St Ann's Rangers heaped further misery on Bmobile Joe Public on Friday night as they eliminated the "Eastern Lions" from the Toyota Classic Cup with a 2-1 win at the Larry Gomes Stadium, Malabar.
Public travel to the Dwight Yorke Stadium in Bacolet to face Super League outfit, Angostura 1976 Phoenix, from 4 pm today while the Rangers Pro League side play their own Northern Football Association (NFA) team from 4 pm at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Port of Spain.
It has been a season of wildly contrasting fortunes for Rangers whose coach Anthony Streete was struck with a bottle thrown by one of the club's own supporters during a slow start but stormed to as high as third place before eventually finishing just outside the top six.
Yet Rangers' inconsistencies are laughable when compared to business at Public's Macoya headquarters.
Derek King, who is just 28 and in his first senior team job, is Public's third coach for 2008, while there have been at least as many reshuffles among the playing staff. At their best, Public, under Barbadian Keith Griffith, were the envy of the Caribbean with neat, attacking football.
Yet, they face their first barren season since returning to the Pro League in 2006 and the recent dismissals of Lyndon Andrews, Roen Nelson, Wolry Wolfe and Silas Spann might can hardly help their FA campaign, particularly when Arnold Dwarika and Keyeno Thomas are away on international duty.
Public started okay as Kerry Baptiste and Shane Calderon had decent efforts within the opening half hour. But their luck soured when Calderon and full back Jason Springer succumbed to injury in the first half.
Former national striker Gary Glasgow replaced Calderon but he is a shadow of himself and is yet to score this season. Surely King would have preferred the services of Nelson who, despite some erratic performances, managed 15 goals in all competitions this year. Still, Public went ahead within seconds of the restart as Guyanese striker Gregory Richardson surprised Rangers goalkeeper Shane Mattis with a stinging angled drive that squirmed under his body and into the back of the net.
Public's celebrations were muted and, within three minutes, Rangers benefited from their lack of belief. Devon Modeste must have seen the fear in the eyes of Public keeper Alejandro Figueroa as he measured a long diagonal pass from Coneal Thomas and met it with a sharp volley into the near corner of the net to equalise. Surely something is amiss when the Colombian custodian, who is usually such a precise distributor, regularly fails to hit the target under minimal pressure. Figueroa's dip in form and sombre body language is symptomatic of Public's ranks at the moment.
In the 52nd minute, Figueroa's mood soured further as a free kick from Rangers left back Marvin James took a decisive deflection off a Public defender to put the St Ann's team ahead.
It was always doubtful whether Public had the character to haul themselves back into the game but they did create chances.
Richardson rounded Mattis but, faced by a tight angle, passed the responsibility to Glasgow whose shot was charged down by the recovering Thomas. Glasgow thought he had scored in the 68th minute when he headed over the line after Terrance McAllister flicked on a Baptiste free kick. But a very late offside signal from the referee's assistant checked Public's celebrations.
King had swapped 4-4-2 for 3-4-3 by then as Public forced Rangers on their heels. But they could not find an equaliser and Richardson again wasted a good chance as he blasted over from the edge of the opposing area after being teed up by Carlyle Mitchell.
So Rangers progress to the Classic Cup semi-final while King feels the noose tighten as he turns attention to the FA Trophy. Not that Public's act of regularly dismissing coaches has worked for them thus far.