Fightback and Firepower in Thriller Against Roaring Lions
Attacking football, great goals, great saves, near misses, a sending off; all added together makes for a brilliant game of football which is what occurred in our game against Roaring Lions last night at the Raymond E. Guishard Technical Centre!
The first real chance of the game fell to us in the 7th minute when Kashawn Senior saw his shot sail narrowly over the crossbar. Three minutes later, Lions had their first effort on goal with a good passing move ending with their captain Germain Hughes shooting well wide of the target. In a great period of play, we then went straight up the other end and produced a great passing move of our own; Javis Jones to Kemari Gumbs, to Kashawn, to Cardinae Rennie (Booker), and finally back to Kashawn whose shot was saved.
Both teams then enjoyed good spells of possession before disaster struck in the 21st minute with Lions taking the lead. Germain Huges was put through on goal, but a combination of goalkeeper Shemor Browne and Dajaun ‘SK’ Jacobs thwarted the danger momentarily. Hughes then collected the ball and chipped the ball into the six yards box; in attempting to clear, SK then unfortunately headed the ball into our own net. A cruel way to go 1-0 down, but credit to SK who dusted himself down and played very well for the remainder of the game.
Matters got worse just six minutes later when Lions doubled their lead through a superb finish from Christon Williams high into the roof of the net which, despite his best efforts left Shemor no chance of saving! We were now right up against it and knew that we would have to battle very hard to salvage anything from the game!
In a quiet second period of the first half, we managed to have good periods of possession whilst also thwarting any danger posed by our opponents. You cold see that the lads were starting to regain confidence, and our play was rewarded in the 41st minute when we got back into the mix! The move that made the goal started in our own half when recent signing Isaiah Isaac picked up the ball from a Leon Whyle pass, Isaiah played a lovely one-two with Kashawn before driving forward into the box and shot at goal from a tight angle which was saved, as was his effort on the rebound, thankfully the second rebound fell to Booker who placed the ball into the net from close range! Game on!
We still had to be on guard in defence and before the first half was over, Shemor Browne came to our rescue with some brave goalkeeping which was followed shortly after with SK providing a vital clearance to thwart another Lions attack.
The first few minutes of the second half were quiet with the only attempt on goal coming courtesy of a long-range free kick from Lions being comfortably saved by Shemor. Following that we started to take the game to our opponents! Firstly, a lovely through ball from our skipper Javis Jones who was his usual calm and assured self throughout proceedings, found Booker who did well to round the goalkeeper, but unfortunately the ball beat him out of play before he could shoot at goal. Up next was a passing move down the right which began with Kemari Gumbs finding Isaiah who in turn played the ball to Rushane Brooks. Brooksy beat his man but could only shoot into the side netting from a tight angle. We kept on pushing forward and in the 62nd minute we drew level through what can only be described as an incredible strike from Leon Whyle! The talented Trinidadian took a touch to get the ball out of his feet before unleashing an unstoppable shot from fully 35 yards out which hit the back of the net, beating the keeper all ends up! A goal of the season contender for sure!
Moments after the restart Kashawn was presented with a great chance to put us in the lead, but he could only shoot over the bar. The drama continued and just a minute later, Lions’ player Oliver Walker was sent off for a second bookable offence for a foul on Khaden Caraby. We almost immediately took advantage of our one-man advantage when in the 69th minute, Jordan Deans who was having a good game in the heart of our midfield lobbed an effort onto the roof of the net.
Not surprisingly, due to our opponents being reduced to ten men, we continued to enjoy long periods of possession and looked dangerous whenever we went forward. Leon had a flying volley well saved and then deep into injury time we almost grabbed all three points when Brooksy had his shot saved! Seconds later, the referee signalled the end of a brilliant game of football!