Drama, Controversy, and Glory: Uprising’s First Point against Docs!
Wow, what a game of football! This game had everything! Four goals, tough tackling, near misses, controversy, you name it, these ninety minutes of football had it all, and culminated in us recording an historic result!
The game started in the worst possible way when we fell a goal behind after just 2 minutes when the former Uprising player Jauron Gayle broke free of our defence, bore down on goal and shot past Shemor Browne into the far corner!
Despite the early set back we responded excellently and just two minutes later after some great build up play, our midfield maestro Leon Whyle delivered a powerful shot from 25 yards out which was well saved by Micah Brooks in the Docs goal!
On 14 minutes, Gayle for Doc’s tried to break clear of our defence again, but this time was thwarted by excellent defending by Delani Francis and Thierry Amorsinh who both tracked his run to deny him a clear goal scoring opportunity! Six minutes later we had a huge let off when this time Gayle hit the post! This seemed to galvanise the lads and on 24 minutes a beautiful through ball from Tre Gumbs (aka ‘The Architect’) found Cardinae Rennie through on goal! Unfortunately, Cardinae was just beaten to the ball by Brooks who thwarted the danger! Moments later we had Shemor Browne to thank for denying Sylvanus James with a good save and again just seconds later from the resulting corner!
It was Shemor to the rescue again in the 29th minute with a remarkable double save! First, he saved a close range free-kick from Docs and then got up quickly to push the ball to safety, diving bravely at the feet of a Docs player – excellent goalkeeping!
The game was paused for a lengthy period just after the half hour mark when an accidental clash of heads between Leon and the Docs player Sylvanus James resulted in both players going down injured. This was a nasty looking incident but after receiving treatment both players thankfully were able to continue.
We got back on level terms in the 38th minute! Good work from Asharn Hodge at the back starting the move when he passed the ball to Kemari Gumbs. Kemari in turn found Tre, Kemari continued his run down the right flank with Tre chipping the ball back to him. Kemari was in acres of space, and he sprinted towards goal, expertly passing the ball past Brooks to make it 1-1 – a brilliantly worked goal! Just two minutes later we again had Shemor to thank for preventing Docs from scoring when he rushed from his line to deny Jose Torres from shooting at goal! In what was an amazing period of play we then broke up the other end and Kemari almost put us ahead with a shot that went narrowly wide of the near post! Soon after, the referee blew his whistle to signal the end of a great half of end-to-end football!
The first action of the second half saw Jose Torres shooting over the bar for Docs which was followed by a quiet ten minutes before we had our first two efforts at goal of the second period, a Leon Whyle shot that was blocked and a long-range strike from Jordan Deans which went well wide of the target.
In the 59th minute, good work from Leon found Tre with a good shooting opportunity on the edge of the box but he could only shoot straight at the keeper. Docs went up the other end of the pitch which resulted in James shooting straight at Shemor. Three minutes later, a great ball over the top of the Docs defence from Nathaniel Gumbs put Cardinae ‘Booker’ Rennie through on goal, with his shot from the edge of the box being well saved by Brooks.
The most controversial moment of the game came in the 69th minute. Docs were awarded a free kick, but before they took it the 4th official had signalled that we wanted to make a substitution. Naturally, our lads stopped for the substitute to be made only for Jermaine Rickets to take the free kick with the ball sailing into an unguarded net! Despite our demonstrations, the goal stood which meant we had to roll our sleeves up and try to get back on level terms for a second time in the game, and so we did! Just five minutes later, Jordan found Tre who floated in a first time cross to the far post which was met by Kemari who slotted the ball home. Wild celebrations followed in the stands and on the pitch with the game being all square again!
Following our second goal of the game, both teams had decent spells of possession with half chances being created. We had to withstand some late Docs pressure as the game went into time added on and we stood up to that pressure admirably by playing with pride and passion for the Uprising shirt! The referee then blew his final whistle which meant we had recorded our first ever point against Docs United! A fantastic team performance with every player a hero!
Uprising Line Up:
18) Shemor Browne, 3) Asharn Hodge ( c ), 7) Delani Franics, 11) Nathaniel Gumbs, 19) Leon Whyle, 31) Thierry Amorsinh, 4) Jaiden Fleming (13, Zion Sylvester – 72,) 5) Tre Gumbs (2, Joel Orosco – 85,) 8) Jordan Deans, 16) Kemari Gumbs, 10) Cardinae Rennie
Unused Subs: 34) Kenan Lloyd, 6) Denny Derrick, 12) Matthew Brown, 27) Adrian Smith