W Connection midfielder Hughton Hector bagged a brace to lead his team to a 2-0 shut-out of Neal & Massy Caledonia AIA in their Digicel T&T Pro League encounter at the Larry Gomes Stadium, Malabar on Tuesday night. Going into the match, the Caledonia "Stallions", coming off their triumph in the First Citizens Cup Final, were eager to avenge a 4-2 loss to W Connection in the group stages of the same competition. However, W Connection, despite missing five players due to national team duties at the Pan American Games in Mexico were up to the task and led by Hector once again proved its superiority. As early as the tenth minute, Hector sent a warning when he tested Jamaican goalkeeper Kevin Graham from 30-yards-out with a low shot that forced a fingertip save.
Graham was at work again in the 23rd minute, this time to make a save from right-back Kemuel Rivers.
Five minutes later, Hector finally handed W Connection the lead which it took into the interval with a clever chip over Graham after collecting a pass from Hashim Arcia. Kareem Joseph, who netted both goals in his team's 2-1 win over T&TEC in the First Citizens Cup Final, two weeks ago, had the best real effort against Connection, smashing an effort across the face of goal in the 36th minute after making one of his signature runs on the right side. On the resumption, Caledonia, which was also without five players due to duties with the national Under-22 team in Mexico had hopes of clawing its way back into the match. Within three minutes, however, it found itself down 2-0 when Hector beat Graham from close up after 19-year-old striker Jerrel Britto held up the ball while under pressure from two defenders before weaving a bit to play into Hector who made no mistake.
It was the second time Hector had scored twice against Caledonia after he did the same in the quarterfinal round-robin Group B victory over the "Stallions" with Shahdon Winchester, one of the five players in Mexico and Britto the other scorers. Jamal Gay and Trevin Caesar, both in Mexico netted for Caledonia on that night.
In the night's opener, penalties were the order of the day as former England-based Soca Warriors, Stern John of DirecTV North East Stars and Adams Construction San Juan Jabloteh's Hector Sam scored in a 1-1 draw.
With Brazilian coach Emerson dos Santos Alcântara sitting on the bench in his first match, Stars' John fired Stars into a 1-0 lead with his first league goal and second of the season when he slammed home a penalty past goalkeeper Cleon John, after he was brought down inside the area by defender Jamal Jack.
Despite being forced into a first-half substitution to replace an injured Jason Marcano, Jabloteh tied the score at 1-1 when former Wrexham striker Sam won and converted a penalty past Guyanese goalkeeper Andrew Durrant in the 68th minute. Sam, who was brought down inside the area by the Stars' goalkeeper, was denied by Durrant on an initial kick from the penalty spot; however it was ordered re-taken by referee Rekish Jullipsingh due to movement off the goal-line by Durant, too early. Ten minutes from time Durrant denied Jabloteh from going ahead when he pulled off a one-handed save to deny Sam, who led the attack in the absence of striker Willis Plaza, who has netted five goals so far this season.
TUESDAYS DIGICEL T&T PRO LEAGUE RESULTS
W Connection 2 (Hughtun Hector 28th, 48th) vs Caledonia 0
Jabloteh 1 (Hector Sam 68th pen) vs NE Stars 1 (Stern John 14th pen)
Current standings
Teams P W D L F A Pts
T&TEC 2 2 0 0 5 1 6
W Connection 2 2 0 0 4 1 6
NE Stars 3 1 1 1 3 3 4
Jabloteh 2 0 2 0 4 4 2
Rangers 3 0 1 2 4 8 1
D/Force 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Police 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Caledonia 2 0 0 2 0 3 0
TOMORROW'S MATCHES
Venue: Larry Gomes Stadium, Malabar.
Caledonia vs St Ann's Rangers,
5 pm.
Jabloteh vs T&TEC, 7 pm.
Venue: Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva.
NE Stars vs W Connection, 6 pm
