Defending Digicel Pro League champion club DirecTV W Connection got off to a disappointing start to its 2014-2015 league campaign on Tuesday night, when coach Stuart Charles-Fevrier's men finished on the wrong end of a 1-0 scoreline against North East Stars at the Ato Boldon Stadium in Round One Match Day Three.
Along with Stars, Central FC and San Juan Jabloteh celebrated unbeaten league outings ahead of Friday's First Citizens Cup semifinal round.
Defending First Citizens Cup champion Central FC will take on Police FC from 6 pm, before North East Stars meets two-time winner San Juan Jabloteh from 8.15 pm at the Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva, for a place in the final on October 31, towards the title and $100,000 winner's prize.
One month ago, Connection edged Central FC 1-0 to successfully defend the Digicel Charity Shield for the second time, but was on the bye in Round One Match Day One of the league while its Round One Match Day Two fixture against rival Central was postponed.
But, on Tuesday, when the "Savonnetta Boys" finally took to the field to begin defence of their title–one of five titles won last season–it was North East Stars that grabbed a 1-0 lead in the 37th minute and never lost grip of the advantage.
Forward Tyrone Charles had the simple task of controlling, with time and space in the six yard area, before hitting past a hapless goalkeeper Jelani Archibald, who initially made a low block-out against an ambitious Kion Joseph strike from distance.
Just as the early period, the Sangre Grande based-North East Stars absorbed every raid by the Connection side that were booted out of the First Citizens Cup by a 2-0 loss against Jabloteh in the quarterfinal round last weekend.
The Stars failed to double the advantage on the hour mark when defender Dwane James, with the goal at his mercy, spilled wide when substitute Keron Cummings' corner fell to him near the back post. And in stoppage time, goal-scorer Charles evaded his marker but was only able to force a low save out of Archibald, who did enough to put the Stars' effort behind for a corner.
Before that, in the 73rd minute, Connection's second half midfield substitute Yefer Steven Lozano was shown a direct red card by referee Rodphin Harris on the advice of first assistant Joseph Bertrand to eject the Columbian for a dangerous play against a Stars' player.
North East Stars climbed to third on the standings, joining second positioned Defence Force and new leaders Central FC with six points each.
In the second match at the Couva venue, Central, led by head coach Zoran Vranes, pulled off a hard-fought 3-1 win over Caledonia AIA.
The "Couva Sharks" went ahead in as early as the 16th minute when midfielder Sean de Silva's deflected strike from just inside the area left little chance to goalkeeper Shemel Louison, who was wrong-sided, for the 1-0 score.
Louison, Grenada's national team goalkeeper, then pulled off a superb one-handed save in the 43rd minute to put behind an Ataullah Guerra free-kick from 22 yards out after a handball was called against Haitian defender Pierre Hitner.
However, Hitner found the back of the Central net in the 57th minute, leveling the score at 1-1, after heading in a Kareem Joseph cross from the left.
Caledonia got close to the lead in the 74th minute but Hayden Tinto's effort was acrobatically kept out by Central second choice goalie and summer signing Akel Clarke.
Moments later, Caledonia again failed to take the lead when Clarke charged down Keyon Edwards' try before Pernell Schultz struck wide off the rebound.
Those misses haunted Caledonia as they later conceded two goals to surrender to a 3-1 defeat.
Central substitute forward Dwight Quintero, free inside the area, controlled a Darren Mitchell cross before blasting into the roof of Louison's netting to restore his side's lead, 2-1.
Then another second half substitute Nathaniel Garcia weaved his way past three Caledonia shirts in the 87th minute before having a go at goal himself, causing problems for Louison, who failed to hold but was rescued by his defence.
It was then in stoppage time that Central found its third item, when at the end of counter-attack involving Kaydion Gabriel and Darren Mitchell, Jason Marcano was supplied a pass inside the area and the attacker, after a couple touches, defeated Louison for the full-time score.
Simultaneously, at the Marvin Lee Stadium, Police celebrated a 3-2 win over St Ann's Rangers.
Utility player Noel Williams scored twice for Police and attacker Marcus Chandool had one to better a goal each by Rangers' Kennedy Isles and Shabaka Mahluli.
Police also had a late penalty but forward Hector Sam was denied by the upright.
In the earlier match of the double-header at the Macoya venue, Jabloteh, undefeated this season, had to settle for a share of the spoils against Point Fortin Civic in a 2-2 draw.
Andell Noray and Jamaican Newton Sterling got the goals for Jabloteh while Andre Toussaint and Marcus Joseph were the scorers for Civic.
results
Round One Match Day Three - Tuesday
San Juan Jabloteh 2 (Andell Noray 23rd, Newton Sterling 75th)
vs Point Fortin Civic 2 (Andre Toussaint 48th, Marcus Joseph 72nd)
Police FC 3 (Noel Williams 50th, 79th, Marcus Chandool 58th)
v St Ann's Rangers 2 (Kennedy Isles 69th, Shabaka Mahluli 84th)
North East Stars 1 (Tyrone Charles 37th)
v W Connection 0
Central FC 3 (Sean de Silva 16th, Dwight Quintero 69th, Jason Marcano 90th)
vs Caledonia AIA 1 (Pierre Hitner 58th)
Standings
Teams P W D L F A Pt
Central FC 2 2 0 0 10 1 6
Defence Force 2 2 0 0 5 2 6
North East Stars FC 3 2 0 1 4 2 6
San Juan Jabloteh 3 1 2 0 3 2 5
Police FC 3 1 1 1 5 6 4
Caledonia AIA 2 1 0 1 3 4 3
Point Fortin Civic 3 0 1 2 4 7 1
W Connection 1 0 0 1 0 1 0
St Ann's Rangers 3 0 0 3 2 11 0
?Fixtures
First Citizens Cup semifinals
Central FC v Police FC,
Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva, 6 pm
North East Stars v San Juan Jabloteh,
Ato Boldon Stadium, 8.15 pm