Nigel Si­mon

Na­tion­al goal­keep­er Mar­vin Phillip pulled off two stun­ning penal­ty-kick saves as bmo­bile Joe Pub­lic downed De­fence Force 3-0 on penal­ty-kicks af­ter a 1-1 draw to lift its first ever First Cit­i­zens Cup at Mar­vin Lee Sta­di­um, Ma­coya on Sat­ur­day night. The East­ern Li­ons had reached the fi­nal the last two years with­out com­plet­ing the job, in­clud­ing a 1-0 loss to De­fence Force in last year's de­cider. How­ev­er, af­ter falling be­hind to a clever De­von Jorsling sec­ond-half item, Joe Pub­lic got an equalis­er from de­fend­er Car­lyle Mitchell be­fore Phillip came up trumps in the penal­ty shoot-out. De­fence Force was ex­pect­ed to come in­to the con­test the fresh­er of both teams as the East­ern Li­ons were com­ing off a 4-1 loss in the Con­ca­caf Cham­pi­on League to MLS Club, Colum­bus Crew on Thurs­day at the same venue.

But Joe Pub­lic showed lit­tle ef­fect from that en­counter and start­ed the bet­ter of the two teams with vice-cap­tain, Trent Noel hit­ting the post with­in five minute with goal­keep­er Kevin "Barthez" Gra­ham beat­en.

While the ac­tion on the field failed to keep the fans in­ter­est­ed for the open­ing 45 min­utes, just as the sec­ond-half was about to kick of a fire­works dis­play at the near­by Fire­One com­pound lit up the night sky and seemed a pre­view to the ac­tion that was about to take place. Just about the same time the fire­works dis­play was wind­ing down, De­fence Force strik­er Jorsling lit up his team when he latched on­to a through ball and lobbed the ad­vanc­ing Phillip for a 1-0 lead in the 63rd minute.

Jorsling, who was hope­ful of a vic­to­ry to re­ward his in­jured team-mate Kevon Carter (bro­ken leg) who was on hand to wit­ness the clash, then had two oth­er chances to put the match out of Joe Pub­lic's reach but he failed to beat Phillip while sub­sti­tute Ker­ry Joseph al­so wast­ed an open­ing.

The missed ef­forts came back to haunt De­fence Force as Mitchell, who was pushed up­field as his team hunt­ed an equalis­er, drew his team lev­el with 11 min­utes left in the match. Un­marked in the penal­ty-area, Mitchell head­ed pow­er­ful past Gra­ham from a pin-point Hay­den Tin­to, left foot­ed cross. The De­fence Force cus­to­di­an re­deemed him­self a few min­utes lat­er when he tipped over a sting­ing vol­ley from Noel fol­lowed by a close range shot from sub­sti­tute Yu Hoshide to keep his team in the match. In the shoot-out, Joe Pub­lic got off to the worst pos­si­ble start as Noel crashed his right foot­er off the cross­bar, how­ev­er Jorsling dragged his left foot­ed at­tempt for De­fence Force wide of the mark as well. An­dre Tou­s­saint then con­vert­ed to put the East­ern Li­ons ahead 1-0 which was pre­served when Phillip blocked out Ron­dell El­cock's at­tempt for the Teteron Boys.

Mitchell then scored for Joe Pub­lic be­fore Phillip flung him­self low to his right to keep out Ak­lie Ed­wards third ef­fort for De­fence Force for a 2-0 score­line af­ter three kicks each. Japan­ese im­port, Hoshide then stepped and sealed vic­to­ry for his club with a cool fin­ish to Gra­ham's left to spark of wild cel­e­bra­tions. Speak­ing af­ter the match, an elat­ed Joe Pub­lic coach Derek King had lots of praise for his play­ers. "It was a tough week. Hav­ing to play the Con­ca­caf Cham­pi­ons League match on Thurs­day and then come back two days lat­er and put up a grit­ty per­for­mance like that was just fan­tas­tic." The Joe Pub­lic coach who led the team to five ti­tles last sea­son be­lieves the ex­pe­ri­ence of the Cham­pi­ons League played a key role in his team's tri­umph. "I think the team has grown this sea­son by com­pet­ing in the Con­ca­caf tour­na­ment," he said.

In­di­vid­ual awards

Most Valu­able Play­er: Car­lyle Mitchell (Joe Pub­lic) - $1,000

Most Goals: Ker­ry Bap­tiste (Joe Pub­lic) & Gayson Gre­go­ry (Joe Pub­lic) - $1,000

Win­ning Coach: Derek King (Joe Pub­lic) - $1,000