Sam's double pushes Army closer to title

Play­ing in the sec­ond match of a dou­ble-head­er on a very hot and hu­mid evening at the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um, Cou­va, the Army/Coast Guard com­bi­na­tion, which last won the Pro League crown in the 2012/2013 sea­son their third in the com­pe­ti­tion's 20-year his­to­ry went ahead as ear­ly as the third minute via Aaron Lester.

The Law­men who have al­ready claimed the First Cit­i­zens Cup so far this sea­son hard­ly had time to try and re­cov­er from the ear­ly set­back when Sam, the youngest broth­er of ex-Eng­land-based T&T strik­er Hec­tor Sam made it 2-0 in the fourth minute.

Nine min­utes be­fore the half-time the ram­pant De­fence Force line-up boast­ing their next gen­er­a­tion of strik­ers as vet­er­an De­vorn Jorsling, the league's all-time lead­ing scor­er with 155-plus goals edges to­wards the end of his ca­reer, vir­tu­al­ly put the match to rest when Dwight Quin­tero made it 3-0.

On the re­sump­tion, Po­lice FC need­ed to score the next goal in the match if they har­boured any hopes of mount­ing a come-back and Eli­jah Bel­grave pro­vid­ed that hope by scor­ing in the 56th minute.

But, that joy was short-lived as with­in three min­utes when Sam fired in his sec­ond on the night and De­fence Force's fourth.

With the com­fort­able lead, De­fence Force then coast­ed the rest of the half to push their points tal­ly to 41 from 16 match­es, nine more than sec­ond-placed Ter­minix La Hor­quet­ta Rangers who have to 32 points from 16 match­es.

This af­ter na­tion­al winger Ross Rus­sell Jr net­ted the 82nd-minute item to earn Rangers a 1-0 win over Tiger Tanks Club San­do at the Lar­ry Gomes Sta­di­um, Mal­abar.

With four match­es left each for the top two clubs, De­fence Force needs on­ly to win two of their match­es to add to their ti­tle tri­umphs or for Rangers to fal­ter in two match­es as well.

In Sun­day's first match at Cou­va, for­mer St An­tho­ny's Col­lege Sec­ondary Schools Foot­ball League stand-outs, Cen­tral FC's Che Paul Ben­ny (40th) and Cunu­pia FC's Xavier Ra­j­paul (54th), both scored from their penal­ty-spot in their team's 1-1 draw.

Full Results

Saturday March 7

Point Fortin Civic 1 (Tyrel Emmanuel 41) v Morvant Caledonia United 0, 6pm, Mahaica Oval

Sunday March 8

Club Sando 0 v La Horquetta Rangers 1 (Ross Russell Jr, 82), 3:30pm, Larry Gomes Stadium

Central FC 1 (Ché Raul Benny 40-Pen) v Cunupia FC 1 (Xavier Rajpaul 54-Pen), 4pm, Ato Boldon Sta­di­um

Defence Force 4 (Aaron Lester 3, Brent Sam 4, 59, Dwight Quintero 36) v Police FC 1 (Elijah Belgrave 56), 6pm, Ato Boldon Sta­di­um

Lat­est Team Stand­ings

P  W  D  L  F  A  GD  Pts
1  Defence Force FC 16 13 2 1 31 13 +18 41
2  La Horquetta Rangers 16 10 2 4 44 18 +26 32
3  Point Fortin Civic 16 7 4 5 21 22 -1 25
4  W Connection 15 7 3 5 25 20 +5 24
5  Morvant Caledonia United 16 6 6 4 20 19 +1 24
6  Police FC 17 6 5 6 29 22 +7 23
7  Club Sando 17 5 5 7 24 21 +3 20
8  San Juan Jabloteh 16 4 4 8 20 31 -11 16
9  Central FC 17 3 5 9 17 30 -13 14
10  AC Port of Spain 16 3 4 9 18 37 -19 13
11  Cunupia FC 16 2 6 8 14 30 -16 12

Upcoming Matches.

Tuesday March 10

AC Port of Spain v San Juan Jabloteh, 6pm, Hasely Crawford Stadium

Wednesday March 11

Central FC v Point Fortin Civic, 6pm, La Horquetta Recreational Ground

La Horquetta Rangers v Morvant Caledonia United, 8pm, La Horquetta Recreational Ground

W Connection v Cunupia FC, 6pm, Ato Boldon Sta­di­um

Defence Force v Club Sando, 6pm, Hasely Crawford Stadium