Queen’s Park and Defence Force booked places in the semifinal round of the bmobile National Super League knockout competition with contrasting wins on Sunday. The Teteron Boys, beaten in the final last year by the T&T Under-20 team, eked out a 1-0 win over hosts and current league leaders, bmobile Joe Public at the Marvin Lee Stadium, Macoya. Sterling O’Brien was the hero with a 61st minute strike, setting up a semifinal clash on Sunday with the winners of the M&M Harvard and Economy Strikers encounter which takes place tonight at Macoya from 7 pm.
The Parkites needed only five minutes to put their player advantage to use when substitute Maurice Simpson reduced the deficit to 3-2 and with ten minutes left, Jason “Travis” Charles fired in the equaliser to send the match into penalty kicks. Meanwhile, the T&T Football Federaion Disciplinary Committee headed by Lennox Watson, first vice-president of the T&TFF, ruled on Saturday to award Economy Strikers the win over WASA. On Wednesday, WASA and Strikers were locked at 8-8 in sudden-death penalty-kicks after a 2-2 draw in their round-of-16 clash when goalkeeper Douglas Mc Neily refused to take his position in goal for Strikers’ tenth kick on goal at WASA Ground, St Joseph.
The WASA goalkeeper cited poor lighting as his excuse and refused to return to his postition despite being told by referee Gregory Lewis, who after consultation with his assistant referees called off the match. A match report was then submitted to the league officials who forwarded the matter to the Disciplinary Committee. The winners of the knockout competition will collect $35,000 while the runner-up gets $15,000.
Sunday’s quarterfinal results
Defence Force 1 (Sterling O’Brien 62nd) vs Joe Public 0.QPCC 3 (Chike Phillip 10th, Maurice Simpson 75th, Jason Charles 80th) vs Club Sando 3 (Andy London 4th, 43rd Marlon Lewis 11th).
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