St Clair’s Coaching School will now be eyeing a place in the Digicel Pro League, after making a clean sweep in the Tobago Football Association. The Bertille St Clair-coached unit completed the treble on Sunday the hard way, going right down to the wire in beating First Division champion Lambeau 3-1 on penalties in the Community Cup final at Dwight Yorke Stadium, Bacolet. St Clair opened the scoring in the 17th minute through Keon Boucher, who side-footed a shot to beat Lambeau goalkeeper Daron Douglas.
St Clair’s continued to dominate after the goal but squandered numberous chances. Lambeau took full advantage of the missed opportunities and equalised in the 38th minute through Arthur Moses. The goal resulted from a free kick about 35 yards out which Moses hit with the outside of his right foot, the ball hitting the underside of the bar before entering the net. Lambeau went ahead through Delon Dennis in the 80th minute. A mix-up between defenders Denzil James and Kerion Duncan allowed him all the room in the world to get his shot past ‘keeper Nicholas Roberts.
At that stage, St Clair’s was down to ten men, as James, their sweeper, was ejected with a straight red card for a dangerous tackle 15 minutes earlier. St Clair got the vital goal in the 88th minute when Dareem Moore scored with a header from a right-sided cross. In the resulting penalty shootout, St Clair’s managed to net three times to Lambeau’s once. The scorers for St Clair were Keon Boucher, Brandon Joseph and Kerron Duncan. Goalkeeper Roberts was the hero in the shootout, saving three of the four Lambeau penalties.
Lambeau coach Wayne Clarke commented after the match that his players had nothing left after playing 90 minutes plus overtime. “At that stage of the game, the concentration of my players went ragged. They had nothing left in them.” “I was really proud of the guys though, “ he added.
“We played the game we wanted to play, the open and attacking game. The real winners of the final was football. The two teams just put on a great performance. The only losers were those who did not attend... Congratulations to Coaching School. They had a great season and the game was a fitting climax to their season.”
George Joseph, the manager of Coaching School, said: “In a Cup final anything could happen but my players... were able to overcome, although being a man down, to secure victory. “What was satisfying before the start of the season we had earmarked to win all the trophies in Tobago and we accomplished that.
“Our next quest is to move to the next level by getting into the Pro League. We are hoping that the application goes well and we are able to play in the Pro League to expose our players to the national selectors and to play at a higher level.” St Clair’s received $12,000 for the victory to added to the $40,000 for winning the Premiership title and $20,000 for emerging FA Trophy champion. In the thrid- and fourth-place playoff, Roxborough Lakers humilated Signal Hill, winning the match 7-1, after leading 4-0 at halftime. Kern Harris led the scoring with a hat-trick. Afiba McKenna got a double and Glenroy Frederick and Grevon Crooks one each.