Midfielder Kareem Young scored in the second-half as defending Digicel Pro League champions, bmobile Joe Public came from behind to edge FC South End at the Marvin Lee Stadium, Macoya on Saturday night. With the win, the Eastern Lion improved to 25 points from 13 matches and climbed to within six points of stuttering leader Defence Force with five matches left to play.
Caledonia is a further point behind after it secured a similar 2-1 win over DirecTV North East Stars at the Larry Gomes Stadium, Malabar in Saturday's other match. With Defence Force (31 points) going under to Ma Pau 1-0 on Friday night for its second straight loss in three matches, Joe Public had a chance to further cut into its once healthy 11-point lead. However, things got off to a poor start for the Eastern Lions as Oswin Williams fired South End into a shock third minute lead.
That lasted until a minute before the interval when national midfielder, Trent Noel equalised for the hosts before Young netted the 67th minute winner to keep his team on the heels of Defence Force heading into the three-week Christmas Holidays break. At Malabar, Akim Armstrong got the go-ahead goal for Caledonia in the 24th minute while Kareem Joseph made it 2-0 in the 83rd minute only for the in-form Anthony Wolfe to get a consolation item for Stars, two minutes later.
Today, W Connection (19 points) will have a chance to move to within a point of fourth placed Ma Pau (23 points) with victory over St Ann's Rangers at the Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva from 6pm. This will be the the final league match before the Christmas Holidays while the League resume on January 7 with a double-header at Mucurapo.
Saturday's Results:
Joe Public 2 (Trent Noel 44th, Kareem Young 67th) vs South End 1 (Oswin Williams 3rd).
Caledonia 2 (Akim Armstrong 24th, Kareem Joseph 83rd) vs North East Stars 1 (Anthony Wolfe 85th).
Today:
W Connection vs Rangers, Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva, 6 pm
Current Pro League Standings
Teams P W D L F A Pts
D/Force 13 10 1 2 28 11 31
Joe Public 13 7 4 2 22 16 25
Caledonia 13 7 3 3 21 12 24
Ma Pau 13 6 5 2 17 9 23
W Connection 12 5 4 3 17 9 19
Jabloteh 13 5 4 4 18 10 19
NE Stars 13 5 4 4 23 19 19
Rangers 12 2 3 7 11 23 9
Police 13 1 2 10 14 42 5
South End 13 1 0 12 9 29 3