St. Vincent and the Grenadines		Trinidad & Tobago

Digicel Cup

Date	Venue	Location	Attendance
2005-01-16	Arnos Vale Ground	Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines	1450

St Vincent edges ‘Soca Warriors’ on smaller field

Trinidad and Tobago moved on to the finals of the Digicel Caribbean Cup despite a 1-0 defeat to St Vincent and the Grenadines in Sunday’s return leg on a smaller Arnos Vale field. T&T advanced 3-2 on aggregate to the Finals in Barbados next February. A 65th penalty conversion by Matthew Forde following a dubious call against defender Atiba Charles. Following a number of missed chances, T&T fell behind when Jamaican referee Raymond Pine adjudged that Charles brought down Renson Haynes from behind when it seemed clear that the Vibe CT 105 W Connection player made contact with the ball. Charles was the last defender in sight but was cautioned rather than being sent off for the alleged offense. Up to Saturday night, the T&T team was given no word on the venue for the match after match commissioner Peter Jenkins of St Kitts/Nevis was yet to make a decision on playing at the Richmond Hill School Ground after officials of the St Vincent FA said it would be impossible to play at Arnos Vale because the turf wicket was under preparations which meant that the dimensions of the playing field would be less than FIFA regulations. But at around 11am on Sunday, T&T manager Richard Braithwaite was informed that the game would go ahead at Arnos Vale as the St Vincent FA indicated that the field would be ready for action. On arrival at the venue, Jenkins was unable to tell the T&T officials what was the dimensions of the field, saying only that it was “a normal field”. Jenkins then told TTFF Media that it was not necessary for such information to be given adding “All I can say is that it is a normal field.” Later on, one of the groundsmen at the venue, an old friend of T&T coach Bertille St Clair, informed him that the dimensions were in fact 98 metres long and 61 metres wide which is outside Law 1 of the game. The law states that the minimum length is 100 metres with the width allowed to be no less than 64 metres. Aside from that, the “Soca Warriors” had themselves to blame for not being at least three goals up by half time. Glen had an effort deflected back to him close to the six yard box but lost his balance and hit the rebound inches wide in the 12th minute. Six minutes later, the speedy front man outpaced his marker on the left of the box after being picked out by Leslie Fitzpatrick, he then cut back in only to see his right footed effort come back into play off the crossbar. St Vincent were intent on playing on the counter at that stage, opting for trying to maintain possession in their half of field before trying the long balls which worked to their advantage on the smaller field. On 32 minutes, Densil Theobald collected in the centre of the opposition’s half and sent a perfect pass, bisecting two players on its way to Glen on the left but his effort narrowly went over the bar. St Vincent skipper Ezra Hendrickson went close twice before the break before Glen again missed a sitter when Pierre set up a one on one with the goalkeeper but the Metrostars man got a weak shot saved from near the six yard. Matthew Charles’ free kick went wide of the right post soon after the second half kicked off. The teams struggled to create much chances for the opening quarter of the second half. Pierre swung one over from the right, forcing Melvin Andrews to push over and then substitute Angus Eve played down for Glen who shot inches wide on the turn. Eve also had a header just miss the near left post. Then came the dubious penalty decision which allowed “Vincey Heat” to go 1-0 up to the delight of the 1,000 odd fans at the venue. Gary Glasgow replaced Glen in the 34th minute but the China-based striker struggled to settle as the Vincentians played out the remaining minutes to hold on to their slender lead.

LINEUP
	Daurance Williams
	David Charles 65 '
	Derek King (capt.) 25 '
	Anton Pierre
	Marlon Rojas
	Leslie Fitzpatrick
	Kerwin Jemmott
	52' Angus Eve
	Anthony Rougier
	88' Cyd Gray
	Densill Theobald
	Cornell Glen
	80' Gary Glasgow
	Nigel Pierre
SUBSTITUTES
	Cyd Gray
	Angus Eve
	Gary Glasgow
COACH
	Bertille St. Clair
SUBSTITUTIONS
52'	Angus Eve for Kerwin Jemmott
80'	Gary Glasgow for Cornell Glen
88'	Cyd Gray for Anthony Rougier
YELLOW CARDS
25'	Derek King
65'	David Charles