The final going down is now shaping up in the Barbados Football Association’s Digicel Premier League, after some extremely intriguing results last Sunday night.
It all sets up an interesting climax to the 2014 season.
Barbados Defence Force Sports Programme (BDFSP) made their desire of reclaiming the Premiership abundantly clear by completely dismissing Magnum Tonic Wine Dayrells Road 10-1, in a result not even the great diehard BDF fans saw coming.
Righ on the heels of the champs, Mackeson Brittons Hill remained within contention with a 3-0 blanking of Direct TV Paradise, while Pinelands’ impressive second-round form was brought to an end after they went down 4-1 to Pride of Gall Hill.
BDFSP were led by captain Mario Harte, who regained top spot in the goal scorers department after scoring an amazing seven of his team’s ten goals.
Harte moved to 20 goals in the league, after scoring in the 2nd, 7th, 15th, 28th, 30th, 57th and 62nd minutes. He was well assisted by fellow forwards Jamal Chandler (50th), Rashad Jules (80th) and Jamal Alleyne (92nd).
Fantastic season
Romel Bynoe was the lone goal scorer for Dayrells Road, converting in the 21st minute.
Mackeson Brittons Hill finally remembered how to score goals. After going three games without finding the net, they romped to a 3-0 half time lead and never looked back.
Zidkigah Samuels’ fantastic season continued as he opened the scoring in the 30th minute. Towering forward Travis Coppin doubled the score in the 42nd minute and strike partner Walton Burrowes completed the scoring just before half-time.
Pride of Gall Hill, with new coach Tony Hall at the helm, featured a number of fresh, new faces who quickly blended in to the Gall Hill style of play.
Pinelands, too, had a number of personnel changes but, unlike Gall Hill, theirs seemed less comfortable, particularly in the backline.
Gall Hill took advantage of the defensive inexperience of Pinelands in the 15th minute.
Shaquille “Zuka’” Boyce went by two defenders in the area and as custodian Haldane Payne came charging out, Boyce, with a cheeky flick with the outside of the right boot, placed the ball into the left-hand corner.
Before Pinelands could have settled and formulate a plan to respond, they found themselves two goals down. A defender was adjudged by the referee to have handled the ball inside the area after a ball was lofted in the area.
Jabarry “Papi” Chandler, with a short run blasted his right-foot effort high into the nets, for a 2-0 lead in the 18th minute.
The long break in between matches seemed to have affected Pinelands more than it did their opponents as they lacked the sharp, zesty and agile movements they displayed since the beginning of the second round.
Due to a lack of these qualities they went down 3-0 in the 31st minute. Kadeem Latham, with loads of space on the left-hand side, received a pass just on the edge of the area, took a touch to prepare his shot and executed a well taken left-foot drive into the far corner.
Pinelands managed to pull one back just on the stroke of half-time.
A goal mouth melee occurred and as luck would have it, the ball fell perfectly to Arantes Lawrence, who made no mistake from close range to notch his 18th goal of the season.
It was just the medicine needed to rejuvenate this Pine side and they took this momentum into the second half, for within in five minutes they cut the deficit down to one goal.
Obvious tug
Lawrence again was the saviour. A cross from the right found Lawrence and, with his predatory instinct, found the back of the net to make the score 3-2 to create an interesting 40 minutes of football.
Gall Hill Knocked the wind out of Pinelands’ sail in the 57th minute when Chandler converted his second and Gall Hill’s fourth in a rather contentious fashion.
What seemed like an obvious tug on the defender by Chandler was missed by the referee and Chandler went on to score his one versus one opportunity to the anguish of the Pineland’s coaching staff and supporters.
Pinelands were dealt a further blow when Lawrence was forced out of the game after what seemed to be an injury to his back.
Over at Emmerton, Pharmaceutical Plus Cosmos registered their first win of the second round, defeating Claytons Kola Tonic Notre Dame 1-0, courtesy a 60th minute free kick by Maradonna Lavine.
