Army stops Central FC 2-1

Go­ing in­to the match on the back of their first loss to Mor­vant Cale­do­nia Unit­ed, by a sim­i­lar 2-1 mar­gin on Sat­ur­day, the Army/Coast-Guard com­bi­na­tion was des­per­ate to get back to win­ning ways, with the quar­tet of third-placed Po­lice FC, La Hor­quet­ta Rangers, de­fend­ing cham­pi­ons W Con­nec­tion and Pt Fortin Civic hot on their heels.

How­ev­er, Cen­tral FC, beat­en 2-0 by Rangers al­so on Sat­ur­day, al­so came out with in­ten­tions of pulling off the up­set and took the lead in­side the first two min­utes thanks to for­mer Fin­land-based strik­er Akim Arm­strong.

That lead would last un­til the 22nd minute when Moore drew the "Teteron Men" lev­el for both teams to go in 1-1 at the half-time in­ter­val.

With 12 min­utes left in an even­ly matched sec­ond-half, Moore would net the de­ci­sive item for De­fence Force to pick up a sixth win in nine match­es this sea­son for 20 points, three ahead of reign­ing First Cit­i­zens Cup win­ners' Po­lice FC.

At the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um, Cou­va, Chris­t­ian Thomas al­so scored twice to lead Po­lice FC to a 4-0 ham­mer­ing of W Con­nec­tion.

Thomas opened the scor­ing in the tenth minute and added his sec­ond in the 52nd, while Clevon Mc Fee (65th) and Jameel Per­ry (70th), al­so added sec­ond-half strikes to com­plete the dom­i­nant show­ing by coach Richard Hood's men.

In the sec­ond match at La Hor­quet­ta, the star-stud­ded Rangers con­tin­ued their free-scor­ing with a 5-1 trash­ing of Point Fortin Civic led by a dou­ble from Isa­iah Lee.

Lee got things start­ed for Rangers with goals in the third and sev­enth min­utes fol­lowed by Aikim An­drews in the 14th minute for a 3-0 ad­van­tage.

Rangers did not let up their of­fen­sive on­slaught in the first-half with Ju­nior As­soon and Ja­mal Creighton, the league's joint-top scor­er with six goals, adding to the tal­ly in the 27th and 42nd min­utes re­spec­tive­ly for a 5-0 cush­ion at the in­ter­val.

The sec­ond half was much of an an­ti-cli­max for the home spec­ta­tors as Rangers com­plete­ly lost their way and failed to add to their 20 goals on the sea­son be­fore Daniel Di­az net­ted the 91st-minute con­so­la­tion for Pt Fortin.

Down at the Diego Mar­tin Sport­ing Com­plex, Diego Mar­tin, AC Port-of-Spain added to the strug­gles of coach An­gus Eve and Tiger Tanks Club San­do with a 1-0 tri­umph thanks to Ko­rdell Samuel's 84th-minute win­ner in the open­ing con­test.

And in the night's fea­ture match, na­tion­al youth team play­er and son of for­mer 'Strike Squad' mid­field­er Mar­vin Faustin. Ja­heim Faustin scored in the 78th minute to sal­vage a 1-1 draw for San Juan Jabloteh af­ter Kevon "Show­time" Wood­ley's 50th go-ahead strike for cel­lar-placed Cunu­pia FC.

RELATED NEWS

Defence Force beat Central FC 2-1 to stay on top standings.
By Sherdon Pierre (Newsday).

POLICE FC and Terminix La Horquetta Rangers had whipping victories but Defence Force's narrow 2-1 win against Central FC kept them three points clear on top the TT Pro League standings after round one, match day ten, on Tuesday.

Central FC's Akim Armstrong gave his team the best possible start by opening the scoring in the second minute of play at the La Horquetta Recreation Grounds. The table toppers, Defence Force equalised through Reon More twenty minutes later when he met Brent Sam's header-pass with a classy finish. On the stroke of halftime, Armstrong's bicycle-kick should have been his second goal but returning army goalkeeper Sheldon Clarke made a perfect close-range save to keep the scores leveled at the interval.

The game seemed to be heading for a draw until Moore grabbed his second goal and the eventual winner. The tricky striker cut in from the right wing and neatly finished past the diving goalie Jadel Poon-Lewis.

The visiting Point Fortin Civic team failed to cope with the speedy strikers of La Horquetta Rangers as well as their smaller than usual ground that is perfectly suited to their style of play. Returning from his one game suspension, forward Isaiah Lee greeted an inch-perfect cross with an unstoppable header in the third minute. Four minutes later, Lee got his second with a calmly-finished shot to beat Point Fortin's keeper Stephon Seepersad for the two-nil lead. There was no letting up as in-form attacker Aikim Andrews scored a well-composed goal to further extend the lead to 3-0. Rangers ‘Junior Assoon riffled home his team's fourth goal after a series of attempts on goal in the six-yard box.

