Brave Performance Shows Our Progress Despite Defeat
On Sunday the 18th of May we took on Roaring Lions in a top four clash at REGTC. Earlier on in the season we succumbed to a heavy 9-0 defeat against our opponents, but we knew that on this occasion we would provide them with a much stiffer test due to how much we have progressed and improved throughout this campaign! Despite going down to a 2-0 defeat in this game we certainly made Lions work very hard for their three points!
In all fairness, Lions started the game at a blistering pace and after going close to opening the scoring in the 3rd minute when their effort at goal was cleared off the line by Delani Francis, they went on to take the lead just four minutes later when Tarique Jackson scored at the far post. Things got worse for us on 13 minutes when Lions doubled their advantage through Raynel Martin!
At this point we were working very hard to get back into the game, but we could just not do anything to disrupt Lions attacking play. On 16 minutes, our talented young goalkeeper Shemor Browne denied Lions a third goal by tipping a shot over the bar and two minutes later he spread himself superbly to produce a save in a 1 v 1 situation. In the 22nd minute Shemor made it a hat-trick of amazing saves when he somehow kept out another Lions attempt at point blank range! This period of fine goalkeeping seemed to have a positive effect on the rest of the team as we then produced our first effort at goal on 27 minutes, a Javis Jones shot which went over the bar and a minute later Jordan Deans provided a first attempt on target.
On a defensive note, we were now repelling any attacks from Lions and the remainder of the first half went by without too much goalmouth action.
The second half started how the first half had ended with no attempts at goal from either side of any note. This passage of play continued until the 62nd minute when a mad scramble in our penalty area ended with Lions shooting wide of the goal. Five minutes later Jordan Deans produced a shot on target for us which was comfortably saved, and Lions then went up the other end of the field and created a 1 v 1 situation which ended with them shooting wide.
The final action of any note came in the 78th minute when a good move on our right wing culminated in Kemari Gumbs delivering a dangerous looking cross which was well caught by the goalkeeper.
So, the game ended in a defeat which of course is always disappointing but there were plenty of positives to take into the final two games of the regular season, a season where we are guaranteed to finish in 4th position which is a tremendous achievement!
Uprising Line Up:
18) Shemor Browne, 2) Joel Orosco, 7) Delani Francis, 19) Leon Whyle, 31) Thierry Amorsinh, 4) Jaiden Fleming, 12) Jordan Deans, 16) Kemari Gumbs, 24) Javis Jones (c),10) Cardinae Rennie, 13) Zion Sylvester
Subs: 34) Kenan Lloyd, 5) Tre Gumbs, 6) Denny Derrick, 8) Matthew Brown