A 65th-minute penal­ty from Jo­evin Jones en­sured that T&T's So­ca War­riors shared the points with Mar­tinique in their open­ing match of the CON­CA­CAF Na­tions League at the Stade Pierre Alik­er Sta­di­um in Mar­tinique on Fri­day night.

The So­ca War­riors, wound­ed af­ter a 1-0 loss to St Vin­cent and the Grenadines re­cent­ly, ap­peared strength­ened by the re­cruit­ment of speedy Canadian-based mid­field­er Ryan Telfer who was on de­but. But in the first half though, they could not stop the home team from tak­ing the ad­van­tage, fol­low­ing a pe­ri­od of dom­i­nance in pos­ses­sion in the 40th minute. From a left side cor­ner, Cyril Man­dou­ki ben­e­fit­ted from a de­flect­ed ef­fort that fell nice­ly in his path, to fire past goal­keep­er Mar­vin Philip for a 1-0 lead.

And de­spite re­lent­less at­tacks in the mo­ments that fol­lowed, the home team could on­ly main­tain their ad­van­tage at the half-time in­ter­val.

Af­ter the break, the home team sought to con­tin­ue their dom­i­nance ear­ly, and it was on­ly a des­per­ate clear­ance by Daneil Cyrus from a Stephone Aboul right-side cross reach­ing the dan­ger­ous legs of goalscor­er Man­dou­ki in the area. Lat­er in the 53rd minute, the home team should have in­creased their ad­van­tage.

This time Aboul, put through on the right side, de­liv­ered per­fect­ly for Yann Thi­man to fire an un­con­trolled shot over the cross­bar.

But Den­nis Lawrence's men came to life in the 59th minute, when Kevin Moli­no and Mar­cus Joseph ex­changed pass­es on the right side, and the lat­ter with a clear shot at goal, turned it wide of the post.

Telfer, how­ev­er, was the ar­chi­tect of the T&T equal­iz­er from the penal­ty spot. The mid­field­er ex­hib­it­ed blind­ing speed to get past his mark­er down the right flank, be­fore re­leas­ing to Shel­don Bateau in­side the area. But be­fore Bateau could have got­ten an at­tempt at goal, de­fend­er Am­broise Fe­licitet stormed in to sweep his legs from un­der him, caus­ing the ref­er­ee to point to the penal­ty spot.

Jo­evin Jones then stepped up and beat Loc Chou­vet in the Mar­tinique goal for the equal­iz­er.

Telfer with an­oth­er surg­ing run down the left side was hacked down in the area a sec­ond time in the 70th minute, but this time the ref­er­ee waved play-on.

In time added on, Mar­tinique al­most clinched the win when Ro­mario Barthel­ery turned nice­ly in the box from a feed by Ar­naud Huygues, but his curl­ing left-foot­er crashed against Phillip's up­right, be­fore go­ing to the safe­ty.

Teams

Trinidad & Tobago: 1.Marvin Phillip (GK); 2.Aubrey David, 4.Sheldon Bateau (capt), 5.Daneil Cyrus, 17.Ross Russell Jr (16.Alvin Jones 71), 19.Kevan George, 23.Leston Paul, 3.Joevin Jones (11.Levi Garcia 71), 10.Kevin Molino, 7.Ryan Telfer (20.Jomal Williams 76), 15.Marcus Joseph.

Unused substitutes: 21.Glenroy Samuel (GK), 22.Adrian Foncette (GK), 6.Keston Julien, 8.Andre Fortune Jr, 9.Jameel Perry, 12.Carlyle Mitchell, 13.Judah Garcia, 14.Daniel Carr, 18.Nathaniel Garcia.

Coach: Dennis Lawrence.

Martinique: 1.Loic Chauvet (GK); 22.Romario Barthelery, 3.Ambroise Felicitet, 21.Sebastien Cretinor (capt), 2.Yordan Thimon; 19.Daniel Herelle, 15.Cyril Mandouki (5.Karl Vitulin 78); 10.Julio Donisa (6.Thierry Catherine 84), 12.Johnny Marajo, 20.Stephane Abaul, 14.Yann Thimon (17.Montabord Rene-Charles 78).

Unused substitutes: 16.Amaud Des Etages (GK), 23.Stephane Michalet (GK), 4.Gerald Dondon, 7.Andy Cesar, 8.Jordy Delem, 9.Marvin Bellance, 11.Andy Mamy, 13.Christof Jougon.

Coach: Mario Bocaly.

Highlights - Relive the Joevin Jones’s penalty kick giving Trinidad the draw