Saints, Green Machine tangle in Malabar
Gregory Trujillo
Published: 21 Oct 2009
Gregory Trujillo
St Mary’s and St Augustine will now be playing their Big Five semifinal of the BG T&T Secondary Schools Football League today at Larry Gomes Stadium in Malabar, and not at Hasely Crawford Stadium in Mucurapo where it was previously scheduled. Kick-off is 4.15 pm.
The shift in venue came as a result of the preparation to the Hasely Crawford Stadium ground for the Concacaf Champion of Champions match between Blink San Juan Jabloteh and CD Marathon of Honduras tomorrow. St Augustine will favour the change in venue more than the Saints since it has played several of its matches there on it way to winning the East Zone title. “I feel the ground will give us a slight advantage, because we have played there several times during the season,” said ‘Gustine’ assistant coach Trevor Elcock. “We feel comfortable on any ground we play on.” Elcock added, “I have real confidence in our squad. The players are dedicated to the job. They train hard and I have a bunch of disciplined players. They are like one family and enjoy what they are doing. Football is on the day and who needs it more.”
Coach of St Mary’s, Jason Edwards believes that he has enough knowledge of the strength and weaknesses of the St Augustine team, which defeated his side 2–0 in a pre-season warm-up match earlier in the year. “We played again them in a pre-season game and had some people look at them,” Edwards pointed out. “I really wasn’t looking at the score. I was trying to develop some of the younger players. “I have also reviewed several games that they played and I am very much aware who their danger men are and the threat that they pose. The Saints line-up will include Renaldo Garcia, who is returning from injury after playing only five matches
“It’s real good to have Garcia back because he provides that extra bit of quality in attack for our team. He’s fast and skilful. While he’s not 100 per cent fit, we know that he will make a valuable contribution at some point of the game. “I think we are very confident. We can represent the zone in the best way we can and we believe we are one of the most consistent teams in the league and we are going to try our best to bring the title back to the North Zone. With regards to the new venue, Edwards said: “The shift in venue has taken away our home advantage. While I’m not happy about it, we’re not going to make any excuses, we’re going to play regardless of the venue.” Meanwhile, dethroned Tobago Zone champion Signal Hill completed its league schedule on 14 points with a convincing 5–0 win over Roxborough in a rescheduled match on Friday in Plymouth. Anderson Taylor and Shondelle Morris spearheaded the Signal Hill attack with a double each. The other goal was scored by Michael Charles.
Results
Tobago Zone
GOODWOOD 1 (Murian Mohammed) vs SCARBOROUGH 6 (Mark Agard 3, Tariq Williams 2, Shannon Sandy)
At Goodwood
SIGNAL HILL 5 (Anderson Taylor 2, Shondelle Morris 2, Michael Charles) vs ROXBOROUGH 0
