Malick edges Mucurapo

Clauzel, who thrilled fans with his clever dribbling for Mucurapo in 1977 and '78, and Figaro, were members of the school's coaching staff. They replaced Ron La Forest, who opted to return to his old school Belmont to try and take them back to the Championship Division after they were demoted two years ago.

However, their knowledge of the game had little impact on the players as the majority of them, as well as those on the Malick side, suffered from first-time jitters. Faith would have it that Seon Jack, a forward who made little or no contribution before he was substituted, netted the lone goal in the 54th minute.

Lurking in or around the edge of the area on the right flank, Seon pounced on a loose ball that came across the face of the Mucurapo goal to slam a low shot past the outstretched hands of lanky goalkeeper Daurance Williams.

Even after the goal Seon was like "Jack in the Box" fumbling most of the balls he received, and was neither penetrative, until he was substituted 20 minutes later by Kareem Allard.

Mucurapo squandered a golden opportunity to take the lead in the 35th minute when Anton Joseph rifled a penalty against the crossbar.

The penalty was awarded by referee Marere Gonzales when defender Carlton Harris bulldozed forward Sean Andrews to the pitch on the fringe of the box.

With five minutes left in the match Mucurapo almost clinched the equaliser, but Adrian Cedeno, running in on the blind-side of the Malick defence, put a volley overbar from inside the six-yard box.

Although Malick won the match they were not impressive. Instead of trying to play the ball to foot against the lanky back four of Calvin Garcia, Michael Allert, Akil Weekes and Paul Pantin, they insisted on playing the air-ball and were constantly beaten to it.