The 2010 Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) officially ends today with the re-scheduled BG T&T “Big Five” final between St Augustine Secondary’s “Green Machine” and St Anthony’s College’s “Tigers” from 5 p.m. at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Port of Spain.
Before that contest, Debe High School will tackle Roxborough Secondary from 3 p.m. in the Girls InterCol finale. Debe will look to keep their unbeaten tag intact for the third season running.
On Tuesday, Debe edged Roxborough 1-0 on a Kayla Taylor seventh minute goal and they will be looking to repeat and complete their third successive clean sweep of titles.
Roxborough, however, will be looking for revenge and a share of the national silverware when they again travel to Trinidad for the final.
In the eagerly-awaited boys Big Five final, which was postponed last month because of a problem with securing venues, St Anthony’s and St Augustine will be looking to overcome their InterCol disappointments with National League victory.
St Augustine beat Naparima College 3-1 to get to the final, but were dethroned as East Zone InterCol kings with a 3-2 loss to Arima North Secondary.
St Anthony’s were unbeaten in securing the North Zone and trounced Signal Hill Secondary 3-0. But the Tobago team repaid the favour with a 4-2 whipping of the Tigers en route to the InterCol title.
St Augustine
St Augustine have been busy trying to iron out the vulnerabilities that led to their defeat by Arima. They had two practice matches against WASA FC, both of which they lost, but coach Michael Grayson is satisfied that they have achieved their goals.
“The loss wasn’t important,” Grayson told the Express yesterday. “What we wanted to correct, we got most of what we wanted to get done.”
St Augustine saw St Anthony’s first encounter with Signal Hill and also beat them in pre-season training, so they have a fair idea about what they will be up against. Despite this fact, Grayson is not expecting an easy match. Still, he is confident in his team’s abilities.
“It’s a final, so no final is going to be easy, so we think we have covered most of the bases but it’s what you do on the day (that will decide the outcome).”
He is adamant that having lost the East InterCol crown, his team will be looking for nothing but a win. That victory, and the title, would spell a successful season for St Augustine...and atone for the loss to Arima.
And Grayson was emphatic as usual.
“Only a win would be sufficient redemption,” he concluded.
St Anthony’s
Veteran St Anthony’s coach Nigel Grosvenor is already pleased with his team’s effort this season. He indicated that his team did not quite get the practice he would have liked this week due to persistent rain, but said it gave his players a welcome break.
But a Big Five win will mean a lot to Grosvenor and his boys, as well as the entire school, which has not seen a national title in six years.
“They know where they went wrong (against Signal Hill), they know they were overconfident and they did not push hard (enough). They’re not going to let that happen (again).”
Grosvenor already has his “medal”, which is the enjoyment football fans have gotten from his team’s enterprising, attacking style.
“(St Augustine) have a very good coach, good players, and they are the defending champions. So they know what it’s like to win a national title.
“(The experience of winning) could either work for or against them or for or against us (in terms of being hungry for the title). I hope it’s a case of working for us.”
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