Point Fortin's skipper Justin Sadoo tried to rally his troops by giving them some momentum with slick passes but his team-mates weren’t finishing in the business end. To make matters worse, his opposing skipper Jamal Creighton received a one-time pass from Lee and slapped it home far-post beating a helpless Seepersad for a handful of goals within 42minutes.

Despite being five-nil down, the Southerners had a spirited performance creating several chances but couldn't capitalise until substitute Daniel Diaz scored a beautifully chipped goal in the 91st minute to end the game 5-1 in favour of Rangers.

Police FC hammered W Connection four-nil, at the Ato Boldon Stadium, to stay in second place on 17 points, three points behind Defence Force and one point ahead of both Rangers and Morvant/ Caledonia United. Utility player Christian Thomas scored a brace in the (10th,52nd) while Clevon McFee scored in the 65th and Jameel Perry (70th).

AC Port of Spain recorded a late one-nil victory against Tiger Tanks Club Sando, who themselves wish they could have gathered some needed points. Kordell Samuel scored the lone goal in the 84th minute at their home ground, Diego Martin Sporting Complex. In the other match, at same venue, San Juan Jabloteh and Cunupia FC played to a 1-1 draw. Kevon "Showtime" Woodley open the scoring in the 50th minute but Jabloteh tied the game in minute 78 through 15-year-old national youth player Jaheim Faustin.

Tuesday's Full Results

(Tuesday 28 January)

Central FC 1 (Akim Armstrong 2) v Defence Force 2 (Reon Moore 22, 78), 6pm, La Horquetta Recreation Ground;

La Horquetta Rangers 5 (Isaiah Lee 3, 7, Aikim Andrews 14, Junior Assoon 27, Jamal Creighton 42) v Point Fortin Civic 1 (Daniel Diaz 90+1), 8pm, La Horquetta Recreation Ground;

AC Port of Spain 1 (Kordell Samuel 84) v Club Sando 0, 6pm, Diego Martin Sporting Complex;

San Juan Jabloteh 1 (Jaheim Faustin 78) v Cunupia FC 1 (Kevon Woodley 50), 8pm, Diego Martin Sporting Complex;

W Connection 0v Police FC 4 (Christian Thomas 10, 52, Clevon McFee 65, Jameel Perry 70), 6pm, Ato Boldon Stadium.

Standings

Teams*P*W*D*L*GF*GA*GD*Points
1*De­fence Force FC*9*6*2*1*14*9*5*20
2*Po­lice FC*9*5*2*2*17*7*10*17
3*Ter­minix La Hor­quet­ta Rangers*9*5*1*3*25*12*13*16
4*Mor­vant Cale­do­nia Unit­ed*9*4*4*1*11*7*4*16
5*W Con­nec­tion*8*3*3*2*13*10*3*12
6*Point Fortin Civic*8*3*3*2*12*12*0*12
7*San Juan Jabloteh*9*2*4*3*10*14*-4*10
8*AC Port of Spain*9*3*1*5*11*24*-13*10
9*Cen­tral FC*10*2*3*5*9*13*-4*9
10*Tiger Tanks Club San­do*9*1*3*5*7*13*-6*6
11*Cunu­pia FC*9*0*4*5*6*14*-8*4

Leading Scorers

6 - Keion Wil­son (Po­lice FC), Kervile Je­re­mi­ah (Point Fortin Civic), Ja­mal Creighton (La Hor­quet­ta Rangers)

4 - Keron Cum­mings (La Hor­quet­ta Rangers), Rashad Hy­a­centh (AC PoS), Dim­itrie Apai (W Con­nec­tion), Isa­iah Lee (La Hor­quet­ta Rangers),

3 - Shaq­keem Joseph (Club San­do), Sean Bon­val (Cen­tral FC), Aaron Richards (Mor­vant Cale­do­nia United), Ka­reem Fre­itas, Chris­t­ian Thomas (Po­lice FC)

Upcoming Fixtures

(Friday 31 January)

W Connection v Club Sando, 6pm, Ato Boldon Stadium;

San Juan Jabloteh v Police FC, 8pm, Ato Boldon Stadium;

La Horquetta Rangers v Cunupia FC, 7pm, La Horquetta Recreation Ground.

Point Fortin Civic v Defence Force, 7pm, Mahaica Oval.

(Sunday 2 February)

AC Port of Spain v Morvant Caledonia United, 3:30pm, Larry Gomes Stadium;

Central FC - Bye.