ence, nine com­pared to three.

Rangers en­tered round one match-day sev­en, on the back of three wins and two loss­es but they strug­gled to make the most of their su­pe­ri­or­i­ty at home against ninth-place Club San­do, which has six points (one win, three draws and 3 loss­es).

Club San­do qui­et­ed the Rangers sup­port­ers ear­ly on, hav­ing the host team trail­ing from the eighth minute with the open­ing goal be­ing scored by for­mer na­tion­al play­er Hughton Hec­tor.

Rangers tried to get a grip on the pro­ceed­ings but were un­able to get the equalis­er, al­low­ing Club San­do to go in at the half with the 1-0 lead.

On the re­sump­tion, nei­ther side could find the back of the net un­til Lee's 64th-minute item grabbed the vi­tal point for Rangers. Af­ter con­ced­ing the goal, the south­ern-based team was un­able to re­gain its lead and had to set­tle with shar­ing points.

Back in Port-of-Spain at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um in Mu­cu­rapo, W Con­nec­tion eased past Ath­let­ic Club (AC) Port of Spain, 4-0 and Mor­vant/Cale­do­nia Unit­ed was held to a 1-1 draw with Point Fortin Civic.

Dim­itrie Apai net­ted a pair of goals for the win­ner while his team­mates Je­vaughn Humphrey and Neil Ben­jamin each added one for the fifth in the stand­ings, W Con­nec­tion.

Humphrey opened the scor­ing in the 21st to give his team a 1-0 at the halfway mark. AC Port of Spain was hop­ing to re­cov­er in the sec­ond half but there was no such luck as the match seemed to be de­cid­ed by the first-half goal.

Five min­utes from time though, Apai found the back of the net to send W Con­nec­tion up by two. Four min­utes lat­er, Ben­jamin put his name on the score­sheet to have the lead­ing side ahead 3-0 but Con­nec­tion was not done yet as Apai (90th+1) put the ic­ing on the cake in added-on time

In the oth­er en­counter, Kerville Je­re­mi­ah opened the scor­ing in the 22nd to give eighth-place Civic the 1-0 ad­van­tage which the oth­er south­ern-based held on to at the half. It was some 24 min­utes in­to the sec­ond ses­sion that Tev Lawrence pro­duced the equalling goal in the 69th for the fourth-place team on the ta­ble.

(Teams - by Wired868)

Terminix La Horquetta Rangers (4-4-2): 20.Jabari St Hillaire (GK); 99.Anselm Jackson, 5.Leslie Russell, 32.Yohannes Richardson (17.Ross Russell Jr 65), 26.Jesus Perez; 10.Tyrone Charles, 8.Jamal Creighton (captain), 24.Kishon Hackshaw, 77.Samuel Delice (7.Aikim Andrews 65); 15.Keron Cummings, 27.Isaiah Lee.

Unused substitutes: 29.Emmanuel John (GK), 25.Michael Yaw Darko, 28.Johnny Noriega-Brito, 31.Junior Asson.

Coach: Dave Quamina

Tiger Tanks Club Sando (4-2-3-1): 34.Kelvin Henry (GK); 23.Nicoholas Thomas, 5.Bevon Bass, 27.Darnell Hospedales, 6.Kemuel Rivers (captain); 8.Jabarry Francis, 12.Michael Basdeo; 10.Keron Cornwall, 42.Jodel Brown (17.Kevon Williams 78), 13.Shaqkeem Joseph (15.Nion Lammy 70); 19.Hughtun Hector (25.Marvin Waldrop 90).

Unused substitutes: 33.Alexei Julien (GK), 3.Tekay Hoyce, 14.Kadeem Gittens, 29.Seon Shippley.

Coach: Angus Eve

Wired868 Man of the Match: Isaiah Lee (Terminix La Horquetta Rangers)

RE­SULTS

Mor­vant/Cale­do­nia Unit­ed 1 (Tev Lawrence 69th) vs Point Fortin Civic 1 (Kerville Je­re­mi­ah 22nd)

AC Port of Spain 0 vs W Con­nec­tion 4 (Je­vaughn Humphrey 21st, Dim­itrie Apai 85th, 90th+1, Neil Ben­jamin 89th)

Rangers 1 (Isa­iah Lee 64th) vs Club San­do 1 (Hughton Hec­tor 8th)

To­day's Match (Lar­ry Gomes Sta­di­um, Mal­abar)

Po­lice FC vs De­fence Force, 4 pm

Lat­est Stand­ings

Place*Teams*P*W*D*L*GF*GA*GD*Points

1.De­fence Force FC*5*4*1*0*8*4*4*13

2.Ter­minix La Hor­quet­ta Rangers*6*3*1*2*18*9*9*10

3.Po­lice FC*6*3*1*2*9*6*3*10

4.Mor­vant Cale­do­nia Unit­ed*6*2*3*1*6*5*1*9

5.W Con­nec­tion*5*2*2*1*9*4*5*8

6.Cen­tral FC*6*2*2*2*7*7*0*8

7.AC Port-of-Spain*6*2*1*3*7*15*-8*7

8.Point Fortin Civic*5*1*3*1*6*5*1*6

9.Club San­do*7*1*3*3*5*9*-4*6

10.San Juan Jabloteh*6*1*2*3*2*9*-7*5

11. Cunu­pia FC*4*0*1*3*3*7*-4*1

SOURCE: T&T Guardian