Santa Rosa sneaks into TTSL lead

However the Big Cannons’ new status as league leaders was only made possible as inclement weather in Tobago forced the postponement of the scheduled clash between 1976 Phoenix FC and former league leaders Guaya United.

Guaya’s charge towards the title has been stalked at every juncture by the only other challengers for the title, FC Santa Rosa, and the Arima-based team would feel as though they have gotten a timely upper hand via their one point lead, moving to 50 points with just one match left to be played in the league campaign.

Santa Rosa got its goal yesterday in the 29th minute, ironically from the boot of former Guaya skipper Ryan ‘Fry’ Stewart.

Following the turn of events, Santa Rosa coach Keith Look Loy who had to watch his team’s match from the stands said, “It was important for us to win, we understood that. We knew that a loss or even a draw by Guaya would open the door for us. They didn’t play but our points are on the board. We are hoping that Phoenix would do a job and if we go into the last match on equal terms with them or ahead, then its all there for the taking.”

Look Loy and his assistant Jovan Rochford were serving a one-match touchline ban handed down by the TTSL Disciplinary Committee for verbal abuse of a match official when they lost to Guaya United 3-1 at the Velodrome almost a month ago.

Meanwhile, Guaya United manager Jameson Rigues was disappointed to have their match postponed considering that the Guaya team arrived in Tobago two days in advance of their assignment, demonstrating their intentions to do everything in their power to capture the title.

However the weather was out of their control. “It was really an unexpected situation. We came here in high spirit and tied up all the loose ends but you cannot predict the forces of nature.” he said.

Rigues added, “A lot of spend would have gone in to this trip to one, make the guys comfortable and two, to make sure that everybody acclimatised properly. The players were looking forward to the match up, not even thinking about Santa Rosa but now that it happened the way that it happened we will just got back to the drawing board and reinforce to the players the importance of the next two matches for us.”

Guaya United’s fixture against Phoenix has tentatively been rescheduled to Thursday December 7 meaning that the Green Army would now be required to play two matches in four days, closing off their campaign against the Defence Force at their home ground in Newlands, Guayaguayare on Sunday December 10, the same day that FC Santa Rosa hosts UTT at the Arima Velodrome.

TTSL Results

Club Sando 6-2 Moruga

Cunupia FC 3-1 Bethel FC

FC Santa Rosa 1-0 Police

1976 Phoenix vs Guaya United (postponed)