Last year's Digicel Pro League winner, bmobile Joe Public reclaimed second spot with a match left to play in the season after a 3-1 whipping of Police at the Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva on Saturday night. Following Caledonia AIA's 2-1 win over W Connection on Friday night, the Eastern Lions needed a win to reclaim second spot which carries the other Caribbean Football Union Club Championship spot. Newly crowned league champions, Defence Force which drew 0-0 with San Juan Jabloteh on Friday to cement the title has already secured one of the two qualifying places for the Championship.
At Couva, new Joe Public captain, Trent Noel, who took over the armband from Kerry Baptiste after the latter parted ways with the club earlier in the week, opened the scoring in the tenth minute with a close range effort after Marcus Joseph had his attempt blocked. Six minutes before the interval Keron Clarke came close to equalising, but his effort smashed onto the crossbar with goalkeeper Marvin Phillips beaten before Hayden Tinto made it 2-0 on the stroke of half-time from long distance.
Sayid Freitas reduced the deficit for Police on the hour mark from a free-kick which deflected off a Joe Public player, however within a minute, national Under-20 striker Joseph fired in the third item for Joe Public to secure the win. The three points carried Joe Public 34, one ahead of Caledonia with one match left for each club. In its final match, Joe Public will meet DirecTV North East Stars on Saturday while Caledonia tackles San Juan Jabloteh a day earlier.
Also at Couva on Saturday, FC South End moved off the bottom of the standings with a 1-0 win against St Ann's Rangers courtesy of an Adi Constant goal ten minutes from full-time. The win was only the second of the league campaign for South End, to move to six points, the same as Police but with a better goal-difference. In the day's other match, Leslie "Tiger" Fitzpatrick scored twice for Ma Pau in its come-from-behind 3-1 triumph over Stars at the Larry Gomes Stadium, Malabar to jump to fourth on the standings with 29 points.
CURRENT PRO LEAGUE STANDINGS
Teams P W D L F A Pts
D/Force 17 12 2 3 35 13 38
Joe Public 17 10 4 3 29 21 34
Caledonia 17 10 3 4 27 16 33
Ma Pau 17 8 5 4 24 14 29
W Connection 17 8 4 5 33 13 28
Jabloteh 17 7 6 4 23 11 27
NE Stars 17 7 5 5 28 23 26
Rangers 17 2 4 11 14 33 10
South End 17 2 0 15 10 42 6
Police 17 1 3 13 17 54 6